Age Concern and Help the Aged, two of the biggest charities in the sector have now combined and are called Age UK. Additional adverts will feature Sir Ian McKellen and Eleanor Bron. The new organisation aims to improve the lives of people in later life; the two merged organisations having similar missions. They strive to celebrate ageing and believe it presents unprecedented opportunities and challenges at home and abroad, as well as challenging ageist prejudice in society. This merger was mentioned in an earlier blog but now we see how they are trying to roll it out. The video of the Brian Cox advert and an interview with him on the subject of aging are on the website.

The charity also has a substantial social enterprise element with their network of over 500 shops, which also acts as a focal point for the local community‚ providing information and helping with local services. This is part of their strategy to provide services that address market failures‚ and support the public and private sectors to design age-friendly products and services.

As they say on their website "Age needs one voice. Now it has."

This is a powerful statement about at least one of the reasons why mergers are starting to happen in the sector. A case of 2+2 = 5