Baby boomers reaching old age will cause a revolution in older people's housing and care over the next 10 to 15 years. That is the finding of a new paper from Anchor Trust, the largest not-for-profit provider of specialist housing, care and lifestyle services in England.
Anchor 2020: Meeting the Challenges of Older People's Housing and Care argues that longer life expectancies, higher care needs and the aspirations of the demanding baby boomer generation will change the face of older people's services.
Services will have to become more personalised and much higher quality, right across the income spectrum, in order to meet the next generation of older people's rising needs, aspirations and ability to pay.
The discussion paper takes the arguments developed in the Government's National Strategy for Housing in an Ageing Society, published in February 2008, and shows how providers must respond on the ground. It shows how demographic, social and economic changes over the next 10-15 years will provoke major quality innovations in older people's housing and care services.
As baby boomers reach retirement and become customers for care services, their approach and attitudes will be far more "consumerist" than those of their parents. The nature of the boomer generation will result in them demanding more choice in how they spend their retirement than their parents did. The discussion paper outlines Anchor's early thinking on developing new services to meet changing demand.
John Belcher, Anchor Trust Chief Executive, said:
"Providers and commissioners have to be ready to meet much higher expectations and more complex needs in the future.
"At Anchor, we want to develop closer direct relationships with our customers and ensure we are delivering the quality of homes and services they want from us.
"We want to create a future where old age matters and where older people's housing and lifestyle choices are respected and provided for. Anchor has always been an innovator in our sector. We are developing and expanding our services to ensure older people get the best out of life."
The Anchor 2020 paper was launched at the Chartered Institute of Housing Conference in Harrogate.
Testway Housing, part of the Aster Group which provides homes and services in central southern and south west England, became the first to be accredited to the CSHS Code of Practice for Floating Support Only.
Changes to funding and local drivers led Testway to remodel its sheltered support service. The new service now offers choice, is needs led and is available to anyone regardless of tenure.
Testway has championed the CSHS Code of Practice since 1996 and has achieved accreditation for its sheltered housing every three years since.
Not only was Testway the first achiever of the Code of Practice in relation to floating housing-related support services, it was also the first time an organisation submitted their portfolio of evidence entirely electronically. This made assessment easier as the evidence was compact and accessible and the process was considerably more environmentally friendly.
The CSHS Code of Practice for Sheltered Housing, established in 1993, is continually updated in line with good practice. It is a quality standard for organisations providing Sheltered Housing services to a variety of clients in different settings. The ten Standards within the Code identify good practice in the provision and delivery of Sheltered Housing, providing a quality benchmark against which providers can measure their services.
The Code of Practice asks providers to demonstrate through a portfolio of evidence (which will be assessed by an independent assessor) that they have clear policies and procedures and that these are put into practice throughout the service.