Disabled Facilities Grant and Housing Assistance Policy

Having regard to national policy and local needs within Buckinghamshire, the objectives of Buckinghamshire’s Disabled Facilities Grant and Housing Assistance Policy are to:

• improve and protect the physical and mental health of residents
• prevent accidents and premature death
• enable residents to live safely at home, as independently as possible, for longer
• reduce hospital admissions and enable speedy discharge from hospital

The Council will offer the following types of housing assistance grants to meet the objectives set out above:

Essential Adaptation Assistance:

• Mandatory Disabled Facilities Grants
• Disabled Facilities Grant Top-Up Small-scale
• Disabled Facilities Grant

Preventative Assistance:

• Healthy Homes on Prescription Grant
• Better Housing, Better Health Grant
• Handy Helpers
• Flexible Home Improvement Loan

Discretionary Adaptation Assistance:

• Relocation Grant

Appendix 1 sets out the maximum amounts, eligibility criteria, and conditions in relation to each type of assistance.

The Essential Adaptation Assistance grants will deliver adaptations which are mandatory under the Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration Act. The Preventative Assistance is offered to underpin the principles of good early interventions to vulnerable persons to prevent injury or ill health. These are focused to reduce the need for hospital admission, additional medical interventions and services, and to reduce the burden on health and social care services through both direct and indirect savings.

Priority will be given to applications for Essential Adaptation Assistance. Provision of funding for any other assistance or intervention will only be approved where both financial and staff resources permit.

In limited circumstances, the Council’s Grants and Adaptations Manager may agree to offer funding outside of the policy in Appendix 1 (‘Types of Assistance offered’) where a case is exceptional in some way that justifies an exception to the general policy. Where this relates to a value above £50,000 comprised of the maximum amount of mandatory DFG and discretionary Top Up, the consideration will be made by the Service Director for Housing and Strategy in consultation with Adult Social Care Occupational Therapy services.

Staff costs related to the Grants and Adaptations team for providing direct support to applicants for Essential Adaptations and Preventative Assistance may be charged to DFG funding.

Where DFG funding permits and there is no impact on the ability to deliver mandatory DFG, the Council reserves the right to direct funding to support wider social care capital projects in line with the government grant conditions. Such projects may include, but are not restricted to, the cost of clinically prescribed minor works or assistive technology enabled equipment to enable Buckinghamshire residents to remain independent in their own home.