Agenda item

The Strategic Housing Services Manager provided an overview of the Disabled Facilities Grants (DFG). It was noted that these were mandatory grants to support the provision of adaptations to promote independent living within the home, subject to the provisions of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996.

It was explained that the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) provided each local authority in England with a DFG allocation contained within the Better Care Fund paid to the County Council and passported to Local Housing Authorities (including Bromsgrove).

It was explained that the grant was means-tested and there was a robust process followed to arrive at grant allocation decisions, starting with a comprehensive assessment of the applicant’s needs.

It was noted that it was considered good practice to offer a Home Improvement Agency (HIA) service to support an accepted applicant and their family through the complicated process of carrying out major building works. In Worcestershire a partnership of the 6 Local Housing Authorities and Worcestershire County Council commissioned a HIA referred as the Worcestershire Promoting Independent Living Service and this was provided by Millbrook Health Care under a contract until March 2025.

Performance data was provided on the use of DFG in 2022-23, including on the types of building jobs carried out to enable a home adaptation, expenditure on the home adaptations by type, breakdown of the types of recipients of DFG by tenure and breakdown by age. It was noted that over 50 per cent of DFGs were for bathroom and stairlift adaptations.

Following the presentation, Members asked questions regarding the DFG and the following responses were noted:

• Review of maximum amount of DFG grant amount that can be awarded – It was noted that the current maximum amount of DFG grant that can be awarded to an individual was £30,000 and currently there were no discussions nationally around increasing that amount. However, the Council had the power to provide discretionary top-ups to DFG grants.

• Resistance of landlords to providing adaptations through DFG grant – It was noted that in cases where recipients of DFG grant were living in rented accommodation, the landlord could refuse an adaptation being installed in their property. The Council did not possess powers to force the landlord to have the adaptation installed. However, the Council would discuss the issue with a landlord, explaining why the adaptation was needed and what the benefits they could have from the work undertaken.

• It was highlighted that the Operational Therapists (OT) service used for the DFG provision was specifically used by the Council for provision of DFG service and not shared with NHS Acute Trusts.

• Median delivery times of delivering an adaptation – It was clarified that delivery time of adaptations for DFG recipients were calculated from the time of OT referral to the home improvement agency (HIA) to completion of the works.

• It was noted that there was a statutory requirement for the Council to assess and process DFG applications sent from HIA within 6 months. The Council was on average completing this stage in 11 days.

• It was noted that in the current tender with the HIA, there was a performance management framework which set delivery targets for DFG adaptation works. Foundations, the Government approved HIA, was helping the Council draft the specification for a new tender.

• The Deputy Leader addressed the Board and cited a case work with a resident where it took three years for an adaptation to be installed. The Deputy Leader raised that this was not due to the Council Officers but slow progress made by the current HIA provider, and it was hoped that in the new tender the right performance measures and targets would be included to ensure that HIAs met targets.

• DFG Capital Allocation – It was noted that a total of £745,068.99 Government’s DFG allocation was allocated to recipients in 2022-23. Any unspent amount was carried forward to the next financial year.

• Land charge placed on the property in which adaptations were being done – It was noted that a charge for works from DFG was placed against a property. This meant that if the property where an adaptation had been installed was sold within 10 years, the costs of the works would be recovered from proceeds of the sale.

• A Member made a comment that data in the report was now over 12 months old. It was explained that data up to 31^st March 2024 would become available within the next 6-8 weeks.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.