If you find doing everyday tasks difficult adaptations to your home may make life easier. A1 Housings Adaptation Service can arrange for adaptations such as ramps, stairlifts, handrails and showers for people who need them to live at home safely. In providing this service A1 Housing work closely with Nottinghamshire County Council’s Occupational Therapy Team to make sure that you get the right type of help.
What are adaptations ?
Adaptations are changes to a home that help you, or a member of the household with special needs, stay in their home safely and live independently. The following are examples how an adaptation may help in your home:
There are two types of adaptations works, Major Adaptations and Minor Adapations.
Minor Adaptations
Minor adaptations are small changes to your home that cost less than £5000, examples of these are:
Major Adaptations
A major adaptation is where a lot of work needs to be carried out to your home and may cost up to £25,000. In exceptional circumstances A1 Housing may exceed this amount.
Examples of major adaptations are:
Please click here to access more detailed list of adaptations and examples of what day-to-day problems they may help.
Who might get help ?
Adaptations are available for tenants, a member of their family or someone who permanently lives in their home that has a long-term substantial permanent medical condition. This can be either a physical or mental medical condition.
If you can answer yes, to any of the following you may qualify for help:
You may also qualify if any of the following statements are relevant to you
How to apply for an adaptation ?
If you think that you need an adaptation you will need to contact A1 Housing's Adaptations Team. Listed below are ways you can contact :
When applying for an adaptation please inform us who in your household is suffering from:
The Adaptations Team will provide you with the information on the adaptations process and we will forward your details onto the Occupational Therapy Team. Once you have made your enquiry, we will monitor the progress of your application.
What Happens at the assessment ?
The Occupational Therapist Service Advisor will ask you about the problem you are facing and how you are coping now. If they think they might be able to help, they advise you how soon it will be before the Occupational Therapist can visit.
The Occupational Therapist will come and visit you at home. They will talk about what you find difficult and may ask you to demonstrate how you do certain tasks. The Occupational Therapist may suggest a different way of doing things or order specialist equipment; like a bath seat to help you in and out of the bath. Any work that the Occupational Therapist recommends must be essential and not what is desirable.
Recommended works to your Home
If the Occupational Therapist has recommended works to your home they will forward your referral to A1 Housing. A1 Housing will consider the recommendations to check that the works
If the work meets the above criteria we will decide whether it will be treated as a major or minor adaptation.
Adaptations and Means Testing
Legislation set by central government requires local authorities to carry out a means test on all adaptation referrals. A means-test requires A1 Housing to look at your income and savings to see if you have to pay anything towards the cost of the adaptation works. It is your responsibility to provide us with your income and saving details to enable us to assess your ability to contribute to the costs of the adaptations. This information is calculated against a government formula, this enables everyone with the same income and household will be asked to contribute the same. Depending on your income and savings you may be asked to
For more information on means testing please click here.
If you receive any of the following benefits A1 Housing will pay for all the work
Your contribution must be paid before the work starts. Different rules apply when adaptations are for a child (see Adaptations for a Child with a Disability).
Adaptations for a Child with a Disability
When an adaptation is for a child with a disability no means test will be carried out, however, checks will be done to ensure that the house where the adaptations are to be carried out is the child’s main home.
How long will the adaptations take ?
Once the work has been referred to A1 Housing by the Occupational Therapy Team we will try to complete the works within the following timescales:
High Priority Adaptations 16 weeks
Routine Priority Adaptations 52 weeks
The priority of the works is determined by the Occupational Therapist and will depend on your medical condition and living conditions.
Before the work starts
If the work is complex it may be necessary to obtain planning permission from the Council and this may mean that surveyors from A1 Housing and specialist contractors will visit your home. Once A1 Housing has received all the necessary permissions for the works to go ahead we will send the work to the contractor Connaughts. A1 Housing will write to you to let you know when this has happened.
Where the work is relatively straight forward such as a stairlift or hoist installation the work is carried out by Connaughts who will keep you informed on progress and carry out the work.
Connaughts employ Tenant Liaison Officers to support you through to completion of the works and they will get in touch with you 2 weeks before the works start to introduce themselves and tell you what to do to get ready. It is important that you tell the Tenant Liaison Officer of any effects the work may have on your health, for example, if dust may affect a breathing condition. You should also discuss any concerns that you have or if you think you may need additional help during the works.
What can you expect from the contractor ?
All contractors working on behalf of A1 Housing must adhere to our code of conduct, listed below
The Contractor will
Be polite and tidily dressed introduce themselves and show their identification before entering your home
Explain what they are going to do and discuss how this will affect you
Take care of your property and possessions, protect them from damage, dust and paint
Keep you home safe and keep the mess and noise to a minimum
The Contractor will not
What Happens during the Works ?
If required, the contractor will have a site manager to oversee the works and A1 Housing’s Clerk of Works will also be checking to make sure everything is running smoothly. Your Tenant Liaison Officer will also be available to offer help, advice and sort out your problems.
Remember: During the work, there will be some level of disruption to your home for example, noise or dust.
What happens when the works are Completed ?
When the work is completed, A1 Housing’s Clerk of Works carries out checks on the quality of the work. All major adaptations are quality checked and a random selection of the minor adaptations.
If you have any concerns about the quality of the work carried out please let our Clerk of Works know and they will liaise with the contractor to put the work right.
We will ask you to fill in a questionnaire to check you have been happy with the work and the process. Your feedback is very important, as this will allow us to improve the Adaptations Service.
If you are unhappy with the adaptations service we provide please let us know. For more details on how to make a complaint please click here Complaints.