The government is poised to give older people the right to shape their local health and social care services. The aim is to cut levels of poverty, social exclusion, and associated poor health in Britain's population of over 50s.

The Link Age Plus programme will be piloted this spring in eight local authority areas across England, from Devon in the south west to Tyne and Wear in the north east, with a view to rolling it out nationally in 2008, pending successful evaluation.

Spearheaded by the Department of Work and Pensions the programme borrows heavily from the government's Sure Start …