The Partnerships for Older People Project (POPP) Programme is one of a number of national government policy initiatives which seek to ensure quality of life for people in later life. There have been 29 pilot sites funded to deliver POPP services and the West Sussex POPP was one of the ten pilot sites allocated funds in the second stage of the programme. The evaluation was undertaken by the University of Brighton with research support from West Sussex County Council to undertake the Quality of Life questionnaires with older people.
The evaluation commenced in 2007, ran for the two-year period of the pilot and concluded in July 2009.
The original broad aims of the West Sussex POPP were:
The evaluation acknowledges the challenges of the context in which the pilot was developing. West Sussex has an increasing number of people living into old age likely to need input from services and a diverse population with pockets of affluence and deprivation. The rural nature of much of the county makes transport and access to services more difficult and the needs and cultural differences of ageing Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in parts of the county increase the complex service needs.
Two years is a very short period over which to demonstrate long term outcomes resulting from the implementation of a preventative approach to working with older people. Results indicate short-term changes and some medium-term outcomes that, if these ways of working are sustained, could generate the anticipated long term outcomes.
Download the POPP research report
Research team
Professor Marian Barnes
Phil Cotterell
Naomi Smith
Output
Working towards prevention: Evaluation of the West Sussex POPP report
Partners
West Sussex County Council
Chris Rainey
Di Hughes
Susan Davies