At the last Regional Meet in Victoria in June attendees were able to be a part of specific discussion groups for retirement living, community care and residential care.
In these groups they were able to share insights, trends and knowledge to support each other.
Next Tuesday, at Village Baxter, another breakfast will be held with guest speaker Andy Price (pictured, left) providing insightful information in his capacity as Director for Victoria and Tasmania, Complaints Operations, in the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
Who doesn’t want to be the best Village Manager and yet when it comes to recruitment, it’s business acumen that’s considered important, mostly to fulfil the ‘operator compliance requirements’?
However, village residents see those skills a little differently, and Resident Association Presidents have shared the characteristics they feel make a great Village Manager – the so-called ‘soft skills.’
Honesty and has a sense of humour
A genuine listener who takes an interest in the community
Consultative and able to understand every resident is different
Transparent and follows up on issues
An influencer for the good of the village
Many of these characteristics are based around good communication strategies, not ones put in place by marketing teams, it’s about you the Village Manager ensuring effective communication is a priority.
A smile costs you nothing. Add in empathy and it will go a long way to building trust and long-term relationships within your village.
I have often had to remind myself of the importance of stepping back from the busy day to day reporting, compliance and paperwork and take time out in my day to reach out and build great relationships.
Many of us will have been attracted to the role of Village Manager for the joy of supporting the community and serve residents, therefore for our own job satisfaction we too must ensure we build time into our diaries to make this happen.
If you are part of the VM program you can download the WHS checklist as part of the month-end materials.
We recently discussed the importance of emergency plans, and that more regulations are being developed across the country.
Again last week in Sydney at the DCM Professional Development Day, we had Kathleen Ng and David McElhone (pictured below) from the leading law firm MinterEllison run through new NSW regulations coming our way.
They had these points on the slide above that we thought was a good reminder of the minimum steps that need to be taken while you are doing a full review of emergency strategies and procedures.
Note the ‘once a year’ for safety inspections and evacuation exercise. Have you done yours?
Yesterday Aveo announced agreement to be purchased by the huge Canadian investment fund Brookfield. This is good news for retirement village operators – and managers.
There are many reasons.
It is a $1.3 billion vote of confidence in retirement villages by a conservative investor that is looking at the long-term health of retirement villages. This gives all operators – and regulators – confidence.
Brookfield would only buy it if it believed it can add value to their investment. They will do this by reinvesting in older villages, making them suitable to the more demanding new customers (i.e. baby boomers).
This is great for existing residents, plus the local communities where the money will be spent with local suppliers.
Brookfield will also invest in quality staff – which means training and reward for professionalism. Village managers will be in demand and a career path will evolve.
Brookfield will also want to make sure village homes sell fast and at a good price. They have the money and they will invest in marketing. All retirement villages will benefit.
It will take 12 to 24 months for all this to roll out, but it is ‘good news’.
Key learning: Village Managers have significant responsibilities and accountabilities for safe work practices.
Last week in Sydney we had Colleen Harris, who is the Metropolitan Chief Inspector for Worksafe NSW, give a presentation on the responsibility of Village Managers – and operators – to provide a safe working environment (Colleen pictured below inset).
You will have a reasonable understanding of the responsibilities as an employer of workers, but you also have some responsibilities for contractors and others visiting or doing work in the village.
This is a serious subject. As the slide at the top shows, in NSW for example, Worksafe inspectors have more ‘power’ than the police when they enter a workplace to demand information etc.
This list gives you a taste of your obligations as a front-line manager:
The need for WHS to be discussed on a regular basis with staff and sub-contractors
Ongoing review of safe work practices
The requirements for Standard Operating Procedures for operation of plant
Provide safe systems of work particularly in relation to heights, plant and chemicals
The storing and use of chemicals
The need for protective personal equipment
Induction of staff, contractors and volunteers
Regular instruction, training and supervision to do their work in a way that is safe and without risk to theirs or others health
Remember, at times the common areas, staff offices, bowling green, and even residents’ homes may be considered a workplace by an inspector in the event of a workplace incident.
This month, August, as part of the DCM Institute Village Management Professional Development Program, we cover Legislation in each state.
If you are part of the VM program you can download the WHS checklist as part of the month-end materials.
We are very proud and appreciative that 138 Village Managers nationally have signed up to our professional development program since April.
