Contact Call Derbyshire tel: 01629 533190 and request an assessment of your needs.
The Call Derbyshire service will pass your details on to the appropriate team who will arrange for a worker to undertake the assessment. This may be a phone assessment or a home visit.
You may be visited by either an occupational therapist or community care worker who will assess your needs.
During the assessment, the worker will help you to identify specific goals plus those of any parent or carer. They will work with you to identify things that might help you retain, regain, or develop your independence, including the provision of specialist equipment, support, and if necessary, adaptations.
If an occupational therapist at a hospital has recently assessed you, they can forward their assessment and recommendation to us. If you live in a council house the hospital occupational therapist can send their recommendation for an adaptation direct to the relevant district or borough council housing department (non-complex adaptations only).
If an adaptation is identified as the best way of meeting your needs the worker will either:
- arrange for you to be visited by the relevant people to design and progress your adaptation (Disabled Facilities Grant route)
- make a formal recommendation direct to the district council for them to undertake the work (council housing)
Council housing
If you live in council housing the hospital occupational therapist can send their recommendation direct to the relevant council, with a copy to us. If the recommendation is for a complex adaptation, this may need to go via the relevant social care occupational therapy service.
Privately owned or rented, or housing association
If you're an adult living in privately owned, housing association or private rented accommodation, you'll be issued with a preliminary test of resources form.
Depending on the scale of the proposals, the architects department may be requested to carry out a joint visit with an occupational therapist to begin the design and prepare drawings.
Once the design has been agreed with you and the necessary planning consent (if required) is secured, the work will be put out to tender.
Only when the tenders have been received and the necessary permissions granted can the formal request for a disabled facilities grant be made to the district council.
If you live in privately rented or housing association property you will have to get the owners permission for the proposed work to be undertaken.
Throughout the process an occupational therapist (or community care worker or progress chaser) will keep you informed of the social care responsibilities and any social care actions undertaken on your behalf.
Some district councils work in partnership with a home improvement agency who may be asked to help administer the grants procedures, for example, complete forms and obtain estimates.