She has been given the role on a permanent basis
Age Scotland has appointed Katherine Crawford as its permanent chief executive.
Katherine has been in post as interim chief executive since July and will continue her leadership of Scotland’s national charity for older people.
With a background in the legal world and nearly 20 years of experience in the third sector working with Parkinson’s UK, Katherine continues at the charity at a time when older people are voicing grave concerns about their lack of access to health and social care services, the cost of living crisis and fear that their voices are not heard or recognised by politicians.
She is determined to strengthen opportunities for those voices to be heard and to build on Age Scotland’s considerable successes to ensure that its work has even greater beneficial impact on older people’s lives.
Katherine said: “I feel privileged to have been invited to take up the role of chief executive on a permanent basis.
“The last two months as interim have brought it home to me the sheer scale of the challenges faced by older people in their daily lives.
“Loneliness, financial hardship, social exclusion, and blocks to accessing vital health and social care are pressing concerns and means that Age Scotland’s mission to enable everyone to make the most of later life is more relevant than ever.
“I am so pleased to be able to continue working with our member groups, volunteers, staff and all of our stakeholders to drive that work forwards. And I look forward to enabling the organisation’s innovative thinking, passion and determination to increase Age Scotland’s reach and maximise our impact on behalf of older people across the country.”
Age Scotland is the national charity for older people, working to improve the lives of people over the age of 50.
It operates a national helpline and friendship line for older people, their families and carers; offers free information and advice on a wide range of topics about later life; supports hundreds of older people’s community groups across Scotland; campaigns to influence and shape public policy; promotes health and wellbeing initiatives; and works with people with experience of dementia, older veterans, ethnic minority older people and the LGBTQ+ community to ensure that their needs are met and their views are heard.
Recent research from Age Scotland identified that two thirds of over 50s don’t feel valued by society, only 3% felt like it was easy to have their voice heard by policy makers, and more than half felt like life was getting worse for older people in Scotland.
Stuart Purdy, chair of Age Scotland’s board of trustees, said: “We’re delighted to have Katherine as our permanent chief executive and she strengthens our leadership, experience and knowledge on older people’s issues.
“Her previous UK wide experience in the charity sector with Parkinson’s will be of great benefit to Age Scotland and the older people we serve and support across our country.
“Under her leadership I am confident that Age Scotland will influence more and deliver more, engaging people of all ages to take action for older people with our charity.
“Age Scotland’s ambition is to make our impact greater than ever given the needs of older people have never been more severe. We ask the public to support Katherine and Age Scotland in our work to tackle loneliness and isolation and to improve the rights and services needed by older people today and in the future.”
