Join our Readers’ Panel

You would help us by reviewing our resources, including our guides, webpages and other publications. This is to make sure our information is relevant, accessible and useful for older people.

Anyone can join – we welcome all viewpoints and experiences. That includes people whose preferred language may not be English, people with learning difficulties, and people from every community and background.

You don’t need to be an expert or have any qualifications to take part. We’re interested in hearing your views based on your personal experience of a subject – for example, any experience you might have had with scams, being bereaved or claiming benefits. That is most helpful to us.

We might ask you to look at a wide range of information resources, like:

• advice guides – printed booklets that provide an overview of a topic
• factsheets – more detailed information about a specific subject
• webpages
• checklists
• videos and online tools.

There are lots of ways to feed back, and reviewing is not just about reading – for example, we may ask you to comment on layout and design. Or we may want your help with something small but important, like a title. We may sometimes ask if you’d like to join a focus group – online or by phone – which is a great way to share ideas and come up with new ones.

When we produce a new resource or make changes to an existing one, we’ll get in touch and ask if you want to help.

We usually send a draft of the resource – by email or post – and ask you to complete a short survey about it. We allow two weeks for this but if you need more time, just let us know. We won’t send a survey more than once a week.

You don’t have to respond to everything we send – it's up to you. 

If we send something that’s not for you, that’s fine. And if you just want to comment on one aspect of a resource – maybe a chapter that’s particularly relevant to you – that’s also okay.

Unless you choose to share your contact details with us in your survey response, our surveys are anonymous. This means that although we read all your comments, we can’t usually respond to them directly. We do try to let you know what we’ve changed because of your suggestions, but if you'd like to send or receive more detailed feedback, please get in touch.

If you’re interested in becoming a Readers’ Panel member, complete the sign-up form. We will send you our Guide to reviewing, which tells you everything you need to know about being on the Readers’ Panel.

If you’d like more information before signing up, email Readers@IndependentAge.org or call 020 7050 6560 to speak with us.

If you have any questions or want support, email Readers@IndependentAge.org or call us on 020 7050 6560.