Aids and adaptations

What you can expect

Our aim is to deliver a good quality minor aids and adaptations service that is quick and responsive in meeting the needs of you or members of your household.

To do this, we’ll:

• Make a budget available each year
• Provide minor aids and adaptations up to the value of £750

Minor adaptations could include, but not limited to:

• Grab rails
• Lever taps
• Handrails
• Smoke alarms for people with hearing or sight impairments

The number of aids and adaptations we can carry out will be subject to the budget we have available.

• Have trained staff to help identify or position the aid or adaptation which is right for your needs.
• We may ask for an Occupational Therapist’s recommendation to carry out the works to be sure that the aid or adaptation you have requested is right for your particular needs

When you apply for adaptations, we will:

• Provide you with a range of ways to request an aid or adaptation
• Aim to give you a decision in 10 working days on whether the aid or adaptation can be done and aim to complete agreed works within 30 days of the decision
• Arrange a convenient appointment for your aid or adaptation to be installed

Types of adaptations that we cannot provide

Unfortunately we cannot provide major aids and adaptations.

Major adaptations may be carried out by the Local Authority and are usually eligible for a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG).

Major adaptations include, but not limited to:

• Walk-in showers
• Stair lifts

Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) are means tested, therefore, depending on your circumstances you may not be eligible to receive a grant.

If you are awarded a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) your Local Authority will need to request our permission to carry out this work.
We will ensure that our permission will not be unreasonably withheld but it may be conditional on works being carried out to a certain standard.

Major Adaptations which have been installed and following the expiration of the initial warranty period will be adopted by Bernicia.
Our specialist contractors provide a comprehensive repair and service contract which may incur a service charge.
This will be added to your weekly service charge and reviewed on an annual basis.

When working in your home, we will:

• Adopt a professional approach from first contact to the completion of your work
• Introduce ourselves, present photo identification and be clean and tidy in appearance
• Treat your home as thoughtfully as our own – providing dust sheets and offering assistance where required
• Respect your home by not using your facilities, smoking, using inappropriate language, playing loud music or other unacceptable behaviour
• Check finished work for cleanliness and explain how to use new installations

You can help us by:

• Keeping appointments and providing access to your home
• Notifying us as soon as you know you cannot keep an appointment
• Being polite and courteous to our staff
• Completing a customer satisfaction survey after the works are complete
• Providing us with a smoke free work place. We may refuse to carry out work in an area of your home where a member of your family, yourself or a guest in your home is smoking.

We will respect your home at all times while installing aids and adaptions.

Who is eligible for aids and adaptations?

Requests for aids and adaptations will be considered from all our tenants and members of their households if they have:

• A disability
• General mobility needs
• Difficulty managing in their home

How do I apply for aids and adaptations?

If you need an aid or adaptation you should contact us in any of the ways described on the back of this leaflet.
Once we have received your request we will aim to give you a decision within 10 working days. If we agree to carry out any minor adaptations, we will aim to complete it within 30 days of the decision.
For major adaptations, we will issue permission within a 30 day timescale. Once permission has been granted, the adaptation and works are handed by the Local Authority.

What if I am not satisfied with the way you have handled my request?

If you are in any way dissatisfied with how we have handled your request or enquiry about aids and adaptations, then you should pursue this through our Complaints Procedure.
Full details of this procedure are available in our guide ‘Compliments and Complaints’ which is available on request from our Customer Contact Team, on our website and at our head office.
Equally, if you have a compliment about our service, we would be pleased to hear from you.

How can I help you to improve your aids and adaptations service in the future?

After you have had an aid or adaptation completed, we may contact you to ask if you were satisfied with the service. Please take a few minutes to let us know your views.

If you have any comments or suggestions about how we can improve the aids and adaptations service, please tell us and we can consider this.

If we cannot provide the aid or adaptation you need, we will:

• Signpost you to the Local Authority who will guide you through the process
• Not unreasonably withhold permission for any aid or adaptation that you or the Local Authority may wish to install