Home improvements and adaptations

Handyperson service

Our handyperson service helps people to keep living independently in their own homes as they grow older or their circumstances change. We focus on adaptations that help to make their surroundings safer and more comfortable. We can also offer information about other services that could help.

If you are an owner-occupier or rent your home from a private landlord and are finding it difficult to get around your home safely, you may qualify for funding for part or all of the adaptations work needed such as a banister rail or grab rail. This will depend on an assessment by a social care professional.

Get in touch with us to find out how we can help.

Major adaptations service

If you are disabled and need to make changes to your home, adaptations could help you get into and around your home more easily.

The service offered varies, but normally covers:

• help in designing a suitable scheme
• identifying solutions
• assisting with grant applications
• selecting a builder
• ensuring that work is carried out properly

Where major adaptations are required, an Occupational Therapist will do an assessment to see what kind of help you need. This will help to determine whether you are entitled to a Disabled Facilities Grant, which can be used to pay for the adaptations.

Major adaptations: Disabled Facilities Grants

Where grants are means tested, we will look at things like your income and your savings to confirm whether you are eligible for a grant.

Disabled Facilities Grants can help fund the following types of work:

• make it easier to get in and out of your home, for example by widening doors and installing ramps
• make sure that you and other people in your home are safe, for example with a room that is specially adapted so that a disabled person can be safely left unattended, or by making improvements to lighting
• improve or provide access to the bedroom, living room, kitchen, toilet, or washing facilities, for example by installing a stair lift or a downstairs bathroom
• improve or provide a suitable heating system
• adapt heating or lighting controls to make them easier to use
• improve access and movement around your home so you can care for someone else who lives there, like a partner, child, or parent
• improve access to and from the garden of your home, if this is possible

Further information

Contact us for further information or request involvement from adult social care.

Find out about Disabled Facilities Grants on the UK government website.