Study title

The increasing age of the UK workforce presents major challenges for government, occupational health services, employers, workers and their families. It is now essential to facilitate an extended working life by maintaining the health and quality of working life of older workers. Working Late is a 4 year NDA(New Dynamics of Ageing) Collaborative Research Project addressing practice and policy issues associated with later life working and developing interventions and design solutions to promote health, productivity and quality of working life of older people. The research involves a mixed methods approach, comprising focus groups, interviews, surveys and interventions. The aims are to adopt continuous and active engagement with agencies, employers and older workers to guide the research process. The research will identify barriers to working late, including the conflict between employment, family care responsibilities, the impact of age discrimination legislation and the logistics of the journey to work. Evidence based interventions and innovative health education materials will be developed to promote health at work. Finally, there will be a focus on the work environment to develop design models for an inclusive workplace which optimises health, well being, safety and productivity of workers across the life course.