Last updated – 13 November 2009
An Abundant Life is a Happy Life – A Dartington Hall Trust Project
These questions are drawn from the comments on our website, letter, emails and face to face conversations we have had over the last few months. We will add to them as more questions emerge.
Select an area to jump to the appropriate section
The Idea
Why Dartington?
Practicalities
Sustainability
Housing and Care Models
Finance
Getting Involved
1. What is Dartington’s Abundant Life Project?
With, currently, one in five of our local population over the age of 65, and with very little good housing and care provision for older people, we want to contribute to improving the lives of older people. We want to see more choice, more opportunity for staying active, more security for older people that they will get care, including health care, in their home when they need it. The aspiration for our Abundant Life project is to create a 120-apartment community for local people over the age of 55 who can come together to live independent, purposeful, active lives, take part in a wide range of activities, mix with people of all ages, and get the help they need when they need it.
2. Why has Dartington decided to turn Foxhole into a retirement community?
Dartington School was a pioneer in new ways of thinking about and providing education for young people. Currently, this building is not sustainable in its current configuration and use. We believe that using the school buildings as the base for a new community of older learners will bring the buildings back to a restored, coherent and fruitful use – of real value to both its residents and those living nearby. And maintaining improved premises for small business and playgroup/nursery provision on the site too.
3. How does the Abundant Life proposal fit with the core objectives of the Trust?
From the start, Dartington has been about supporting new ideas and practical action to meet pressing social needs. At the heart of our vision is the desire to develop a project which demonstrates a better way to support education and learning, to demonstrate new ways of tackling problems and to develop ways of thinking and acting that can spur others to make changes that benefit those most in need. With the numbers of those over 65 in the UK now exceeding the numbers of those under 16, the Trust believes it can make a positive contribution to delivering choice about good ways to live in older life. This concern for enabling older people to live fulfilled, happy and secure lives is exemplified by the work of research in practice for adults, in the range of those who share in the cultural and educational programmes of the Trust, and in its exploration of new models for living in old age through the Abundant Life initiative.
4. Will the whole scheme fit into the buildings of the original Foxhole school?
No. There will be new build too, adjacent and connected to the original buildings. We are in the very early stages of thinking about the design so nothing is settled about the actual use of the original school but we hope that we can keep the small business provision there, along with some of the Abundant Life offices and some apartments. Most of the apartments are likely to be new build. While converting existing buildings is more expensive, we believe that it is important to find new uses for old buildings rather than abandoning them and starting afresh completely. And we are excited by the potential to mix the old with the contemporary in both systematic and sustainable ways.
5. Is this going to make Foxhole look like a housing estate?
We certainly hope not! What we want to bring to life is an opportunity to live an abundant life in older age, with the security of knowing that there is skilled care to help you in your own home, if you should need it. So, the buildings have to deliver on that aspiration, as well as meeting our twin interests in excellent design that will bring pleasure and surprise, and sustainable build and running.
6. There are a few other retirement communities in the UK – what’s different about this one?
Dartington exists to try new solutions to pressing problems, or to develop distinctive responses to those challenges. This project will demonstrate how new provision can be created that links strongly to local strengths and cultures, that offers new opportunities for healthy and active lives, that provides care when needed, and which explores new ways to promote intergenerational activity. The project will build on the best of what exists and add a specifically-Dartington flavour – through its mix of residences and business space, through its provision for young and old, through its easy access to some of the most exciting arts and sustainability practice in the country, through its ability to be a living research community supported by the research activities at Dartington, and through the ability we have at Dartington to provide land for residents to use to grow and produce. We hope to show that, given the opportunity, older age can be life-enhancing, for older people themselves and for those around them. And we hope to demonstrate a way that others can replicate across the UK and beyond.
7. Is this for local people or for anyone?
Our primary motivation for thinking of this project was because of the dearth locally of good housing that would facilitate secure and active lives and lifestyles for older people. So it makes sense to plan this provision for local people. What is ‘local’? We have not settled this but are thinking that it might mean a) living within around 20 miles of Dartington or b) anyone who has a close relative living within around 20 miles of Dartington. Then there is the question of how long you, or your relative, have to have lived locally. There are parts of the country (near and far) where you would have to be born there to be considered local. This would exclude the great majority of people living within our proposed catchment area which is one of high population movement. Therefore we are beginning to think that perhaps people should have lived within the catchment area for a minimum of three years. Nothing is decided about this at present.
8. What is the expected timeframe for the opening of the facility?
We hope to welcome the first residents in late 2013 or early 2014.
9. What provision will be made for guests of the residents at Abundant Life?
Individual apartments at Abundant Life will each have a minimum of two rooms. Some will have three rooms and we might be able to include some four-roomed apartments. So there will be some capacity for residents to accommodate guests in their own home, but the complex will also include guest accommodation.
10. What laundry facilities will be available for residents?
The size of the Abundant Life apartments (around 65m2) means that there may be room for people to have laundry facilities within their kitchen but there will also be a shared laundry for use by residents and additional laundry facilities for use by support staff.
