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For immediate release: 5 June 2009

KELLY REPORT CONFIRMS HEYDAY LESSONS

Age UK, the new organisation resulting from the merger of Age Concern England and Help the Aged, has published Sir Christopher Kelly’s independent report into Age Concern England’s now defunct Heyday membership scheme.

The origins of Heyday date back to 2003, it was launched in 2006 and closed by Age Concern England earlier this year prior to the creation of the merged charity in April 2009.  The report was commissioned following a recommendation from the Charity Commission in a Regulatory Case Report published in February.

The Kelly report on Heyday confirms the governance issues at Age Concern England already identified by the Charity Commission and identifies lessons that could be learnt by all charities on both governance and project management.

Age UK Chairman Dianne Jeffrey said:

“We welcome the report of Sir Christopher Kelly and will make it easily available to help others in the sector learn from Age Concern England’s experiences in setting up and running the Heyday membership scheme.

“Through the already published Charity Commission report into Heyday, and our own due diligence preceding the merger, the new charity has been able to reflect these lessons in the way that we have established our new board and the organisation itself. 

“We will continue to seek to engage closely with older people and to work with them to ensure their views are represented whenever their interests are at stake.  However the new charity has no plans to set up a project like Heyday.”

Age UK is a new organisation, with a new Chairman and Chief Executive.  It is very different to the old Age Concern England in ways which are relevant to the findings of the Kelly report and has a mainly new board of 15 members rather than 39.  The majority of board members are independent appointees with specialist skills and experience. Furthermore the new trading companies are much more closely linked to the rest of its operations and the lines of responsibility are much clearer.

Sir Christopher Kelly is the Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life and of the NSPCC.  He was asked to produce the independent report into Heyday after advising Age Concern and Help the Aged on their merger.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Media contact: Paul Bates 
Telephone: 020 7239 1941
Out-of-hours: 07971 964770

Age Concern England and Help the Aged have joined together to form a single charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people.