Agenda item - Housing Adaptations Service Update

Report referred from the meeting of the Housing & New Homes Committee on 17 June 2015 for information; together with an extract from the proceedings of the meeting (copy attached).

12.1         The Executive Director for Adult Services introduced the paper which provided an update on the Housing Adaptations Service for 2014/15, including Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) investment in private sector housing.  She stated that the Housing & New Homes Committee had considered a report at its meeting on the 17^th June and referred it to the Board for information; and noted that an extract from the minutes of the meeting had been included in the agenda papers.

12.2         Councillor G. Theobald noted that there was a significant under-spend for disabled adaptations in private sector homes and asked how this was being addressed.

12.3         The Executive Director for Adult Services stated that there was a need to encourage landlords to undertake works so that greater provision could be made.

12.4         Frances McCabe noted that adaptations were important in terms of enabling people to return to their homes and queried whether there was any information on the impact of this and whether in the future adaptations would be made to meet needs.

12.5         The Executive Director for Adult Services stated that a lot of work was being done to reach the lifetime homes standard but that the DFG was not really the mechanism to enable people to return to their homes.

12.6         The Chair noted that the Housing & New Homes Committee had expressed concerns about the level of delayed discharges because of the need for improvements/adaptations to be made and suggested that he should discuss this further with the Chair of the Committee and report back to the Board.

12.7         RESOLVED:

(1)   That the paper and extract from the Housing & New Homes Committee meeting be noted; and

(2)   That is be noted that the Chair of the Board would discuss the concerns of the Housing & New Homes Committee with its Chair and report back to a future meeting of the Board.