11. Will the Abundant Life facility also provide for elderly with limited mobility?
Our scheme will have Lifetime Homes standards as our point of reference in designing the scheme. To view the Lifetime Homes website, click here Lifetime Homes. The scheme will be designed so that that everyone can move around the site easily. Doorways and corridors will be generously proportioned, communal doors will have automatic openings, apartments will have parking and charging spaces at their front doors for electric buggies, and the gym, with well-being advisor, will help all residents keep as mobile and active as possible.
12. Will residents be able to have pets?
Yes. Research, and people’s own experience, shows that pets are an important part of the life of many older people. So, while no firm decisions on this have yet been made it is highly likely that pets will be welcome so long as they are well-behaved and looked after – and that they fit a reasonable description of ‘domestic’. No elephants, tigers or even Pot-bellied pigs!
13. Will allotments be open to all?
Although residents will have priority, the allotments will be open to people from the community too. We will also explore the potential for a community garden.
14. Will creating the Abundant Life community mean that there are fewer employment opportunities for local people?
We expect this scheme to result in increased employment opportunities – for two main reasons. First, we want to maintain and improve the current facilities for small businesses to operate from Foxhole (in fact we plan to create additional small employment space at other sites on the Dartington estate). Second, we expect that the residential provision could add around 30 new jobs for local people. We hope that the scheme will also contribute to widening employment opportunities for particular groups, such as people with learning difficulties.
15. What thought has been given to incorporating sustainability features and to achieving high environmental standards in the design?
The designs are currently at a conceptual rather than detailed stage but the aspiration to achieve high sustainability standards forms part of the brief. The standards that can be achieved will be different between the refurbishment of existing buildings and the new-build parts of the scheme. The issues of grey water re-cycling, alternative energy sources and high thermal efficiency standards will continue to be evaluated as the design process proceeds and within the context of the overall viability of the scheme.
16. What is our vision for accommodations at the facility? (e.g. mix of rooms, apartments, care facilities?)
We are planning a community of 120 apartments, each with three or four rooms. These rooms could be used as residents prefer – a bedroom of course but then maybe a study, a photographic studio, a dining room or another bedroom. All the apartments and communal areas will be designed to be easy to find ones way around, while also ensuring that there is ‘progressive privacy’ so that residents’ living areas are kept private for them even while other people are using the communal facilities. The apartments will be designed to make it easy to provide for the full range of support needs – so that carers can help wash, dress, feed the resident for example. And, for those residents who develop severe dementia there will also be a small specialised unit – so that they can have the seclusion they need whilst remaining part of a community that has been their home. This facility will also be available to those who live locally.
17. Aren’t Dartington really just setting up an old people’s home?
No, we are not! When we think of an ‘old people’s home’ we imagine a place where you get a room of your own but nothing you can call your own home, with privacy when you want it and the ability to have visitors as and when you choose, and the ability to go where you want to. Our Abundant Life community will never be that – residents will have their own home, and independence, with support to continue to be as independent as possible – all in a place that is attractive to those who live there, those who live nearby and those who come to visit.
18. How many people could live in this scheme?
We hope to provide 120 apartments which, from experience elsewhere, will probably mean that around 160 people could live there.
19. Don’t older people want to stay in their own homes, or be in a town?
Older people are just like everyone else – they are all individuals and want a variety of things. So, some people do, indeed, want to stay in their own home. And some would always want to be in a more urban environment. Even some of those want to stay in their own home find they are lonely and welcome the opportunity to join a community, others relish the opportunity to live in a beautiful landscape. Our proposals are intended to add to the choices that older people can make.
20. Will this scheme mean we end up with far too many older people living round here?
No. The scheme is for older local people who want to live here rather than where they live locally at present or other, rather limited, options that are available. And with our scheme housing around just 160 people it will still be a drop in the ocean – and perhaps rightly so as what we want to do is offer more choice to people and also demonstrate what an abundant older age could look and feel like. Latest population figures estimate that there were 7,908 people of 55 and over living in the ‘Totnes town’ area (stretching roughly six miles around Totnes, including Halwell, South Brent and Stoke Gabriel but not Avonwick, Ashburton or Broadhempston). While we are currently inclined to see ‘local’ as being within perhaps 20 miles of Dartington (see question 7 above) even if we limited access to people in the six-mile area our scheme would cater for just 2% of the age population, or one in 50.
21. Will there be facilities for active older people, for example swimming pool and tennis courts?
The Abundant Life community will provide a range of facilities for active older people, including an exercise suite and spa but the scale of the development and our wish for it to be affordable for all does not make the provision of a swimming pool feasible. However, there is an outdoor swimming pool nearby run by the Dartington Recreation Association (DRA), and we will investigate how we could best reciprocate on facilities.
