Step 1 - Your Enquiry
You need to contact Leeds Social Care Call Centre on 0113 222 4401. They will advise you and register your details with an Occupational Therapist.
Step 2 - Your Assessment
An Occupational Therapist will arrange a home visit or undertake a telephone assessment. They will:
- Assess your needs and recommend any alterations to your home and prioritise your case.
- The OT will pass on your recommendation to the Adaptations Agency.
- Following Step 2, in accordance with Government legislation, the Adaptations Agency will then generate a Target Date for completion of your adaptation.
To ensure a fair and equitable service the Agency processes grant applications in the order in which they are received.
Your Target Date for completion is calculated based on the case priority given by your Occupational Therapist.
This date is a projected future completion date starting from the date the Agency receives your recommendation from the OT.
The date is a guide only; however the Adaptations Agency does its best to ensure that works are not completed any later than the target completion date.
Step 3 - The Means Test
Your case file will be prepared and passed to one of our Customer Support Officers (CSO) who will arrange a home visit to discuss your finances and establish if you have a contribution to make towards the grant.
They will discuss your adaptation and explain what type of work is involved.
They will also provide you with some documents for your information and ask for your signature on the application forms.
If you are having a bathroom adaptation they will offer and discuss a choice of wall tile and floor covering colour schemes with you.
Our Customer Support Officers are here to support and guide you through the whole process, from the means test to the completion of the works. If you have any questions at any time relating to your grant, including the progression of your application or queries of the work carried out at your home, please contact one of our CSOs on telephone 0113 3951 43 / 44 / 45 .
They will be happy to help and will consult with our surveyors, contractors and colleagues in Social Care on your behalf.
Once your financial details are finalised, the file will be passed to an Agency Surveyor.
Step 4 - The Survey
An Agency Surveyor will arrange a home visit.
They will consult your Occupational Therapist’s recommendations and discuss with you the type of works necessary and suitable to meet your needs.
They will survey and measure the appropriate areas around your home where your adaptations will be situated. After your home visit the surveyor will return to the office, design the scheme and schedule the necessary works required to meet your needs.
All Agency staff who visit your home will carry photo identification and will make it available to you on request. You are quite at liberty to refuse access to your property to anyone who does not present you with acceptable identification.
Please note it is the Adaptations Agency’s policy to propose and design adaptations to meet your needs in the least disruptive, economical and practical way.
Important It is the Agency’s job to ensure we provide the adaptations that are requested by the OT, if this is possible, at your home. The surveyor’s brief is to provide the requested adaptations within the existing footprint of the property whenever possible. The only time consideration is given to designing an extension is when all internal alterations have been considered and are deemed to be unsuitable by the Agency to meet your needs.
Step 5 - Verifying your Finances
Prior to allocating your adaptation to one of the Agency’s approved contractors one of our Customer Support Officers may contact you again by telephone to verify that your financial circumstances haven’t changed since their initial assessment. If your financial circumstances have changed this may alter the amount of your contribution.
If it was established you had a contribution to make Leeds City Council will secure your contribution before your adaptation is allocated to a contractor.
Step 6 - The Work in Your Home
All adaptations are allocated to one of the Agency’s approved contractors.
An approved contractor is a contractor appointed by Leeds City Councils Adaptations Agency to undertake work for people with disabilities. They have undergone a rigorous and lengthy selection process set by the Adaptations Agency and Leeds City Councils Corporate Procurement Unit. They are continually monitored and formally appraised at regular intervals.
Important. If you have any concerns regarding who is visiting or working in your home please contact our help desk immediately and we can quickly make sure the workmen are who they say they are. Telephone 0113 3957146 / 7
- The contractor will contact you by telephone to arrange a suitable start date for your adaptations.
- They may ask to make an initial visit to your home to assess the works first hand. This is common practice.
- All our contractors are expected to carry photo identification and make it available to you for inspection when visiting.
- Dependant on the type of work, the time contractors are at your home will vary. However the adaptation work should be continuous (within working hours) until your adaptation/s is complete.
- Contractors should wherever possible protect furnishings and furniture and provide dust sheets in your home in the areas they are working. On completion of the work, they are expected to tidy up the areas in which they have worked.
During the course of the work an Adaptations Agency Surveyor may call to ensure all works are on programme. If you have any questions or concerns during the course of the works please do not hesitate to contact your surveyor. At your request they will leave you one of their business cards containing their contact details.
Step 7 - Completion of the work
Once the contractor has completed your adaptation/s their Contract Manager will undertake a final inspection to ensure the work is completed to a satisfactory standard, before notifying the Adaptations Agency.
Once we have been notified the works have been completed by the contractor, our Agency Surveyor will arrange to visit you to make the final inspection. Once the Surveyor is satisfied the works are to specification you will be asked to sign off the work on our Final Payment form.