Aids and Adaptations

Home Adaptations With Accent Housing

If you or your family members have a long-term illness or disability, there are ways Accent can support you to help you live independently, safely, and comfortably with our adaptations service.

Home adaptations fit into two categories:

Minor Adaptations

These include:

• Handrails
• Grab rails
• Lever taps

Major Adaptations

These include:

• Access ramps
• Over-bath showers
• Level access showers
• Stairlifts

Aids we cannot help you with:

We cannot provide you with items such as wheelchairs, specialist shower seats, bath lifts, hearing aids and sensory equipment such as vibrating pillow pads or doorbell intercom systems. If you need something like this, please contact your doctor or local council. We recommend that you always get expert advice before buying any aid yourself. Specialised equipment can be expensive, and it is vital that it is right for you.

Aids we can help you with:

Accent Housing will fund minor adaptations such as lever taps, half steps or grab rails up to the value of £1000, we will need an occupational therapist assessment for these adaptations.

Major adaptations are normally funded through a Disabilities Facilities Grant (DFG) which is available from your local council. This grant is subject to means testing, except for children (under 19 years of age). Waiting times for Occupational Therapy assessments can vary depending on the area you reside in.

How do I qualify?

To qualify for a major adaptation, you will need to be assessed by a local authority occupational therapist. To ask for an assessment, please contact adult services at your local council so you can be self-referred or alternatively your GP may make a referral for an assessment to the adult services department on your behalf.

The occupational therapist will send a copy of their assessment to our aids and adaptations coordinator with their recommendations for the adaptation. When we receive it, we will contact you to provide advice on the next steps and discuss whether your adaptations will require a Disabled Facilities Grant application.

Our standards of service

We record all requests and referrals on our database. We will acknowledge an occupational therapist’s referral and contact you to explain what happens next for both minor and major adaptation requests.

For major adaptations we will confirm the funding arrangements with the local authority once a DFG panel have made their decision to approve or decline the funding based on your assessment. We will let you and the occupational therapist know what happens next.

We aim to fit most minor adaptations which we are funding within 10 to 28 working days.

The local authorities usually complete the work on behalf of Accent Housing using their own adaptations contractors. They are not governed by our timescales, and it may take longer to do the work. The council will advise you when the work will be completed and provide Accent and you with any progress updates during the adaptation work at the property.

When adapting your home is not possible:

Sometimes, it will not be possible to adapt your home. This could be because of the size or type of your home, or because your needs are highly specialised. An example of this is that we will not fit level access showers in any flats that are above ground floor level if there is no lift in the scheme as it will affect our ability to let the property in future.

In these cases, we may suggest you consider moving to another home. Your Housing Partner can help you look at your options.

Request an Aid or Adaptation

If you would like to speak to someone in our adaptations team, please get in touch using this form.