22. Will this scheme put extra pressure on health care use (including hospitals)?
There is good evidence that people in this kind of community have better well-being and are able to manage their health conditions with less call on hospital services, for example, than others living in individual homes or in residential care. And we plan for our communal facilities, such as gym, library and clubs, to be available for other older people in the local community. Again, there is good evidence that keeping fit and active reduces the need for additional health care. And we hope to provide a specialist provision for those with severe dementia which would be available to local people as well as community residents. In this way the local health provision would be increased.
23. Why does the scheme propose to treat people with dementia differently?
The intention is to design the scheme and its facilities to be as ‘dementia friendly’ as possible. Good practice and research shows that some people with advanced dementias need accommodation with particular design features if they are to live a good quality of life. In many schemes those with advanced forms of dementia, who can sometimes be disruptive to other residents, would be moved to a nursing home. In the Abundant Life model, the intention is to continue to provide options for accommodation and care within the scheme. This is described at the end of the answer to Q15.
24. How will intergenerational contact be encouraged?
The inclusion of new accommodation for the children’s nursery that already operates on the site, the incorporation of spaces for small businesses, the encouragement to the local community to use the communal facilities of the development, and the desire from the local special school to work with us to provide meaningful work experience placements will all facilitate inter-generational contact and engagement.
25. Was a co-housing model considered?
The co-housing model, which has been developed in a number of Benelux and Scandinavian countries and explored in the UK by various groups, is not the model adopted for Abundant Life, partly because of the aspiration to guarantee support and care to a range of people including those with high care needs.
26. Is this the same kind of scheme as the ‘assisted-living and nursing home’ one planned for Baltic Wharf in Totnes?
No, other than being intended for people of the same age range. The Baltic Wharf scheme’s website states that it intends to include ‘up to 100 assisted-living units and a 60-bedroom registered nursing home offering independent living and continuous care with communal leisure facilities for residents and the public’. That scheme would be the choice of some people but not all. Support for residents will have to be sourced from other local providers. If significant nursing help were needed it is likely that residents would have to move into the nursing home or out of the scheme entirely. The Abundant Life community wants to deliver something different. By employing and training our own support staff we expect to be able to ensure that people can stay in their own homes unless they have acute hospital needs or experience very severe dementia. All our support staff will be dementia-care trained and some will be nurses. And the buildings will all be designed to be both stylish and dementia-friendly. Even if you add up the provision of both these schemes they would still accommodate under 4% of the eligible period in the Totnes town area (which is considerably less than we expect to have as our ‘local’ area definition – see q 7 above).
27. Is the development geared to the better off?
No, most definitely not. The aspiration is to provide accommodation in the Abundant Life community with a range of options: to rent, for outright purchase and for shared ownership, so that the facility is available to people in a wide range of circumstances. The intention is to create a diverse community that finds its common identity in a desire to live a positive and active life in old age, as well as providing high levels of care for those who require it.
28. How will the Abundant Life community be funded?
Funding is needed for the development of the project (the buildings and landscaping) and the running of the retirement community. While Dartington has researched the need, and what it could offer both in values and opportunities, it needs to work with an experienced partner to bring its vision to life. Dartington will contribute the land and the remaining finance could come from a commercial or public sector developer. We are currently investigating where we will find the best fit for our hopes for this project. The apartments will be a mix of leasehold ownership, shared ownership and rented. This will provide much of the revenue needed. Where residents have support needs the costs of this could be covered by securing all the appropriate welfare benefits support available.
29. Is there a waiting list I can get my name onto?
We don’t have a waiting list currently as we are at such an early stage with the development, but we will continue to keep the website updated with information about how the project is progressing and anyone who has registered their interest has been added to our database so that when details of how to apply become available, we will make this information accessible.
30. How will you decide who can live in the Abundant Life community?
We are at such an early stage in the development that any decisions on how and who will get a place in the Abundant Life community has not yet been decided. It is likely that there will be an application process, but this is still to be determined.
31. How can people get involved and what kind of input are we inviting at this phase of your planning?
The Trust is looking for all sorts of help and advice from those who take an interest in Abundant Life: those willing to tell us about their own situation, needs and aspirations; those reflecting the concerns and priorities of the local community; and those with specialist skills and insights in the fields of housing and care.
Through the website, further consultation events and outreach, the Trust will continue to provide information to the public and local community as plans for Abundant Life progress and look to engage interested individuals in the process. At present there is a group within the Friends of Dartington for those who are interested in supporting the project and contributing ideas and practical help. In due course we shall also launch the ‘Friends of Abundant Life’.
We have had one public consultation session – in Totnes on 4 September and we have three more planned to take place in Kingsbridge on 1st February 2010, one in Ivybridge on 5th February 2010 and one in Newton Abbot on 12th February 2010. Further information on these will be announced in the local press and on the website shortly. There will be other opportunities, too, for public discussion, including more generally on our community’s aspirations for older age, wherever older people live.
You can stay in touch with progress on the project by registering your interest in being kept up-to-date with progress – click here to register online.
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The Dartington Hall Trust is a registered charity no. 279756. Company no. 1485560. Registered Office: The Elmhirst Centre, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EL United Kingdom. Telephone 01803 847000; Fax 01803 847007;