EAC Quality of Information Mark
Aims
EAC has introduced a Quality of Information Mark to encourage and help housing providers deliver better and more consistent information to older people about all forms of retirement housing.
Our aim is to ensure that older people, their families, carers and advisors, understand the variety of models now available, and are able to make well informed choices about which will best meet their housing, support and care needs, and their aspirations.
Download EAC In Focus, our newsletter for housing providers (December 2007)
Eligibility
The EAC Quality of Information Mark is available for all types of housing for older people, from age exclusive housing to sheltered & retirement housing to extra care housing and retirement villages.
To qualify, housing providers must have fully completed an EAC questionnaire about the scheme within the last 12 months. The questionnaire requires detailed information under several headings:
- accommodation
- communal facilities
- services
- who the scheme is for
- management
- costs
From early in 2008, it requires information about the scheme's service promise or statement of purpose, and how the provider measures whether it achieved the desired outcomes for residents.
Providers can continue to refer to their schemes as sheltered, retirement, assisted living, very sheltered, housing with care, close care, etc. However the term extra care housing will be reserved for schemes meeting the standards set by the Department of Health and the Housing Corporation (see below).
The EAC Quality of Information Mark must be renewed annually.
Housing providers
To obtain Quality of Information Mark, complete and return a basic questionnaire(s) with the Q of I supplement(s):
Find and download questionnaires for your schemes
Quality of Information Mark supplement
- a supplement which must be completed to gain the Quality of Information Mark. You will need to print out and complete a supplement for each of your schemes and attach it to the basic questionnaire.
Download the Quality of Information supplement here
Or contact alex.billeter@eac.org.uk or call EAC on 020 7820 3755.
Note on Extra Care:
In our questionnaire and on this website, providers are quite free to say how they label or brand their housing provision. However we ask them not to use the term 'extra care housing' unless they aim to meet the following generally agreed minimum standards for this kind of housing:
Tenure:
- offering security of tenure, i.e. own front door and a legal right to occupy the property
Buildings:
- designed with the needs of frailer older people in mind
- with communal and catering facilities
- fully wheelchair accessible inside and out. (This applies to all communal facilities and individual dwellings, including their kitchens and bathrooms)
- minimum one bathroom with provision for assisted bathing
Services:
- emergency alarm service, or similar
- regular meals available
- support and personal care services available 24/7 to residents in their own home
Use of Q of I logo: conditions and costs
Enquiries
For further information or enquiries regarding the EAC Quality of Information Mark, please contact:
Elderly Accommodation Counsel, 3rd Floor, 89 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP, Telephone 020 7820 3755, fax 020 7820 3970, email alex.billeter@eac.org.uk