South Derbyshire District Council - Disabled facilities grant

Disabled Facilities Grants are available from the council to assist disabled people with equipment or adaptations, to enable them to live independently, or to be cared for at home.

The grant can fund adaptations to your home, such as ramps, stair lifts, level access showers or any other adaptation which helps with access into and around the home. The grant is available for owner/occupiers, private tenants, council house tenants and housing association tenants.

An application for a grant involves:

An assessment of your needs by an occupational therapist from social services
A financial assessment of your income and savings to determine the amount of grant to be paid. However, grants for disabled children under 19 are not subject to means testing.

Step by step guide to applying for a disabled facilities grant

Step one – enquiry and first visit (assessment)

The first step is to contact the Social Services Disability Team to arrange for an assessment of your individual needs.

You can contact Call Derbyshire on 01283 6058058. You will be asked for your name, address, doctor, date of birth and details of the difficulties you are experiencing in your home.

You will be visited by either a care worker or occupational therapist from social services, who will help assess your needs around your home. If you require a major adaptation to your home, they will agree to refer your case to the council for a disabled facilities grant.

They will also give you a yellow 'Test of Resources' form to fill in. This form will ask you to give basic financial information about your income and savings and should be returned to the Environmental Services Department at the council so that they can carry out an initial means test.

Step two – initial means test

The council will use the details that you provide on the yellow form to calculate whether you have any contribution to make towards the adaptation. You will receive a letter to let you know whether you qualify for a grant and whether you are likely to have any contribution to pay.

PLEASE NOTE: this is only a provisional indication of your contribution and you will have to provide more detailed financial information when the formal application forms are completed.

From December 2005, Disabled Facilities Grants for children (under the age of 19 years) with disabilities are not means tested.

Step three – scheme design

Your case will then be allocated to an architect technician, who will design the scheme that you require. The architect technician will visit you, accompanied by social services

After the visit, the architect will prepare a drawing and specification of the proposed adaptations to your home.

Step four – agreement of the proposed scheme

Once the drawing and specification have been produced, they will be sent to the occupation therapist, who will bring them to your home and discuss the proposals with you. If you are happy with the scheme, you will be asked to sign the drawings. If you are not happy with the scheme, you should discuss your concerns with the occupational therapist or the architect technician.

When the scheme has been agreed, the architect will arrange for them to be submitted for Planning Consent or Building Regulation approval, if this is required – this could take several weeks.

At this stage, you will also receive a letter from the council containing a list of building contractors who have carried out disabled adaptations in South Derbyshire. You will be asked to sign and return the list. You may also provide details of one or more contractors of your own choosing if you wish.

Step five – contractor's visit

Once the scheme has been agreed, the council will need to obtain quotations from at least two building contractors. Contractors will have three weeks to submit their prices for the work required. They may wish to arrange to visit your home before they provide a quotation to look at what is required.

Remember: do not let someone in that you are not expecting. If in doubt, call the council to check.

When the contractor’s quotations are received by the council, the architect technician will check their accuracy and value for money. The council will need to receive at least two valid quotations before they can proceed with your application.

Step six - the formal application

After quotations have been received, one of the council’s team assistants will contact you to arrange a visit to help you to complete your formal grant application forms.

At this stage you will be required to show details of all your household income and savings. The information that you provide is confidential.

When the application has been completed and processed the council will send you a letter confirming that your grant has been approved. The official approval document explains how much the grant is for, who the contractor is and , if you have a contribution to pay, exactly how much it will be.

Step seven – getting the work done

Following approval of your grant, the council will advise the contractor that the grant has been approved and request that they contact you to arrange a start date for the work, which is convenient for you both.

The amount of time the work takes to complete will depend on the type of adaptation to your home. The contractors will do their utmost to complete the work quickly and with minimum disruption as possible.

NB It is important that you do not make any changes to the agreed scheme or ask the contractor to carry out any extra work without consulting the council’s architect technician, you will be liable to pay for the cost of any work that is carried out without authorisation from the council.

Step eight – final inspection visit

When the work has been completed, the architect technician will arrange to visit your home to ensure that the adaptation has been completed to the required standard and arrange for any defects to be rectified by the contractor before final payment is made. When all parties are satisfied you will be asked to sign a 'certificate of satisfactory completion' so that payment can be processed. At this point, if you have a contribution to pay, the council will send you an invoice.

On completion of the adaptation, the occupational therapist may wish to re visit you to check that it is suitable and has met your needs as intended.

Enjoy using your new adaptation – we hope it will make life easier for you.

Target time scales

STEP 1 to 2 - allow up to 10 weeks from enquiry, for assessment and referral to the council.

STEPS 3 to 4 - allow up to eight weeks for you case to be allocated to an architect technician and a further eight weeks for the drawing and specification to be produced and agreed with yourself and social services

STEP 5 - The tendering process will take approximately four weeks

STEP 6 - Allow a further two weeks from receipt of tenders for completion of your formal application forms and approval of your grant

STEP 7 – 8 - The builder should aim to start work within eight weeks of approval, depending on weather, time of year and workload.

STEP 8 - Depending on the nature of the adaptation, this may vary from five to seven days for a level access shower up to three months for a major building project.

We aim to complete adaptations within 42 weeks from receipt of referral from social services in at least 90 per cent of cases. This target is subject to availability of resources and therefore may be subject to change.

Contact details

For further advice and to discuss current waiting times, please contact the Private Sector Housing Team using the details below:

Private Sector Housing
Environmental Health Department
South Derbyshire District Council
Civic Offices
Civic Way
Swadlincote
Derbyshire DE11 0AH

Tel: 01283 595719
Online: contact form
email: adaptations@south-derbys.gov.uk

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