Agenda item

To consider progress against the recommendations arising from the Disabled Facilities Grants Review. 

60.1           Attention was drawn to the report of the Interim Head of Community Services, circulated at Pages No. 63-69, which set out the progress against the recommendations arising from the Disabled Facilities Grants Review.  Members were asked to consider the report.

60.2           Members were reminded that a review of the way in which the Council delivered Disabled Facilities Grants had been undertaken by an Overview and Scrutiny Committee Working Group in 2015/16 and the review report had been adopted by the Executive Committee on 6 April 2016.  The table at Appendix 1 to the report showed the progress that had been made against actions contained within the report.  The review had highlighted the need to change certain processes and ways of working and it was noted that a named Officer working within the Housing Enabling team now worked with new case referrals in order to check whether moving to more suitable accommodation would be a better outcome.  This action was known to have saved the Council at least £6,000 to date and particular reference was made to a case where a landlord thought it was inappropriate for a property to be adapted to install a walk-in shower.  The client had been given close support to make an informed decision as to what they would like to do and had subsequently moved to a bungalow which had already been adapted; feedback was that, whilst they had not originally considered this as an option, they were very pleased with their new home.  In terms of the second action, which related to methods of procuring work such as schedules of rates and preferred contractors, discussions had taken place with Severn Vale Housing Society Ltd around sharing resources and information.  Going forward the Council may wish to consider whether Severn Vale, or another housing organisation, might be able to assist the local authority in discharging its statutory duty in respect of Disabled Facilities Grants.  These discussions were still at an early stage, with negotiations ongoing within One Legal and Finance, and it was hoped that it would be brought to a conclusion by April as this would coincide with the end of the six month contract of the employee who had been brought in to deliver Disabled Facilities Grants following the retirement of the Officer who had previously been responsible.

60.3           Members were advised that action three had been completed; this related to the review of existing paperwork connected with the Disabled Facilities Grants process.  The fourth action, around exploring the further use of technology to speed up the process, had been expanded to include all aspects of Environmental Health delivery.  This was being monitored by the corporate project board and initial results were expected in the New Year.  With regard to action five, using learning gained from the review to inform local health and wellbeing plans, strategies and processes, it was noted that the report had been shared widely and the outcomes had been used to inform a current review by Supporting People around helping people to live independently.  Action six was to review the impact of the other actions on the costs of delivering the service and to subsequently reduce the Council’s capital contribution due to depleting capital resources.  As actions two and four had not been completed, this could not yet be quantified, however, there could be savings as a result of action five as Tewkesbury Borough Council currently contributed £45,000 to the ‘Safe at Home’ Home Improvement Agency and the County Council had resolved not to re-tender for that service.

60.4           A Member indicated that he had sat on the Working Group and pointed out that there had been a lot of ‘red tape’ so it had been fairly straightforward to streamline the processes.  Whilst he could understand the reasons behind the slippages in some of the actions, he felt that it was important that these did not go on beyond 12 months if the Council wanted to become more efficient in this area.  The Environmental Health Manager explained that this was the reason behind including a target date for each action; he hoped that they would be delivered sooner than suggested, however, a lot was down to working with partners and this could be difficult to influence.

60.5           It was

RESOLVED          That the progress against the recommendations arising from the Disabled Facilities Grants Review be NOTED.