Anchor England’s largest not-for profit provider of housing and care for people in later life, partnered with Wifinity to provide WiFi infrastructure across their properties, offices and communal spaces. The initiative across its almost 1,700 housing locations and care homes is enabling colleagues to work more efficiently and support the ongoing modernisation and transformation of how it delivers services.
Anchor began more than 60 years ago and today is England’s largest not-for-profit provider of housing and care for people in later life. It provides housing to rent and to buy and residential care homes, including specialist dementia care. In total, Anchor serves more than 65,000 residents in almost 55,000 homes across almost 1,700 locations. Its residential care services employ the majority of the 10,000 strong workforce, providing services to residents at more than 120 care homes. Anchor operates in more than 85% of local councils in England.
The requirement
Partner with Anchor and be a part of its digital transformation by delivering connectivity that will enable them to give residents access to the internet so they are able to contact public services and gain savings they might not otherwise see. In addition to this, to support colleagues with technology and systems to enhance every aspect of the service that residents receive.
Better resident experience
A reliable network to enhance every aspect of the service that residents receive
Improved cost saving
Driving cost saving by doing more with the same infrastructure
Corporate network
Consistent WiFi for colleagues and building management systems
Delivery on scale
Deliver at the scale and pace Anchor required
The solution
- Resident WiFi network: Every resident has access to their own private network with simple onboarding process supported by our dedicated customer engagement team
- Corporate WiFi: A separate corporate network, that gives uninterrupted connectivity colleagues and building management systems
- Visitor WiFi: A guest SSID for visitors to quickly connect to the network, anywhere within Anchor following a even simpler onboarding process
As of March 2025, service rollout has begun, and hundreds of residents are already connected. Anchor is covering most of the costs of connecting properties as well as a large part of the ongoing charges as part of the organisation’s investment in driving efficiencies in how it works. So far over 200 sites have been connected by Wifinity, with residents benefitting from access to the internet to help them shop online, keep in touch with family and access services.
In addition to connecting residents through Wifinity, Anchor’s Be Well service provides a range of ways to support residents’ wellbeing, both online and off, and the investment in WiFi will provide opportunities for more residents to get involved in the service. As part of Be Well, Be Digital provides digital support to residents who enrol – helping them to get and stay connected with loved ones and to upskill their digital capabilities.
‘Getting online has made a big difference in my life, as I can now FaceTime my daughter who lives far away. 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 WiFi in our communal lounge.’
Ivan Schooner, Anchor Limetree Court resident.
‘We are delighted we were selected by Anchor to be a part of this 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.’
Costas Demetriou, CEO, Wifinity.
Contact
Contact: Account Director for Later Living Stephanie Smith – LinkedIn / stephanie.smith@wifinity.co.uk| Opens Email.