{"id":567376,"date":"2026-05-05T12:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T12:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/567376\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T12:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T12:34:08","slug":"scottish-parliament-election-2026-two-days-of-campaigning-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/567376\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottish Parliament election 2026: Two days of campaigning to go"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Charities want a Minister for Older People in next Scottish governmentpublished at 10:41 BST<\/p>\n<p>10:41 BST<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A group charities are urging Scotland\u2019s party<br \/>\nleaders to support the inclusion of a named Minister for Older People in the<br \/>\nnext government at Holyrood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Scottish government removed the role in 2023 and older people\u2019s issues were wrapped up inside much broader<br \/>\nministerial portfolios.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The charities say the next first minister must recognise the needs of<br \/>\nolder people and support Scotland\u2019s older population.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Katherine Crawford, chief<br \/>\nexecutive of Age Scotland,  says: &#8220;\u201cThere is no doubt that the<br \/>\nneeds of older people have slipped well down the political agenda despite the<br \/>\nserious challenges so many face and the growing size of this age group in<br \/>\nScotland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We have a rapidly ageing population but there is no plan on how to<br \/>\nbest support them. It\u2019s not all about money, but a real focus and proper<br \/>\nconsideration of older people\u2019s lives will pay dividends to society.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The charities supporting the move are Age<br \/>\n     Scotland, Befriending Networks, British<br \/>\n     Geriatrics Society, Chest,<br \/>\n     Heart and Stroke Scotland, Generations<br \/>\n     Working Together, Independent<br \/>\n     Age, Luminate, Meeting<br \/>\n     Centres Scotland, Outside<br \/>\n     the Box, Parkinson\u2019s<br \/>\n     UK, wattAGE, Scottish<br \/>\n     Care and the Scottish Older People\u2019s<br \/>\nAssembly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charities want a Minister for Older People in next Scottish governmentpublished at 10:41 BST 10:41 BST A group&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-567376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}