Adaptations
I require equipment or a major adaptation for my property, who provides this service?
Sheffield City Council provides equipment and major adaptations by means of qualifying for a ‘Mandatory Disabled Works Grant’. To find out if you would qualify for a grant, you must be assessed by an Occupational Therapists from Sheffield City Council’s Neighbourhoods and Community Care Team. They will visit you at home and assess your need to see how best they can help you.
How do I access the Equipment and Adaptations Service?
Access to the Equipment and Adaptations Service provided by Sheffield City Council’s Neighbourhoods and Community Care Team can be gained by either a referral from the Health Service i.e. local doctor, hospital, health professional, or you can self refer via the Access Point Team. You can do this by visiting First Point reception at Howden House, Union Street in the town centre, or by telephoning: 0114 273 4908.
What information do I need to tell the staff from Neighbourhoods and Community Care if I self refer?
It is important that you tell them as much information as possible as they will use this to decide if they are able to assist you? They will probably be able to assist you if:
- You can’t manage to do essential things, and there’s no other way of getting them done.
- You are struggling to manage, and you or a carer is at serious risk of injury, and there’s no other way of getting things done.
- If it seems you might be better off getting help from someone else, they will tell you who to get in touch with.
What happens after I’ve been referred or referred myself to this service for an assessment and it is decided I need an assessment?
The Equipment and Adaptations Team will contact you to make an appointment for one of their Occupational Therapists or Occupational Therapy Assistants to call and see you at home. They will make an assessment of your needs to see how best they can assist you?
How long will it take before I receive an appointment?
The Occupational Therapy Team look at all referrals to identify which have a high medical priority. Cases assessed as urgent will usually be seen within 28 days from the date of referral. Those assessed as being not as urgent will usually be seen within 3 months from the date of referral. The Occupational Therapy Team will always write to you to inform you that you are on their waiting list.
What will happen during the assessment?
A ‘thorough assessment process’ will take place when an Occupational Therapist visits your home. They will talk to you about what you are finding difficult and assess your home. They may ask to see what your daily routine consists of and for you to show them how you get about your home.
Every person’s need is different and the assessment will have to be individual to you. However, some of the things they will want to discuss include:
- How do you get about; do you use a wheelchair, walking stick/frame or crutches?
- Does anyone help you with moving around?
- How much can you move your arms, legs and head? How far can you bend?
- How much strength do you have, and how firm is your grip?
- Can you use both sides of your body?
- Do you have any problems with breathing?
- Can you stand for long periods?
- Can you tell if you are too hot or cold?
- Do you have problems seeing, hearing or talking to people?
- Does your memory sometimes let you down?
The assessment will not be limited to the points listed above.
I have been assessed by the Occupational Therapist, what happens next?
You will be informed of the outcome of your assessment by the Occupational Therapy Team. They will reach one of the following decisions:
- They are unable to provide you with equipment or an adaptation to your home.
- They will advise you where, if available, you can go or contact for possible assistance.
- They will arrange for equipment for you to assist with your need.
- They may work with Sheffield Homes’ Adaptations Team to see if the type of property you are living can or cannot be adapted.
- The Occupational Therapy Team may advise that re-housing is the only option based upon either their findings or if the property cannot be adapted.
- They will approve the funding of a ‘Mandatory Disabled Works Grant’ for a major adaptation. This will be passed to Sheffield Homes’, Investment Standards Adaptations Technical and Surveying Services Team.
What is a major adaptation?
A major adaptation can be one or a mix of the following:
- Level Access Shower/Wet Room installed in place of the bath
- Bathroom alterations
- Shower over your bath
- Ramp to the front or side of the property (if the property can be ramped)
- Widening of door openings
- Alterations to the kitchen for special needs
- Stair lift
- Hoisting system
- Through floor lift
- Platform lift
- Step lift
- Single storey extension
What will happen after Sheffield Homes receives the grant?
Sheffield Homes’ Adaptations Business Support Team will log the receipt of the grant. There are two types of priority for the grant:
- Urgent
- Programme
If the grant is marked urgent by the assessing Occupational Therapist, we aim to allocate the grant to a surveyor within 5 days of receipt for them to arrange an appointment with you or your appointed advocate.
If the grant is marked programme, it will be filed in date order of receipt and recorded as ‘awaiting survey’. We will aim to allocate these within 30 days of the date received by Sheffield Homes’ Adaptations Team.
My grant has been marked as 'Programme' but I feel that my needs are 'Urgent'. How do I challenge this priority?
