News

Continuous education programme for carers launched

LONDON:   A low cost online continuous education program for dementia carers will be launched on April 15. The initial modules will cover dementia, Alzheimer's, cognitive impairment, brain injury, Parkinson's and Autism/Aspergers. The initiative will answer critics of the sector who claim care is a dead end job, lacks a career path, and that little effort is being made by employers to lift the educational bar after...Full Story in UK Over 50s Housing Weekly  #570 / 28-02-13

Revenue opportunities being ignored by developers

LONDON:   Care home and retirement community developers are ignoring the opportunity to expand their revenues and build a more sustainable long term business model. Developers and operators continue to be inward looking and confine their collective thinking to the boundaries of each property. All revenue streams come from the clientele domiciled within the survey pegs. But new continuous care...Full Story in UK Over 50s Housing Weekly  #569 / 18-02-13

Care homes need to square up Whitehall mandarins

London:   Despite a special investigation finding the civil service 'outdated' and 'unfit for purpose,' a coterie of Whitehall mandarins continues to manoeuvre to gain 'control' of the major care home groups via balance sheet supervision. The response by the care homes has been to form a lobby group in the hope of influencing and ameliorating the worst of the proposed powers. But in the current bellicose Whitehall mood... Full Story in UK Over 50s Housing Weekly  #568 / 13-02-13

Private firms to penetrate housing association sector

LONDON:   One of the UK's largest housing associations, Home Group, says it expects to see increased penetration into the supported housing sector by 'private firms.' Home Group has dropped £5 million in turnover and £0.4 million in surplus in the past year in its Supporting People division. The trouble stems from councils making bigger cuts to the programme than expected principally because the ring fence that protects... Full Story in UK Over 50s Housing Weekly  #567 / 06-08-12

Rise in take up of over 55s equity release products

LONDON:   The amount of equity released from people's houses as they look to raise money to cover the increasing cost of living has risen almost a quarter in a year, figures show. In recent months, people over 55 have taken equity worth £225 million from their houses as they look to raise money. The figure which covers the period from April to June marks a 22 per cent rise on the same period in 2011. It is the highest... Full Story in UK Over 50s Housing Weekly  #566 / 30-07-12

Australian venture at forefront of new wave of housing

MARBLE BAR, AUSTRALIA:   The Veterans Retreats of Western Australia (VRWA) initiatives best exemplify the core change taking place in over-50s housing worldwide. For a generation the central tenet of thinking was that the developer built what he thought was appropriate, and then he sought his clientele. He built in good faith, what he thought was appropriate for people of "their" age and... Full Story in UK Over 50s Housing Weekly  #565 / 23-07-12

PFI culture to relegate Governments to second row

LONDON:   Once governments in the developed West were the supreme bodies in sovereign states. The ultimate control was the decision as to how to divide the cash flow from the tax base. But increasingly the dominant force has become the multinationals / PFI / Private Equity Alliance. This grouping now delivers the infrastructure that governments no longer can produce. Having spent tomorrow's revenue... Full Story in UK Over 50s Housing Weekly  #564 / 16-07-12

Sector has window to establish itself as 'trust beacon'

LONDON:   The over-50s grew up in the UK with a dozen trust pillars in their lives. But the acceleration in the collapse of authority and trust has left a generation without much public comfort. Only the Queen currently stands between this bewildered older generation and what they perceive as nihilism. Once a banker or a priest, as a reference, lent gravitas and trust. Today the pair exist to steal your money and your trousers... Full Story in UK Over 50s Housing Weekly  #563 / 09-07-12

UK plagued by straight-line report theorists

LONDON:   The UK public is being overwhelmed by proselytizing healthcare studies fanning alarmist outcomes.These theoretical 'straight-liners' have a natural habitat in the Guardian and the left leaning press. At the shallow end of the pool is the desire to raise awareness of a commercial brand or society pedalling an eschewed data interpretation, and at the deep end is the ambition to influence public policy... Full Story in UK Over 50s Housing Weekly  #562 / 02-07-12

Dementia business will not meet predicted levels

LONDON:   The level of dementia/Alzheimer's internment will never meet the levels being predicted by demographic alarmists. It is a furphy to link the burgeoning boomer demographic to current dementia/ Alzheimer's numbers and extrapolate straight line growth for 30+ years.This mischief is being promulgated by many healthcare lobby groups attempting to raise profiles and money. Nothing in life runs straight... Full Story in UK Over 50s Housing Weekly  #561 / 25-06-12