They are all now expanding their village management skills and earning points in their career development, plus equipping themselves for the requirements of the retirement village Code of Conduct that comes into effect 1 January.
With LASA now recognising the DCM Institute PD training program, each module completed can count towards a LASA’s Diploma of Leadership and Management.
The Retirement Living Council also backs the program.
The next round of professional development days commences in Brisbane next Monday 5th, Sydney Wednesday 7th and Melbourne Friday 9th. Adelaide and Perth the following week.
You can join any time for this ongoing professional development program. The investment is $1850 for 12 months with attractive discounts for bulk registrations.
An aged care respite bed makes a loss of $67.47 per day.
This was a testimony in yesterday’s Royal Commission inquiry by Darren Midgley, CEO of the not-for-profit Chaffey Aged Care home in Mildura.
He said that respite care residents are charged a daily care fee of $51.21per day plus Medicare make a payment of $86.54.
The net result is aged care homes cannot afford to provide respite – which many of your residents may be keen to get to give a partner a break from caring, or for a resident transitioning out of hospital.
The impact on villages, and village management, is that you are likely to have residents at home who should be receiving a higher level of care.
Our advice: further build your relationship with local aged care homes you know and have confidence in so that you can be an advocate for your residents in their time of need.
Retirement villages again and again come up as a great seniors alternative in the Royal Commission into Aged Care.
This has never been more apparent than this week when the Commission focus has been on family carers at home driven to breaking point, alone and with a home ‘not fit for purpose’.
The isolation of wives, husbands and children who become carers, with nobody to talk to day-to-day, nobody to provide even simple support – things like collecting extra groceries or even sitting down having a cup of tea or giving some support navigating the aged care system – has been heartbreaking.
The witnesses at the Mildura commission hearings talked of suicide, mental breakdown, broken marriages and broken families.
The concept of retirement villages, being a supportive community, homes designed for ageing, village management to provide support and financial certainty tick a lot of boxes.
Most importantly, when the carer is eventually on their own, they are not alone.
Last issue we spent considerable time covering the reputational damage done to the retirement village sector by the failure of the aged care home attached to the Earle Haven Retirement Village on the Gold Coast – the aged care home is also called the Earle Haven Retirement Village(!).
In summary, there has been little news over the last two weeks as the village operator and the aged care operator have both got lawyers involved, so everyone is keeping their heads down.
We do know they are being referred to the Royal Commission into Aged Care – so more will become public.
Meanwhile on our DCM website villages.com.au, new sales enquiry for all retirement villages south of Brisbane is down by at least 10% compared to the rest of the country. Not surprising.
Earle Haven sales will be particularly hit. It’s a big village with 426 villas and 110 serviced apartments (total 536). Short-term sales are going to be tough.
With the 20% serviced apartments the average occupancy will be eight years, which means close to 70 homes will become vacant each year or 1.3 every week.
QLD has an 18 months buyback rule which could be challenging for the owner. If you can only sell half those vacancies over 18 months that will build to 100 homes the owner will have to start buying. They currently stand at about $250,000 each, so that equates to $25 million cash will be required – and growing.
For us in the village sector, this is why fast sales are so important – which is why ‘trust’ in retirement villages is so important – for our residents and for the operator.
All the research shows the Village Manager is pivotal in establishing and maintaining local ‘trust’, and sales.
Around 40 village managers attended our DCM Institute regional meet last week at Brighton Dunes village in Adelaide.
These are quarterly events, free to all village managers, that we are building right across the country.
The idea is for Village managers to get together in an informal environment to network and share knowledge.
Last week we had two speakers. The first was Vanessa Clarke, the South Australian government’s Senior Team Leader, Office of Ageing Well. Vanessa is responsible for retirement villages and the government.
She presented the survey results of legislation introduced 18 months ago.
Vanessa also shared recommendations for dealing with tricky situations that occur in a village, the trigger events for refund payment timings, bullying, and many more topics of concern raised.
We were also educated on nutrition for ageing residents by a local food group called Thistle Be Good, who provide prepared meals for village residents.
You can organise your own regional meet on our websitetearainstitute.co.nz. It is easy with all the registration tools available online and we will assist you in developing a program.
Don’t hesitate to contact us via the website or on 02 9555 9576.
