We have launched our consultation paper on organisational change and are inviting all volunteers and staff to give us feedback on our proposals through the consultation process.

The strategy that will help us get ready for the boom in the older population over the next 25 years has now been agreed by our trustees. It will ensure we can:

• respond to older people's future needs and expectations
• respond to government policy
• continue to innovate and improve our services
• ensure we have the funding in place to maintain and develop our services well into the future.

Through the skill and dedication of our volunteers and staff we support older people at home, in the community and in hospitals, but we currently manage this through separate teams. Often these services operate separately in each local area. Older people tell us they would benefit if we joined up these services more effectively both with other WRVS projects and services provided by other organisations in the area.

We've also recognised that we need a management structure that helps us work more effectively with the governments in Wales and Scotland, regional bodies in England, local authorities and the NHS. We want to have people in the right places to manage how we work together, develop new services and improve support.

So we're proposing to change our management structure so that it brings all our different services in each English region, in Scotland and in Wales into one team in each of these areas. Instead of being part of hospital services or community development, every project will be part of the WRVS team for their area. We are running a consultation with affected staff on these changes over the next three months. The deadline for receiving feedback is 17 July 2009.

The vast majority of our staff and volunteers are not directly affected and we will continue to ensure we provide the same great services to older people during the period of consultation and change.

We plan to have the new structure in place by early in 2010 and we will then move to the next stage of the strategy to integrate and improve the support we provide for older people.