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Helping older people to get the best out of life: The story so far

At Anchor Trust we have always had an eye on the future.

Since we began life in 1968, providing sheltered housing as Help the Aged (Oxford) Housing Association, we have been innovating and driving up standards in order to help older people to get the best out of life.

Our first new-build sheltered housing schemes were completed within two years of our launch and in 1972 we created Guardian Housing Association, providing sheltered leasehold accommodation for older people wanting to own their home.

Anchor Housing Association was established in 1975, allowing Help the Aged to stay focused on its campaigning and Anchor to expand and develop its services for older people.

In the 1980s, we launched our pioneering Anchor Staying Put projects in Birmingham, Bristol, Bradford, Hackney, Newcastle and Southport to provide advice and assistance with repairs and adaptations to older people’s homes. After forging the concept of home improvement agencies, Staying Put now covers more than 70 local authority areas across England.

We moved into the care homes business in 1982 and rapidly became a significant force in driving up space and care standards. As long ago as 1998 we were talking about how older people would become more demanding and expect to be involved in decisions about their care, something that is ever more the case. It was in that year that we began the first Department of Health Private Finance Initiative to be signed, acquiring and refurbishing or rebuilding 17 Surrey County Council homes.

We have slowly expanded our services to older people and in 1989, Anchor Home Support, the precursor to our home care business Anchor Care, was launched. Today we provide care to 5,000 home care clients each week, with substantial growth planned following the win of a £15 million contract with Wigan Council.

Continuing our tradition of shaping the future of provision for older people, our first Integrated Care and Housing scheme, Fairfield Court in Manchester, opened in 1997. The groundbreaking model of extra-care broadened the range of our services still further. It is employed at the award-winning Denham Garden Village – Anchor’s largest Integrated Care and Housing model, where work started in 2004.

Three Integrated Care and Housing schemes were constructed in 2007as part of a 25-year contract with Coventry City Council. And Anchor’s evolution continues as the contract also includes two specialist dementia care homes, our first homes of their kind.

Forty years on, evolution continues to be vital. Building on the success of Denham Garden Village, we are developing the concept and looking to develop new housing and lifestyle villages. We are also continuing to broaden the services we offer, piloting At Home Services, a new model of care, advice and lifestyle support in Berkshire, Wetherby and north London.

Our commitment to driving up standards and developing new services to meet older people’s changing needs remains as vital as ever as we focus on helping future generations of older people to get the best out of life.