Published: Friday 08th February 2019 | 12.00am
Last night Cannock Chase Council’s Cabinet agreed to a review of Disabled Facilities Grants (DFG) works on Council properties.
The Disabled Facilities Grants system provides a mechanism for assisting people both financially and practically with adaptations to their home. Adaptions to properties could be; installing ramps, widening doorways, stair lifts and kitchen or bathroom adaptations to enable disabled people to lead more independent lives.
The Council is required to fund these adaptations to Council properties from its HRA Capital Budget not the DFG mechanism even though the work undertaken is the same.
The review will include a new policy relating to the delivery of Disabled Facilities Grants and approved that the Council can source an external Occupational Therapy Service provider to assist the Council with its obligations.
Cabinet also agreed that £415,000 unspent from the HRA Capital Budget for 2018-19 Capital Programme is transferred into the HRA Adaptions Capital Budget for expenditure during 2019-20.
The Council will continue to support the funding of adaptations to its housing stock and a Capital budget of £550,000 has been allocated for future adaptations in order to sustain the anticipated times to within 12 months.
There were changes to the delivery model for Adult Care Services in April 2018 and since that time the Council has funded the cost of Occupational Therapy Assessments for adult cases.
Councillor Alan Pearson, Portfolio Leader for Housing said “There has always been a big demand for adaptations to Council properties in the District and previous government funding meant that waiting times were around 12 months. However over the last 2 years the Council has received a steady increase in applications from Council house tenants. This means that tenants are waiting much longer than those in the private sector. I hope the review of the policy will address this imbalance.”