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Tag: ARVAS

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Latest industry developments

ARVAS is building – and more assessors are needed

ARVAS – the exclusive accreditation scheme for retirement village and seniors housing operators – has a large number of villages registering to undertake accreditation.

It’s a single, unified scheme for the industry, developed following extensive consultation with resident groups, retirement community operators and the general public.

The idea behind accreditation is to continuously improve outcomes for our senior community. It is strongly based on the concept of creating a positive community that’s focused on sustaining a high standard of living for residents.

ARVAS was developed and is co-owned by Leading Age Services Australia (LASA) and the Property Council.

ARVAS also fits in the Retirement Living Code of Conduct, which came into full effect from January this year.

More ARVAS Assessors needed to fill the gap

With the increase in interest in ARVAS, QIP is also looking for more assessors to join their team.

Being a QIP Assessor is a unique opportunity to see new ideas and innovative solutions, and to offer mentorship by showing villages how to transform with sustainable change.

Being trained as an assessor to accredit retirement villages and communities against an industry set of standards (ARVAS) is a unique opportunity to support village management, staff and most importantly residents.

Auditing the safety and quality of services involves conducting interviews and observing the village’s processes and procedures and considering whether these can be enhanced.

Improvement opportunities and recommendations can be offered by the assessment teams as part of the accreditation report provided to the organisation.

A commitment to assessing can easily fit in with your current professional and personal life.

Assessors are required to complete a minimum number of two assessments per year and there’s no requirement to ‘give up’ your current role.

QIP’s portal allows self-nomination for upcoming assessments to suit both your availability and travel preferences of staying more local or opting to go further afield. Travel, meals and incidental costs incurred as part of an assessment are covered AND you get paid for your time!

To express interest please email the QIP team directly at workforcemanagement@agpal.com.au or via the QIP website.

Categories
Reporting Results

Policy and procedure — keep it simple

Many of you may be feeling overwhelmed at the thought of having to be ready to undertake what’s needed to achieve the Code of Conduct or ARVAS requirements.  

The best advice I can give is to have a plan, tackle the job one step at a time and document the way things need to be done.  

The POLICY should be the standards you set for your village.

The PROCEDURE will set out how you will achieve those standards.

Here are a few tips to help:

  • Identify the categories of operations within your village, eg. property, finance, human resources 
  • List for each category the policy, procedures, tasks and decisions associated with each category (Suggestion — check your last month’s calendar for tasks you do regularly as a starting point)
  • Use the Code of Conduct and Accreditation standards as tools to develop a Gap analysis (Suggestion — the ARVAS standards can be be downloaded as a great starting point without you being registered in ARVAS) 
  • Consult with your team
  • Consult with your residents’ committee
  • Prioritise what needs to be done  
  • Decide on a timeline and outline your weekly/monthly actions ​

And the best piece of advice — DON’T overthink it and DON’T be afraid to ask for help!

Jodie

Categories
Latest industry developments

The new Australian Retirement Village Accreditation scheme has been launched

ARVAS replaces the Lifemark and IRCAS accreditation programs. 

This new village accreditation scheme is co-owned by the Property Council of Australia and Leading Age Services Australia (LASA).

It will focus on the expectations of both existing and future residents who choose to live in your retirement villages across all states and territories.

ARVAS will offer more robust quality and operational processes that incorporate six traditional areas, and a new quality area of resident care.

The seven areas are:    

  • Community Management
  • Human Resource Management
  • Resident Entry and Exit
  • Resident Engagement and Feedback
  • Environment, Services and Facilities
  • Safety and Security
  • Resident Care (if applicable)

The new scheme is an extension to the existing Retirement Living Code of Conduct aimed at creating certainty and transparency for those living in retirement communities, including dispute resolution.

Your operator needs to decide to engage with ARVAS for your village.

Download the ARVAS standards here.

Here at the DCM Institute, we recognise the importance of the Retirement Living Code of Conduct and ARVAS.  We encourage Village professionals to start familiarising yourselves with these frameworks, encourage your operator to participate and begin planning.

And remember, the DCM Institute continues to provide support and tools to enable participants in the Village Manager Professional Development program to better understand and achieve quality standards and processes for their communities.

Jodie