11 July
The conference will be followed by an optional Knowledge Exchange Day on 11 July which will provide the opportunity for deeper exploration of the key topics facing the retirement community sector.
Attendees are able to choose four workshops from the following interactive options. Please note that it is possible to split tickets, so that different colleagues from within the same organisation can attend the main conference day and the Knowledge Exchange Day.
The Knowledge Exchange Day will take place at Trowers & Hamlins, 3 Bunhill Row, London, EC1Y 8YZ. The day will run from 10am-3.30pm.
Click here to download full PDF agenda
From good to outstanding
This session will look at how CQC currently regulates the domiciliary care in retirement communities and set out how the regulatory framework might evolve in the future. In addition, attendees will be able to hear from colleagues from one of only two retirement communities in the UK with an outstanding CQC rating for their domiciliary care. Colleagues from Richmond Villages Nantwich will be sharing their experience of their ‘outstanding’ inspection, and (together with CQC colleagues) provide some top tips on how to deliver the best care possible for residents of retirement communities.
Inspection Manager Bristol and South Gloucestershire, Adult Social Care directorate, Care Quality Commission South (West)
Planning future retirement communities
Land supply and a planning are an essential part of delivering the new retirement communities this country needs. Comprising over 1,000 hours of research, Carterwood have investigated every planned scheme in the UK since 2015 under the use class C2 for accommodation for older people and will deliver insights from this unique piece of research. The workshop will focus on how many of these schemes have been delivered, explore the opportunities that this new dataset presents and examine variations between regions. The session will also touch upon new developments regarding the Draft London Plan.
The people challenge – recruitment, training and retention in the retirement community sector
To achieve our Vision 2030 objectives, retirement community operators will need to recruit approximately 40,000 new colleagues by 2030, meaning we will need to go far beyond the current talent pool currently employed in the sector. This workshop will look at some of the practical steps operators – and the sector as a whole – can take in order to attract the talent and workforce our sector needs. Touching on the need for talent pooling, attracting passive candidates, interviewing for competence, internal mobility and selling the sector, participants will hear from ARCO colleagues, recruitment experts and operators on strategies designed to ensure that we can deliver high quality services to residents.
Creating a value proposition using deferred fees
The specialist housing market for older people is undergoing fundamental changes. The shift towards long term income generation (and away from a focus on development profit only) is likely to create its own set of metrics that will be relevant for retirement community operators, lenders and customers. In this session, experts from CBRE will take attendees through the key considerations when thinking about deferred fee models. Following a step-by-step process, topics will include how to price risk, how to access funding and how to create a sustainable long-term customer proposition, and above all, how to deliver a ‘value proposition’ to customers.
Volunteering: A Risk with Rewards?
Volunteering is at the heart of ExtraCare’s vision to deliver better lives for older people. We have over 2,000 internal and external volunteers supporting our communities. Our research shows that volunteering reduces social isolation and depression, and increases exercise levels. This presentation will illustrate the exceptional services volunteers make possible, including bereavement support and befriending, helping with exercise programmes and intergenerational initiatives, and being well-being ambassadors in our communities. Volunteering also supports vital services, and in strained times provides an alternative to reducing services or significantly raising charges to ensure sustainability. Join us for the discussion, which will also look at what the risks are of reliance on volunteering in supporting operators’ services, and what the rewards are for the individual and the community.
Building a mature sector: The changing face of compliance
One of ARCO’s key objectives has always been to set and maintain high standards in the retirement community sector – to proactively ensure the sector is appropriately regulated so that consumers are protected, and the sector can mature and grow. This motivated the development of the Consumer Code and standards framework and is why we work closely with the government to anticipate and align with key regulatory and legal changes the sector is facing. Join ARCO’s standards trio to find out how our Vision 2030 priorities of effective self-regulation and sector-specific legislation are now dovetailing, and how this will impact on retirement communities wanting to achieve high standards over the coming years.
AgeTech 2020 and beyond – cutting edge technologies and implementation of best practices
Aging2.0 Co-Founder Stephen Johnston will be joined by start-up founders working on breakthrough technologies in ageing and senior care. Aging2.0 tracks and supports 3,000 tech startups across its global community of 86 volunteer-run city Chapters in 24 countries. The session will frame the key tech challenges and opportunities, introduce a selection of promising local startups working in ageing and senior care, and synthesise best practices for successful implementation.
Realty and virtual reality – an ideation Masterclass delivered by Sir Muir Gray
This workshop will focus on the retirement community movement and ARCO, and propose its need to build a virtual community of people who would like to live physically in a community but cannot find a place due to the undersupply of this type of housing. It is very important to appreciate that many people who would like to live in one of the ARCO communities will never get there so we will be using virtual reality to create virtual communities where people feel they belong and interact. Retirement communities are a health service and should celebrate this fact. By using a web service like the Optimal Ageing Programme to reach everyone who applies and enrol them in a community working with an existing community like www.springchicken.co.uk, the use of virtual reality would allow much closer engagement between participants.
The policy environment for housing with care
We have long argued that the UK needs to follow other countries and pass a Retirement Communities Act, bringing together the morass of over 100 pieces of regulation for our sector, some of which date back a thousand years and are literally feudal! Until we get there, the legal underpinning for housing with care remains uncertain and sometimes incomprehensible. Learn about the emerging policy framework for housing-with-care, from wider reforms to leasehold, to the evolving planning system and some speculation on what changes to care funding and regulation might mean for Retirement Communities. We will also touch on the long-awaited Social Care Green Paper
