EOC(3) OPI AWE 008

Equality of Opportunity Committee

Inquiry into home maintenance and adaptations services for older people in wales

Additional written Evidence from Community Housing

Following our oral evidence to the Assembly’s Equality of Opportunity Committee on 12 May we were asked for information on the steps that stock transfer RSLs have taken to ensure that they are able to meet requirements for adaptations. We have received responses from four stock transfer RSLs, which between them are responsible for some 30,000 homes.

Valleys to Coast Housing (V2C), which operates in Bridgend County Borough, has over 6000 homes.  When it was established on transfer in September 2003, the new organisation was not (and is still not) eligible for Physical Adaptation Grants (PAG). The transfer agreement required that V2C set aside a certain amount of money out of its own budget each year to fund minor adaptations within its own stock. Whilst this is a V2C budget, the process of allocating this budget is driven by referrals received from the Social Services department of Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC). The types of work undertaken from this budget are to a maximum of £3,000 and can include works such as access ramps, walk in showers, grab rails etc. Anything above this guideline figure of £3,000 would be processed via a Disabled Facilities Grant route by BCBC. The initial agreed amount on transfer was £210,000 for the first year and this figure has increased year on year with the cost of living. For this financial year the sum is £282,000, but this in reality does not match the high level of demand that there is for this service. 

In the past, although V2C was putting in adaptations, it was occasionally also removing these adaptations when the property became void. To avoid this happening, V2C instrumental in establishing the Bridgend Accessible Homes Scheme (BAHS) which seeks to match people with need to an already adapted property. In this way V2C is able to maximise the benefits from adaptations, which are no longer automatically removed.  BAHS is based in V2C’s offices in Bridgend, which ensures a close working relationship between the two organisations.

What is most challenging for V2C is that the allocated budget for adaptations does not meet the level of demand, which in turn puts pressure on the grants section of BCBC. This has been recognised and there has been a workshop recently with all interested parties and other RSLs that operate within the Borough.

RCT Homes has operated in Rhondda Cynon Taff since 2007, and has nearly 11000 properties. Following discussion with the Local Authority before stock transfer, it was agreed that £1 million a year would be provided for adaptations, and this has been included within the Association’s business plans. The Association further negotiated and agreed that large scale adaptations such as extensions would be addressed through the LA grant applications system , over and above RCT Homes’s commitment to the provision of adaptations to disabled tenants. RCT Homes reports that the main current challenges relate to the increasing demand for adaptations and the pressures that this places on its resources, leading to longer waiting lists.

Bron Afon Community Housing has some 8000 properties in Torfaen. Its board has allocated a specific budget, currently set at £1,300,000 within the business plan for the provision of adaptation works within its housing stock.  An adaptation team has been set up within the internal improvements section of the property department to manage and carry out any adaptation work; this team includes a dedicated occupational therapist tasked to deal with the Association’s own cases, and have an additional OT locum has recently been employed to assist in speeding case turn around times and to clear the backlog of cases. Bron Afon report that historical data and research played a large part in preparing them to set up the adaptation team and identify the need to do this at an early stage.

Merthyr Valleys Homes is a newly-established RSL which will be responsible for about 5000 homes in Merthyr Tydfil.  In its plan it has set aside£100,000 a year to meet the requirements for provision of aids and adaptations. This sum is for adaptations up to £5000, with anything over this being met by Merthyr Tydfil CBC through its disabled facilities grant programme. It appears that this figure of £100,000 was based on expenditure carried out by the Council’s Housing Department in the Housing Revenue Account,  and had been included in the offer document to tenants. However no evidence was given to Merthyr Valleys Homes to support whether this sum was adequate or not. When the funding requirement of the business plan started to get tight and assumptions needed to be revisited, this was one area where challenges arose because the Association did not have any flexibility.