If you feel the priority that has been given to you is unsuitable, you must contact the Occupational Therapist who assessed you. You must tell them why you feel your circumstances have changed since they assessed you. Sheffield Homes cannot make this decision. The Occupational Therapist will then discuss your case with their supervisor to decide whether or not to change the priority based upon medical grounds.
They will inform both yourself and Sheffield Homes of the appeal decision. Dependant on the outcome, the grant will then:
- Remain the same
- Become urgent and allocated to a surveyor accordingly
I have been assessed and someone from the stair lift company has already measured my property. I am only having a stair lift, what happens next?
Sheffield Homes will receive a grant for the stair lift from the Occupational Therapist. When we receive this grant we will also get a copy of the survey, which will have been carried out by the company providing the stair lift, Stannah. Sheffield Homes will then order the stair lift from Stannah and they will arrange a suitable date to install it with you.
How long before the stair lift is installed?
This does depend on two things:
- Whether your need has been assessed as urgent or programmed (for further information about the assessment please see the question)
- Whether you will need a straight stair lift or a curved one. This will depend on the style of your staircase at your home.
The curved stair lift is more difficult to manufacture so we have allowed the company who will provide the stair lift a little more time.
These are the times we allow Stannah, the company providing the stair lift, to fit the equipment:
Urgent Priority Times:
- Straight Stair Lift - 2 Weeks
- Curved Stair Lift - 4 Weeks
Programme Priority Times:
- Straight Stair Lift - 4 Weeks
- Curved Stair Lift - 6 Weeks
My grant is for a single storey extension, what happens next?
The grant will be allocated to a Sheffield Homes surveyor who will arrange an appointment with you. The surveyor will call and see you to gather all the relevant information required for the construction of the extension, which we call a ‘Client Brief’.
The surveyor will draw up guideline plans to pass to a registered architects practice who will then produce draft plans for us.
The next step, once the draft plans are drawn, is to arrange to come and see you so we can approve the plans. If there are slight alterations required or the plans are approved as they are, these will then be returned to the Architect to draw up full working plans. The surveyor will also draw up specifications in-line with our current adaptations i.e. Level Access Shower. The Architect will also submit the drawings and plans to the relevant governing bodies for planning permission and building regulation approval. You don’t have to worry about this because we will make sure all this gets done.
Once the working drawings are passed to Sheffield Homes, a tender package will be created and sent out to contractors on the Council’s approved list. They will then give us their price for the construction of your extension. Sheffield Homes will evaluate all the tenders submitted and appoint a contractor to carry out the ‘Mandatory Disabled Works Grant’ for you.
The contractor will make arrangements with you as to when they can start the construction of your extension.
How long does all this take for an extension to be ordered?
This type of construction and the work to get to this stage is quite a lengthy process.
Each grant is different and there are differing levels of work involved for each one. The main stages are:
- The preparation stages
- The working plans approved
- Submission for Planning Permission and Building Regulation Approval
- Tendering for a contractor
- Awarding of the work
- Starting the work on site
There can be hold-ups at any of these stages. We do aim to do all these as quickly as is practically possible. The Government recognise that this can be a very lengthy process and have issued guidelines which say 52 weeks can be taken to place the order from the date of referral. Sometimes it can take all of these 52 weeks to get to this stage.
I’ve been visited and my property has been surveyed for an adaptation. How long before the work is started?
This depends on whether specialist equipment is required, further service providers need to be approached, or an estimate of the total work is needed before we can release your adaptation order?
We will aim to release an order to our contractors within 10 working days of visiting your property. If specialist equipment is required, we will keep you informed of how we are progressing to the release of your order for your adaptation. We currently use two priority timescales when we place your order based upon whether the assessing Occupational Therapist has deemed it urgent or programme.
An urgent order is released to our contractor on a 6-week priority and a programme order is released on a 12-week priority. We ask that our contractors aim to complete the week within these timescales.
What happens after the work is completed?
The contractor will inform us when the work is ‘practically completed’ by issuing us a ‘Practical Completion Certificate’. This should be signed by you after the Site Supervisor has asked you for your opinion on the work to your property. Once we have received the certificate, we will contact you to make arrangements to call and see you to ensure that the finished adaptation meets your needs.
If you need to contact us about anything to do with your home, you can do so in any of the following ways:
- Email us at enquiries@sheffieldhomes.org.uk
- Telephone us using one of the following numbers:
If you live in the North, North West or East of the city, or in Sheltered Housing managed by Sheffield Homes, please call 0114 293 0000If you live in the South West, South East or Central areas of the city please call 0114 205 3333
- You can also visit your local area office or Local First Point.