Care minister Gillian Keegan will next month make a speech on housing-with-care at the Associated Retirement Community Operators (ARCO) conference in London.
Keegan will speak on the opening day of the two-day conference that takes place at IET London: Savoy Place on 3-4 November.
Keynote speakers at the event include Baroness Camilla Cavendish, former head of the UK Policy Unit at 10 Downing Street, and Mac Macartney, founder of Embercombe, which promotes the regeneration of land, society, and people.
On the agenda at the What Next? 2021 conference will be the evolving landscape for housing-with-care over the last 18 months, the importance of clearly defining the sector, ways to create meaningful policy change, and ensuring a zero-carbon future for housing-with-care.
“The pandemic has shown the need for a greater variety of care options for older people so they can stay healthy and independent for longer, and we look forward to hearing the Minister’s plans to make this a reality,” said ARCO executive director Michael Voges.
“We urge the government to move forward with proposals for a cross-department task force on housing and care options for older people as soon as possible,” he added.
Nick Sanderson, chief executive of Audley Group and ARCO chairman, said: “It’s great that we will be hearing from the new care minister because we desperately need to see government action to help the housing-with-care sector to flourish, as part of wider social care reforms.
“During the pandemic we’ve witnessed the way in which housing-with-care settings have gone above and beyond to keep residents healthy and well - we owe it to our older generations to spread these benefits far and wide, and hope the government will listen.”
