We are committed to making a lasting difference to the day to day lives of our residents by supporting them to live independently and making the best use of the facilities within their home.
What are aids and adaptations?
Aids and adaptations are alterations to make your home easier to live in, so you or a member of your family can enjoy more independence. We do this through the provision of an aids and adaptations service which is available to all housing association tenants who meet the eligibility criteria.
Adaptations are classed in two different categories, minor and major.
When we undertake modernisation, improvement works, or replacement of bathrooms and kitchens we undertake individual surveys to pick up any residents’ adaptation needs before any work commences, for example these could consist of minor adaptations or installation of walk in shower room conversions.
- Changing your current taps to lever taps
- Grab rails
- Fitting extra handrails to support you using the stairs or external steps
- Adapting lighting or heating controls to make them easier to use
- Half steps to your front or back doors
- Key safe requests
- Improving access to the upstairs of your property by installing a stairlift or through the floor lift
- Improving your bathroom facilities by removing your bath and installing a flush floor shower
- Installing external ramps to your property to enable easier access
- Improving access to your kitchen by having lower height work tops and units
What is the first step?
If you require a minor adaptation you should contact us with your request. We may be able to help straight away, or may need to send a surveyor to discuss the adaptation with you.
If you require a major adaptation, such as a shower or lift you will need to have an occupational therapist assess your needs first. Occupational therapists work for your local authority or health authority and can assess what adaptations are needed to make your home more suitable for your needs. Our staff are not trained to this level so will advise when an occupational therapist is required. Your local council or GP can tell you who to contact to arrange an occupational therapist to attend, or you can contact us and we can help you contact the correct person.
Please note in some areas waiting times for assessments can differ. When you are enquiring about an occupational therapist you may wish to ask about waiting times.
What happens next?
The occupational therapist will arrange to visit you at home and will assess your needs and what adaptations are required, they will then pass this information to the Adaptations Surveyor for your area. The occupational therapist will send us a referral letter listing the adaptations required. If the works required are below a certain value we are usually able to raise these works straight away to our contractor, these are normally minor adaptations. Our contractor will make an appointment with you directly at a jointly agreed time.
Sometimes we may need to organise for a contractor to attend first and quote for the works before we can proceed. Some adaptations can be very expensive and exceed our budgets for a property, these are normally major adaptations. When this is the case we will ask for you to apply for a Disabled Facilities Grant through your local authority, as these works cannot be funded by Kentish.
What is a Disabled Facilities Grant?
A Disabled Facilities Grant is a grant awarded to you by your local authority to cover the cost of adaptations needed to your property as detailed by an occupational therapist. You will be assessed by the local authority to determine whether you are eligible for a grant. If you are eligible they will advise on how much you will be awarded, this will be decided through a financial means test. The local authority will take into consideration your income and savings before deciding how much grant you may be entitled to.
If you are eligible for a grant then the local authority will look into carrying out the adaptation and will liaise with us. Find out more about the Disabled Facilities Grant process.
Who maintains the adaptations?
We will normally maintain all adaptations installed, even when grant funded (once warranty period has expired however we will review your rent charge to reflect any maintenance and repair costs). We will not maintain an adaptation is if this has been installed and paid for privately by a resident.
