Anchor: investing in Wi-Fi to enhance residents’ lives

Anchor, England’s largest not-for profit provider of housing and care for people in later life, has partnered with specialist connectivity provider Wifinity to provide Wi-Fi across the majority of its locations.

The investment in Wi-Fi infrastructure across almost 1,700 housing locations and care homes will enable colleagues to work more efficiently and support the ongoing transformation of how services are delivered.

It also benefits residents in their individual properties, supporting them to use the internet to access public services and banking, keeping in touch with family members and friends, and for entertainment and online shopping. Hundreds of residents are already connected, with Anchor covering most of the costs of connecting properties.

There is strong evidence pointing to the need for better connectivity, and the challenges for older people in getting online. A report from Age UK in 2023 highlighted how many older people were struggling to access public services because of changes in how to access them. The Centre for Ageing Better notes that “age is still the biggest indicator of who’s digitally excluded”.

In addition to connecting residents through Wifinity, Anchor’s Be Digital service provides digital support to residents who enrol - helping them to get and stay connected and upskill.

Ivan Schooner, who lives at Anchor’s Limetree Court in Doncaster, said, “Getting online has made a big difference in my life. I can now FaceTime my daughter who lives far away, and it’s so much more meaningful to see her face rather than just hear her voice over the phone. This project has had a huge positive impact on our community, and many of us even took a digital skills course to build our confidence, which was made possible by having access to Wi-Fi in our communal lounge.”

Anchor Chief Executive Sarah Jones said: “The connectivity enables Anchor to support colleagues with technology and systems to enhance every aspect of the service that residents receive. It is bringing enormous benefits for residents, whether they are online or not, and helps us address the serious issue of digital poverty. Crucially, along with our adoption of the Plentific platform to manage repairs and planned works and our wider digital and data strategy, it enables more modern, efficient ways of ensuring residents have safe, wellmaintained homes.

“We chose to partner with Wifinity because they could deliver at the scale and pace we required. By providing a corporate network for colleagues and building management systems, and having taken the time to really understand and meet our residents’ needs, Wifinity are driving cost savings by doing more with the same kit, improving the lives of our residents.”

Costas Demetriou, CEO of Wifinity, said, “We are delighted we were selected by Anchor to be a part of their digital transformation. The scale and ambition of this programme is huge and will make such a difference to so many people. As well as the installation, we are supporting residents to be active online and be able to access vital services such as video consultations with health professionals, ordering prescriptions and calls with families.”