Adaptations in your home A Guide to the process including Disabled Facilities Grants May 2015 This guide is available free in large print, Braille, CD and tape by calling 01352 803444. Adaptations We aim to help people of all ages with permanent and substantial disabilities to remain in their own homes if possible. Adapting your home to make it more suitable for you is one method of achieving this. Adaptations vary depending upon your need or the needs of your child, carers and your property. For example, if you can no longer get upstairs safely, the options for consideration following a full Occupational Therapy assessment could be: An additional stair rail, a stair lift, a vertical lift, using downstairs available rooms, and in exceptional circumstances extending the property for wheelchair use or rehousing. Work costing up to 1,000 is funded through Flintshire County Council. Anything over this is usually referred to our Housing Renewal Grants staff for a Disabled Facilities Grant (known as DFG for short) which you may be required to contribute to. The Occupational Therapy staff aim to ensure that the adaptation is necessary and appropriate to meet your or your child s and carer s disability needs (both now and in the longer term). Grants staff in our Housing Assistance service are responsible for the progress of the grant and decide whether it is reasonable and practicable to carry it out, once the OT has recommended it. Grants are available for disabled people in owner occupied property or tenants in council, housing association or privately rented properties. The Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) is means tested. Means testing does not normally take place for council properties although it can do under certain circumstances. 1
Only the income and savings of the disabled person (and their partner if they have one) are taken into account. Parents of disabled children under 18 are not means tested. We recommend that you request an informal means test from the Grants department as soon as possible to assist you in making a decision. Step 1 - Initial Enquiry Social Services for Adults - Please contact our First Contact Team on 01352 803444 who will take some details and advise if you are eligible for an assessment. Social Services for Children - Please contact the Duty Officer at the Children s Integrated Disability Service - 01244 528697. You may be contacted by a member of the Occupational Therapy Team for further information and will be advised if there is a wait for assessment. Our Grants section administer the grants process once they have received the adaptation recommendation form from the Occupational Therapy staff. If you need more information about the financial assessment or grant process please contact Grants Administration on 01352 703434. Step 2 - Assessment A member of the Occupational Therapy staff will visit to carry out an assessment of your needs with you (in accordance with Flintshire County Council agreed eligibility criteria). From the assessment, options will be considered to meet these needs. Ask for a copy of our "Fair Access to Care" leaflet. The outcome could be: advice, provision of community equipment and/or recommendation for minor or major adaptations, rehousing or new build housing advice on moving and positioning 2
Step 3 - Adaptation Plan If a minor adaptation (costing up to 1,000) is needed the Occupational Therapy staff will ask for the work to be done by the appropriate agency, without charge. If a major adaptation is required the member of the Occupational Therapy staff will send the adaptation recommendation form, agreed with you, to our grants section. They will check if the work is feasible. The OT will work with the surveyor to decide if the adaptation is reasonable and practical. The Grants section will arrange for details of the work involved (known as the "schedule of work") to be sent to you with the full grant application papers, including details of the financial information needed by the grants department. The Grants section ask that private tenants gain permission from their landlord. We use a separate route for Housing Association tenants. Step 4 - Arranging a Grant. The Grants Department offers an "agency" service to arrange for builders to quote for the work detailed in the surveyor's schedule of work (See Step 3). For large adaptations up to 36,000 they will arrange for someone to act as Contract Administrator. This could be an architect or Flintshire County Council's own Design Agency. 36,000 is the upper limit on mandatory DFG. You can choose to make these arrangements yourself. Grants will provide lists of approved contractors and the names of some possible contract administrators if you want to get your own quotes and plans for the work agreed. If the grant is approved, fees charged by agencies, such as architects fees, will usually be paid through the grant. When all the necessary quotes and plans (including planning and building regulation approval if needed) have been received the Grants section will let you know within six months if the scheme has been approved. You must not start any work on the adaptation before you have had approval. The Grant cannot be paid in retrospect. 3
Step 5 - Completion The contract is between you and the builder, not between our Grants section and the builder. Payment will be made when you and the Grants section are satisfied with the work. Arrangements for payments by instalment can be made if necessary as the work progresses. Please note that you are responsible for ensuring that the contract meets your standards. If you are not satisfied you should tell the Grants section so they can keep back payment if appropriate. If you feel changes are needed to the recommendations made by the Occupational Therapy staff you should discuss it with them before asking the builder to go ahead. When the work is finished you will usually be contacted by the OT staff to check that it is meeting your assessed needs and to provide any community equipment if needed. You may get questionnaires from Social Services, the Children s Integrated Disability Service, the Grants section or Care & Repair (if involved) asking your views on the grant process. These will help to improve the service in the future. Moving Home to a more accessible property If you have a substantial disability or your property cannot be adapted and you need advice about the suitability of a property that you are thinking of moving to, please make contact as directed in Step 1, following which an Occupational Therapist will liaise with you. If you want to apply for re-housing to a more suitable property please contact our Housing section on the following number: 01352 703777 4
Further information Getting Help from Social Services leaflet - advice on a range of services for adults who are older or disabled. Occupational Therapy Services leaflet a guide to our services. For copies of these and our other leaflets please go online to www.flintshire.gov.uk/careinfo or call Social Services on 01352 803444 Care & Repair North East Wales 01352 758700 offer a range of support for older or disabled people including minor adaptations/repairs and advice if the Disabled Facilities Grant is not applicable. www.flintshirecr.co.uk enquiries@careandrepairnew.co.uk Questions and complaints If things go wrong The Occupational Therapy Service receives many compliments. We are aware that despite our best efforts there may be occasions when a service user has a complaint. Any complaint about services can be made to your Occupational Therapist or Disability Officer or their Team Manager. If you wish to make a formal complaint this should be made to: The Complaints Team Social Services County Hall Mold CH7 6NN 01352 702623 A leaflet Your right to compliment and complain which explains how your comments can be made and how they will be dealt with is available from the same address or on our website at www.flintshire.gov.uk Data Protection You have a right to see personal records we hold about you. Ask us for more information. Ref: A23 5