(Director of Communities) At its meeting in September 2016, the Select Committee received a report on Disabled Facilities Grants for private owners and tenants. as a result, the Select Committee asked for a similar presentation on disabled adaptations to Council properties. A presentation will therefore be given by Paul Pledger, Assistant Director (Housing Property and Development), and Haydn Thorpe, Housing Assets Manager.
Minutes:
A short presentation on Disabled Adaptions to Council properties was given by the Assistant Director (Housing Property and Development) Paul Pledger, supported by the Haden Thorpe the Housing Asserts Manager. The meeting noted that about six months ago the Assistant Director Private Sector Housing and Communities Support gave a short presentation on adaptions carried out in the private sector. The Committee then asked for a similar review of Council properties.
The adaptations were divided into two types, Minor Adaptions (Revenue) and Major Adaptions (Capital). They had an annual budget of £450,000 a year and they all started with a referral from Essex County Council’s Social Care Occupational Therapy (OT) Service.
The adaptions help people remain in their homes and clears beds in hospitals. They also have an under occupancy test, if the property was under occupied by 2 or more bedrooms, they would not carry out the adaptations as they should really downsize. Also if tenants were in rent arrears they would not carry out any works. It was also noted that they did not means test Local Authority tenants.
All the adaptions done were assessed by the ECC OT Service who would also prioritise each application and they were actioned in that order.
About £50,000 pa was spent on minor adaptions such as installing hand rails, grip rails and half steps. An average of 170 minor adaptions are carried out in a year, with an average completion time of 23 days. They had a target of 28 days. At the end of Quarter 3 there were only 5 left outstanding. The service achieved a 98% score in the tenant satisfaction survey.
Major Adaptions accounted for the remainder of the budget (£400,000 pa.), there were about 190 of these per year, ranging from putting in extensions, to through floor lifts, stairlifts, level access showers, over bath showers, improving/adapting kitchens, installing ramps and hardstandings.
Except for the building of extensions, works took an average of 72 days. Their target was 56 days. They were above their target as Essex CC tended to ask for upfront payments for putting in Crossovers. The average number of outstanding jobs was 52, but they did have a 100% tenant satisfaction.
Extensions to properties were capped to a value of £35,000; if it were to cost more they would try to get the occupant to pay the difference or work out a different scheme with them. There were currently 8 waiting to be carried out.
The other major piece of work carried out was the installation of lifts especially through floor or stairlifts. Through - floor lifts were for people in wheelchairs and was not an easy adaption to do. Stairlifts were easier as they had a contract with Stannah. They were used across the Essex authorities and when no longer needed the lifts were dismantled and reused elsewhere. But this Essex wide contract would be ending in June 2017 and it would be left to EFDC to take this up. Officers were currently identifying alternatives.
Other major adaptions were bathroom adaptions such as graded floor showers (wet rooms), installations of showers and planned bathroom maintenance programme. They did these more than any other works and were offered to tenants who were on their planned maintenance programme. A graded floor shower was sometimes put in as a default. There was currently a backlog of about 70 jobs.
Councillor Knight asked who was responsible for inspecting the stairlifts. She was told that we were but that Stannah did it on our behalf; this was needed for the insurance on the stairlifts.
Officers were currently looking at this for when the contract runs out in June 2017, as were every other local authority in Essex. It was noted that Stannah was due to come in and discuss this with us shortly.
Councillor Stavrou asked about graded floor bathrooms; what happens if a young family wanted a bathroom. She was told that graded floor bathrooms were only put into ground floor, one bedroom flats. The flat must also be accessible for disabled people.
Mr Marshall asked about under occupancy and if an appropriate property was available, would that property also need adapting. He was told that it would, but the Council would also have a family property back. The tenants must consider downsizing if it was medically possible, if not exceptions could be made.
Mr Marshall then asked if officers could not reach agreement with Stannah, what would happen to the stairlifts already put in. Mr Thorpe said that they were currently having talks with Stannah about this and were still evaluating this.
Mr Marshall asked if a stairlift was not wanted by the next occupant would it be removed. He was told that it would remain.
Councillor Mitchell asked, if there was a repair needed would the cost come out of the Council’s budget. She was told that it was all covered by the agreement with Stannah.
Councillor Chambers said that it was useful to include servicing in any contract with Stannah. With regard to Occupational Therapy services, a lot of councils were working with agency OT services. He asked if the Council had considered employing a part time Occupational Therapists? Mr Pledger said that we did not pay ECC for this service. Officers have looked at bringing in our own OT but we would not save any money by doing this.
Councillor Janet Whitehouse noted that VAEF also carried out minor adaptions; were they used? She was told that the Council did not use VAEF but used their own staff.
The Chairman thanked the officers for their clear and interesting presentation.