Vision

To cultivate such inclusiveness in the retirement living sector that it becomes a beacon for talent, growing the sector exponentially through its diversity.  

Mission

We believe that growing and evolving the retirement living sector is fundamental to our society’s needs, and that maximising the contributions of a wide diversity of people is a key way to achieve this.

WiRL seeks to empower women and other underrepresented groups within the UK retirement living sector, through networking, knowledge sharing, and mentoring.

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Context

The UK is facing serious housing, social care, and health crises – and we believe that growing the retirement living sector can substantively impact each of these areas.

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• Housing: Older people rightsizing into any form of retirement living puts more general needs housing into the market and frees up larger homes for families.

• Social care: Carers have more quality time with clients and less time spent on unpaid travel when they have multiple visits at one location, as well as greater job satisfaction.

• Health: Loneliness and isolation have a devastating impact on health, equivalent to smoking and obesity, which is moderated when people live in a community and have support needs met.

Beyond these general factors, certain models within the sector show an evidenced and measurable impact on a number of health and social care outcomes, and proven benefits to both the social care and health care systems (see e.g., The ExtraCare Charitable Trust and Aston University research and ARCO’s care report).