This page, as regular readers hopefully will have noticed, has a double purpose. It attempts to encourage the over-50s to think young, keep active and stay involved.

This isn't hard, because many over-50s - plus over-60s, over-70s, over-80s and even some over-90s - have no intention of thinking "old", are so active as to put many younger people to shame, and are extensively involved in the world around them.

But Who's Counting? also examines the issues which affect people as they grow older. This is currently a time of social change when the future of older people in society is being re-examined.

Take care homes and nursing homes, for instance. Although many people remain relatively independent in their own homes until the end of their lives, thousands of others find themselves needing full-time residential care and, sooner or later, depending on their local council to pay for it.

Increasingly, councils are finding that there isn't enough in the kitty to do the job. Owners of some homes are starting to complain about local authorities not putting elderly people in their care. They say that social services departments, struggling to balance ever-tighter budgets, are shopping around to find cheaper places.

As a result, those homes which are dearer because they profess to provide higher standards of care and accommodation aren't being filled. Add to that higher costs from the introduction of the minimum wage and the working hours directive, they say, and it's small wonder that these homes are closing in worrying numbers.

When one does close, its elderly residents have to go through the upheaval of adapting to somewhere else - and somewhere, moreover, which might not be of as high a standard as they have been used to.

This was not foreseen. Given the increase in Britain's elderly population, it was reasonable to believe that the number of homes would continue to grow rather than start to shrink with the whole sector facing the prospect of having to downgrade to survive.

It's typical of the worrying changes which are taking place in a country which has an ageing population combined with a Government determined to keep down welfare costs.

If it's difficult for today's old, what will it be like for those who will be old tomorrow, or even in another half century? That's what the Debate of the Age is all about - persuading the nation to set an agenda which will, increasingly, put the responsibility for health, wealth and care in old age on to the individual rather than the taxpayer.

Latest instalment in this long-running national debate being co-ordinated by Age Concern is this week's "Age to Age" event, which is aimed at making younger people aware that they will be old one day and should start planning for it now if they don't want to have a rotten time of things.

So for this week, Who's Counting? is devoted to this event. When you've read it, pass it on to young friends or relatives - the Who's Counting? readers of tomorrow - and make sure they read it too. It's probably even more important to their long-term future than it is to our shorter-term one.

What kind of future do you want?

This is Age to Age week, when young people are being encouraged to think about their health, homes, families, jobs and money - and about how their future will be provided for.

"Society is facing profound demographic changes because we are living longer and having fewer children," says Sally Greengross of Age Concern, executive chairman of Debate of the Age.

"It's especially important for today's young people, who will be 50 years old or more in 2040 when there will be many old people and fewer young ones to support them."

Key questions up for discussion at various events around the country this week include:

n How soon should we start paying for a pension? Debate of the Age estimates that already more than half the workforce - 12 million people - are heading for financial difficulties because of inadequate pension provision.

n Are there alternatives to paid work? With jobs for life consigned to history, how will we work in the future? Is there a wider role for volunteering? And if we aren't able to find work that pays adequately, how will we manage to provide for our own future?

n How universal should access to healthcare be? People today are living longer but not necessarily healthier lives. Today, men born in 1994 are expected to live, on average, to 74 and women to 80, but healthy life expectancy is still 59 for men and 62 for women.

"We shouldn't underestimate the effect that Britain's changing society will have on today's younger people," says Sally Greengross. "The message is clear: whatever older person you want to be in the future, the time to start thinking about it is now!"

Enjoy Mike Priestley's Yorkshire Walks

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.