Category: Reporting Results

DCM established villages.com.au in 2006 and it has grown steadily through GFCs, negative media coverage and now a changing consumer, thanks to the first Baby Boomers now passing age 75.

In 2021 traffic grew a BIG 11% Year on Year with over 1.3 million visits. Remember, the only reason people visit villages.com.au are people who have had an event in their lives (or their parents) and they are looking at future accommodation options.

But last month saw another significant jump, significantly in the number of people reaching out to operators, seeking more information.

All up, 17,400 people took the next step with a website click, phone call or an email, which was the choice of 1,200 people.

To place this in perspective, just 23,000 village homes become available to sell. That is 1,963 homes a month.

With 17,400 people putting up their hand as interested, demand does exceed supply.

Want to know more about villages.com.au, email us HERE.

The Code of Conduct is an important step in professionalising the retirement living sector. It provides a road map for best practice in resident relations and operations.

It was formally introduced five months ago by Leading Aged Services Australia (LASA) and the Retirement Living Council (RLC). More than 600 villages have now signed up – a great start. They include Bolton Clarke, Oak Tree, IRT, Goodwin, Southern Cross Care WA, Masonic Care WA, Living Choice, Ryman Healthcare, Aveo, Lendlease, Stockland, Australian Unity and RetireAustralia.

However, this leaves 1,600 villages to go. To help villages, a provisional period has been established, making it easier for you to go through the process.

The RLC’s Policy and Communications Officer – Retirement Living, Patrick Tilley, says the provisional period – which could range from six up to 12 months if approved by the Code Administrator, Dr Elizabeth Lanyon, will give smaller operators the time they need to become Code compliant.

Our DCM Institute Village Management Professional Development Program makes the Code a lot simpler; we provide participants with the tools and resources to become Code compliant.

Please get in touch with Judy Martin if you would like to know more about how to access these tools.

To find out more about the Code and Provisional Registration, click here.

It is the sixth time that Ryman, New Zealand’s largest retirement village operator, has taken the top award in the ‘Aged Care and Retirement Village’ category in the Reader’s Digest Most Trusted Brands awards.

Ryman previously won in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019.

With 32 villages in NZ, they now have 11 in the pipeline in and around Melbourne.

Ryman villages provide a continuum of care, from independent living to serviced apartments to residential care.

From now until nearly the end of the year Resident Committees play a significant role in the formation of operating expenditure budgets, providing feedback for future capital works projects and assisting with annual meeting proceedings.

This month in the DCMI Village Manager PD program we have been discussing the role of the Resident Committee and how building collegial relationship with them can in fact be extremely beneficial to the village, resident satisfaction and harmonious operations.

The role of the resident’s committee is really as the voice of the residents, a safeguard mechanism for the residents financial/lifestyle interests.

Whilst there are some variances from state to state on the specifics of the role of Resident Committees, in nearly all states Resident Committees are not the decision making bodies. Instead they are bodies that represent the residents.

One of the most important activities you can undertake with your Resident Committee is to document the agreement of roles, responsibilities, behaviours, expectations and process.

This will assist to provide clarification on who is to do what, what the expectations are of each person in the relationship and timelines for identified activities.

Some items to consider when documenting this process might include:

• Meeting with the Chair prior to the meeting to jointly prepare
• The provision to table research or issues for discussion prior to meetings
• Process for communications outside of meetings – perhaps nominating one person from each party as the communication medium (Chair/Secretary)
• Type of activities the Resident Committee is happy to assist with (research perhaps)
• A timeline for review of the process
• Communications to residents after the meeting
• Process for disagreements or escalation

In my own experience when the relationship between the Resident Committee, the Village Manager and the Operator is one based on trust, respect, and honesty, then great things can be achieved in villages, and village operations tend to be more efficient.