AEG Noord Brabant visit

Emma attended the AER event in Hertogenbosch, the capital of Noord-Brabant, the largest province of the Netherlands to do a presentation about SILK to the Assembly of European Regions at their Conference ‘Innovation for Demographic Change’.

In attendance were over 80 people, including both politicians and policy experts, representing about 25 European regions and the AER Secretary. The presentation covered the background of SILK, why it was set up, how the SILK methodology was developed and works in practice, and how the SILK approach links into the policy-making function within Kent County Council. The audience were particularly interested in real-life case studies, notably the development of the Online care services Directory and Web observation with the Women’s institute, and how this approach to policy-making can inform and provide learning for other regions within the AER. KCC Colleagues Janice Grant and Hazel Price from Adult Social Services Telecare project (http://www.kent.gov.uk/SocialCare/health-and-wellbeing/telecare/) attended both days of the conference and were able to visit a Smart House in the local area. They presented their experiences in Kent to the conference and there were many opportunities for connections to be made across the Channel on the assistive technologies agenda.

Edwin Mermans from Noord-Brabant, a Policy Officer from the Program Smart care at the Department of Social and Cultural Development in Noord-Brabant said: "we were very pleased with the Kent contribution. Even more then that because I think that the contributions of Hazel, Janice and Emma in particular were very interesting for all participants and added a lot to the success of the event. And Emma and I were a good team during the pyramid discussion influencing the outcomes :-)” All Kent representatives were involved in a Pyramid discussion about which policy areas should be prioritised for the AER – this proved insightful as there was a real diversity in the approaches and prioritisation of the policy agenda across the 25 European Regions represented.

Kent hopes to be involved in future opportunities that may arise from the participation in this conference and thanks the Dutch for their warm hospitality and delicious ontbijtkoek (local Find attached a report for Cabinet members about the visit, the conference agenda and overview of the AER. For more information please contact emma.barrett@kent.gov.uk