Adaptations

Housing Adaptations

Helping you to stay mobile in and around your home.

Adaptations can range from small items such as grab rails and lever taps to major alterations: whatever is needed to help you keep your independence.

What happens next?

1. If you think that you need any of this work, you will first have to be assessed by an Assessment Officer or Occupational Therapist from Adult and Children's Care Services who will visit and assess you to advise how best to meet your needs in accordance with Government guidelines. After this, a recommendation will be sent to Housing Adaptations to arrange for the work to be carried out.

2. When a recommendation is received from Social Care Services one of the following takes place :-

• An order will be generated and passed to the contractor for the proposed works to be carried out. (Minor Adaptations)

• A Technical Officer will visit your home within 5 days of receipt of the recommendations who will carry out a survey, and produce a schedule of the proposed works. (Major works)

• If you are on the Council's re-housing waiting list, only minor adaptations will be carried out. If you are in need of major works, you will first have to withdraw you application from the housing waiting list before any works can commence. 

How long will this process take?

This depends on the type of work and how urgent your circumstances are.

Minor Adaptations

Minor adaptations such as grab rails, lever taps, and mop stick rails will be installed within 7 days of receipt of a recommendation.

Major Adaptations

Major adaptations such as ramps, and showering facilities, will be installed within 28 days after a visit from the Technical Officer.

Adaptation is not the only answer in meeting the housing needs of people with medical or physical disabilities. The Council's Accessible Housing Register was developed and launched in 2005.

Owner occupiers and tenants of Housing Associations, Social or private landlords can apply for a Disabled Facilities Grant (see below for details).

Below are descriptions of other services that we provide.

Accessible Housing Register (AHR)

The Accessible Housing Register holds the details of people who require special need housing because their current accommodation is unsuitable to meet their specific needs. The register does not hold details of properties that are empty awaiting allocation.

The AHR Coordinator liaises with Doncaster Home Choice and is notified of all properties that become available for allocation and have been purpose built, adapted or have special features that could benefit someone with a disability and will nominate prospective tenants to these properties on the basis of need.

Housing Assessment Panel (HAP)

The HAP comprises of a panel of Doncaster Council and staff from St Leger Homes of Doncaster . 

Cases are discussed in reference to the urgency and priority for housing need. 

In the case of a customer with a disability who may need expensive adaptations to allow them to remain in their current property, greater priority or a direct match can be awarded so that they may move to a more suitable property, saving the customer the upheaval of extensive works to their accommodation and also saving the authority costs of unnecessary adaptations.

Home Improvement Agency (HIA)

The Home Improvement Agency (HIA) is part of Doncaster Council and organises home adaptations for anyone who needs them within the Doncaster Council area. The agency arranges for contractors to come to your home and do all the work needed as quickly as possible. It works on behalf of council tenants, leaseholders and private homeowners.

Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG)

The process is quite complex involving a financial assessment, 'means test' and completion of extensive application forms, together with a number of other conditions including the issues of ownership and occupancy of the property. Assistance is provided to guide people through the complexity of the process.

A grant can be used for adaptations to give you greater freedom of movement into and around your home and/or provide essential facilities within it. If you are disabled, acceptable types of work include :

• widening doors and installing ramps

• providing or improving access to rooms and facilities - for example, by installing a stair lift or providing a downstairs bathroom

• improving or providing a heating system which is suitable for your needs

• adapting heating or lighting controls to make them easier to use

• improving access to, and movement around, the home to enable you to care for anther person who lives in the property, such as a child

An Occupational Therapist will look at your circumstances and can recommend the type of adaptation(s) needed.

The amount paid is usually based on a financial assessment - a ' means test' - of your average weekly income in relation to your outgoings. There is no means testing for families of disabled children who are aged under 19.

• Means testing will take into account savings above a certain limit. Certain benefits including Disability Living Allowance and Income Support are not taken into consideration.

• If you have a partner, your combined income will be assessed jointly. Capital is included in the means test. The first £6,000 of savings is not taken into consideration.

• A range of premiums and allowances is used for all essential outgoings, for example, rent/mortgage and personal expenditure. Actual outgoings are not taken into consideration.

