Penny Shepherd calls for improvements to local authority support after death… As an AWOC without close family, I want to plan for after my death confident that the state will take responsibility for ensuring my wishes are known and, so far as reasonably possible, carried... Continue reading
Following a recent meeting of the Ageism Special Interest Group of the British Society of Gerontology, AWOC trustee Paul Goulden comments on how ageism in the UK health and social care system affects people ageing without children… The wider picture Anyone who has either worked... Continue reading
Penny Shepherd analyses “Hospital at Home for frailty: Current situation and future potential” (British Geriatrics Society / UK Hospital at Home Society, August 2025)… “Hospital at Home” services provide hospital-level clinical care in their own homes for patients who are sufficiently unwell to otherwise be... Continue reading
Penny Shepherd considers the recently published 4th Edition of the My Future Care Handbook… The My Future Care Handbook, produced by non-profit My Care Matters, has been used by AWOC East Kent, AWOC Hastings and other AWOC groups and individuals over the last few years.... Continue reading
AWOC Board member Paul Goulden writes... It is now more than 11 years since our founder Kirsty Woodard first raised the issue of ageing without children in her article in The Guardian. At the time it was seen as interesting but niche within the ageing... Continue reading
Rhian Bowen-Davies took up her current post as Older People’s Commissioner for Wales in 2024. By 2030 1 in 4 people in Wales will be over 65 and this figure will include a growing number of older people ageing without children who may face particular... Continue reading
I am Yvonne and I set up AWOC Dorset with my husband Tad in October 2021. Following a move to Dorset sixteen years earlier, and at a time in our lives when we found everyone else (or so it seemed) having children, I found support... Continue reading
Existing support tends to assume that everyone has family or friends People who are ageing without children or other “next generation” family support are a significant and increasing proportion of the growing number of older people. Penny Shepherd explains why advance care planning materials need... Continue reading
Organisations must update their approach to emergency contact details, says Penny Shepherd of AWOC East Kent Whether on official forms or elsewhere, being asked for your “next of kin” is often problematic for AWOCs. “When people ask me to record my next of kin, I... Continue reading
Planning for later life is one of those things that everyone knows they should do but like other things we know we should do; eat more healthily, do more exercise, drive less, stop watching Question Time because it makes our blood pressure soar! it’s one... Continue reading