When doing your research into retirement villages, you may come across villages that claim to be “accredited”.
What does this mean, and should you care?
Before diving into the topic of accreditation, it is worth explaining the presence and membership of the retirement village industry associations.
Retirement village industry associations
Most retirement village operators belong to one or both of the two peak industry bodies – the Property Council of Australia (Retirement Living Council) or Ageing Australia. The Property Council of Australia (PCA) tends to attract property companies operating in the retirement living sector and other for-profit organisations, while the membership of Ageing Australia is predominately not-for-profit organisations and those whose activities also include home care and aged care.
Members collaborate on issues facing the industry and the associations provide lobbying services to Government on their behalf.
Note these associations are for retirement village operators and are not to be confused with the membership associations for retirement village residents!
Retirement village accreditation
A national retirement village accreditation scheme was developed by the two retirement village industry associations to try and provide a benchmark of quality that potential buyers could use to assess the standard of the retirement village they were considering.
Accreditation has been around the sector for many years, however this latest version – the Australian Retirement Village Accreditation Scheme (ARVAS) – launched in 2019, is the first time both industry bodies have agreed to collaborate and recognise a uniform national system.
The ARVAS Standards apply to seven key quality areas within a retirement community’s operations, including:
- Community Management
- Human Resource Management
- Resident Entry and Exit
- Resident Engagement and Feedback
- Environment, Services and Facilities
- Safety and Security
- Resident Care (when applicable)
The ARVAS Standards are designed to work with the Retirement Living Code of Conduct.
The Code of Conduct was initiated by the Retirement Living Council of the PCA following devastating media coverage of the industry in 2017. It was seen as a way by which the industry could push back against unfair allegations in the media of rapacious financial arrangements and complex contracts. The industry was also trying to get on the front foot to design a set of industry standards before state governments stepped in to do it for them.
The last word
All the major for-profit and not-for-profit retirement village operators in Australia have signed up to the Code of Conduct and ARVAS accreditation. Arguably, it is these large, professional operators that have the least need for external accreditation as they are sophisticated, well-run operations with significant independent governance. It is the smaller, family-run or privately-owned retirement villages that would be best served with an independent, third-party endorsement of their operation.
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