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With a background in five-star hotels both nationally and internationally and as a former chairman of the Australian Hotels Association NSW, he brings a wealth of knowledge to the retirement living sector.

Leading Baldwin Living since 2011, he has spearheaded a doubling in size of the business portfolio of the family-owned business, which now operates eight boutique retirement villages located in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Geelong, Hobart and the Gold Coast, in addition to home care services through its HomeServe offering.

“I find the retirement living sector to be rewarding and I enjoy engaging with our residents to understand their needs and working collaboratively with them and our team to find solutions,” said Paul.

“I’m passionate about providing a great experience for our retirees and developing our teams to understand how to best support the ever-changing seniors market.”

As an advocate for constructive engagement with residents, he has chaired the Property Council of Australia’s NSW Retirement Living Council and is closely involved with the NSW Residents Association.

His focus on resident engagement is also what led him to the Australian Retirement Village Accreditation Scheme (ARVAS) – the national accreditation scheme for the retirement living sector, developed by the Aged & Community Care Providers Association (ACCPA) and the Property Council of Australia.

ARVAS standards hold retirement living communities accountable across seven key quality areas: community management; human resource management; resident entry and exit; resident engagement and feedback; environment, services and facilities; safety and security; and resident care (where applicable).

These standards are designed to work directly with the Retirement Living Code of Conduct, which is the sector’s self-assessment tool developed by ACCPA and the Retirement Living Council. This means any organisation that wants to apply for accreditation under ARVAS must be an active subscriber to the Retirement Living Code of Conduct.

“ARVAS was of interest to our business because we are always striving for the best, and the accreditation process helped us examine and refine all our policies and procedures,” said Paul.

“It’s important that the retirement living sector is standardised and robust, and by working towards ARVAS accreditation we were able to benchmark what we do and demonstrate excellence.”

ARVAS was a perfect fit for Baldwin Living’s values known under the acronym ‘RECIPE’ – ‘respect’, ‘empowerment’, ‘commitment’, ‘integrity’, ‘partnership’ and ‘empathy’ – and their mission ‘to provide our residents with rewarding and carefree lifestyles that allow peace of mind, supported by our dedicated and caring staff’.

Baldwin Living is ARVAS accredited at all eight of its villages, with its accreditation-led improvements meaning they have now implemented prescriptive resident complaint handling systems at resident meetings and can promote their commitment to best-practice outcomes to customers.

“We’re very proud of our ARVAS accreditation, which we communicate very clearly to our customers on our website and all other communication tools. It shows we follow a clear code and strive for excellence,” said Paul.

“ARVAS helps ensure we are communicating regularly and clearly with residents, acknowledging and responding to feedback, and continually making improvements, which is consistent with our values.

“At an operational level, our village managers say it has helped them better understand our policies and procedures.

“For handovers to new staff, there is defined and easily tracked information on things like operations, communications and resident committees.

“Compulsory resident surveys and mid-cycle reviews prior to re-accreditation keep us on-track with feedback outside of our normal channels, so we remain accountable to our residents.

“Being accredited also helps with consumer confidence meaning it’s a lot easier to communicate with potential customers, giving them peace of mind that we’re serious about their wellbeing and we have all our policies and procedures up to date, making it a lot easier for them to make the decision to move into one of our villages and also giving confidence to state and federal regulators.”

Paul Murphy, ACCPA’s National Member Advisor for Retirement Living & Seniors Housing and Chair of the ARVAS Governance Committee, says ARVAS accreditation is particularly beneficial in a competitive marketplace.

“We regularly get calls at ACCPA from prospective residents asking about the accreditation status of villages. It’s clearly a motivating factor and serves as a competitive advantage,” he said.

“Baldwin Living have cleverly used ARVAS accreditation to enhance their operations and elevate their value proposition.

“They are a shining example of a professionally managed and quality driven retirement village operator. They focus on the resident experience and their high occupancy levels are evidence of that.”