Depending on the outcome of this assessment the amount of financial assistance offered can vary from 0 to 100 per cent of the cost. 

How the award is worked out

• If your income is less than your assessed needs you will not normally need to contribute to the cost of the works.

• If your income is more than your assessed needs, a proportion of your income will be used to calculate how much you could contribute towards the cost of the works.

• If this assessed amount is less than the cost of the works, the difference between the two is paid as a Disabled Facilities Grant.

Maximum grant amount

The maximum amount of grant that a council is required to pay is £30,000 per application less any assessed contribution from you. If the cost of the eligible works is more, the council can use discretionary powers to increase the amount.

Is the grant repayable?

If you receive a grant for more than £5,000, you may have to repay the grant (up to a maximum of £10,000) if you move home within five years.

For further information, use the contact details at the top of the page.

What can I expect ?

If you phone us we will:

• Give our name
• Be polite and helpful
• Offer to call you back at a suitable time if we can't deal with your enquiry immediately
• Aim to answer your call within five rings. If this is not possible we will respond to your answer phone message within one working day

If you write to us we will:

• Acknowledge your query within one working day for emails, or within three days of receipt of letters or faxes
• Ensure we have answered all of your questions, identify the investigating officer by name and tell you who to contact of you need more information
• Let you know when you will get a full reply to your comment/complaint
• If your answer takes longer than three days, we aim to provide a full response within ten days. If we are unable to respond within ten days, we will write to you again to tell you when you will receive a full response.

If you visit us we will:

• Ensure you wait an average of no more than ten minutes to be seen
• Wear name badges or carry official identification
• Be polite and helpful
• Get help as soon as possible if you have special communication needs

If we visit you at home we will:

• Let you know when we will visit, where possible
• Let you know if we are unable to make an appointment
• Wear name badges and show official identification
• Treat you and your home with respect

Service Standards

We have produced our service standards to make sure customers are clear about the level of service they can expect. We will review all our service standards and involve customers in this process. We will monitor all our service standards.

By telling you what level of service you can expect, you will know when we do not meet this standard. If this happens we want you to tell us about if so we can get it right and learn from where we went wrong.

Performance indicators are as follows:-

Service timescales

• Time from receipt of recommendation to order being placed                10 days

• Time from order being placed to works being completed                     28 days

• Number of adaptations completed on time                                         90%

• Tenant's satisfaction questionnaire returns                                         70%

• Overall tenant satisfaction                                                                90%

Man in a Van Scheme

This scheme aims to reduce risk in the home whether this is a Council property or privately owned, and looks to provide minor equipment or adaptations to assist with preventative care.

The process is designed to reach clients that are in need of small items of equipment or minor adaptations that can be completed during the initial visit by an Assessment Officer and Trade Technician.

The initial contact by the client or referral by health professional through the Adult Contact Team will have the details provided to them evaluated to determine if the information received shows that this scheme would be most effective way to address minor needs.

The self-referral form identifies if minor adaptations and/or equipment would help to improve the safety of the client. If it is the primary reason for referral or whilst the client is waiting for re-housing, this service would be provided without delay. 

The Technical Officer will undertake a risk assessment of the property and will make the environment safer by, for instance securing loose carpets. The Assessment Officer will undertake an assessment of the client's abilities and then recommend equipment and/or adaptations.

If these can be fitted during the one hour visit enabling a One Stop Operation, then every effort will be made to do this where practically possible. Where not, a referral will be made for an appointment to be arranged to carry out the work at a future agreeable time with the client.

The aim is to reduce the disruption where possible to you the customer, and to undertake work that aids you in and around your home.

The Technician carries basic equipment on the van to carry out these minor adaptations such as grab rails to help walk up short steps from footpaths, and hand rails to assist where your property has stairs leading to more than one floor.

If major adaptations are identified through the Assessment or Property Safety Check, the outcome will be referred back to the Adult Contact Team for a further appointment to process this through the Housing Adaptations route.

You may also hear this scheme referred to as 'Minor Adaptations without Delay'. Please note, this refers to the Assessment and Technician's visit only and the work they carry out, not the whole service.