For the past 10 years there has been jostling for leadership in retirement village accreditation. Originally accreditation was developed jointly by the RVA and Aged Care Queensland but it never sat comfortably given different priority criteria at times between private operators and Not For Profit operators.

Just three weeks ago the two peak bodies for the largely Not for Profit sector, ACSA and LASA [including the old Aged Care Queensland], came together to launch IRCAS, the International Retirement Community Accreditation Scheme.

At the final Retirement Village Association [RVA] national conference last week, the RVA announced its new certification scheme which will replace the long-standing Australian Retirement Village Accreditation scheme [ARVA].

Both groups state their recognition that industry accreditation/certification is vital to provide a benchmark for prospective residents plus give assurance to government of standards being maintained. IRCAS will be owned by ACSA and LASA and the audits will be conducted by the independent organization QIP.

The RVA program will be owned by a new RVA/Property Council subsidiary but the scheme will be developed, implemented and audited by two independent organizations, NCS I and the Agile Group.

The RVA states it particularly wanted the JAS-ANZ endorsement, being the government appointed accreditation body for Australia and New Zealand. Its new scheme goes live in April 2013 after a pilot next month. The 50% of RVA members that are existing accredited villages will be ‘grandfathered’ into the new scheme.

Along with a raft of acronyms to decipher, there will now be two schemes to comprehend.