ARVAS, Australia’s new, unified accreditation scheme for retirement community owners and operators, is now open for business.
Standards for the Australian Retirement Village Accreditation Scheme (ARVAS) have been finalised following evaluation of feedback from industry and stakeholders.
According to Ben Myers, executive director of retirement living at the Property Council, ARVAS was designed to support the Retirement Living Code of Conduct and respond to both current and future retirement village resident expectations.
“The seven ARVAS categories of the standards reflect all elements of a resident’s retirement living experience, from their signing of a contract to move in, until their eventual move out,” Myers says.
Myers says extensive research and consultation with residents found they wanted a scheme that “evaluated their community on its ability to provide safety and security, the quality of their village manager and staff, and the clarity of the community entry and exit procedures”.
“ARVAS contains updated, modern standards relating to each of these, and residents can be confident that an ARVAS-accredited community delivers on its promise.”
ARVAS replaced two previous schemes, Lifemark and International Retirement Community Accreditation Scheme.
Co-owned by the Property Council of Australia and Leading Age Services Australia (LASA), ARVAS is operated on their behalf by experienced not-for-profit Quality Innovation Performance (QIP).
LASA chief executive officer Sean Rooney says care and personal services are included in the retirement living sector’s accreditation standards for the first time.
“A diverse and experienced group of industry professionals have consulted extensively on the development of these new standards. The fact that this scheme has widespread support in the industry demonstrates the commitment of operators to provide high quality services to older Australians,” Rooney says.
Dr Stephen Clark, QIP’s chief executive officer, says ARVAS accreditation will “demonstrate that participating villages are meeting national industry standards, providing safe and quality living environments for residents, while working towards meeting relevant state or territory legislation”.
Retirement community owners and operators are encouraged to visit the ARVAS website for more information and to register for accreditation.
A copy of the ARVAS standards is available here.
Learn more about ARVAS at the National Retirement Living Summit, as the refreshed accreditation scheme for quality seniors living helps industry leaders get ahead of the game. Tickets for the Summit, to be held on the Gold Coast from 20-22 November, are still available.