Helping you to live safely in your home

Our enablement service is here to support you if you're struggling with mobility issues, and need adaptations to help with living independently in your current home.

Home adaptations are changes made to to your home to make it safer and easier to move around and do everyday tasks. This is usually required if you or someone in your household is disabled or their mobility is impaired.

We provide two types of adaptations; minor and major. 

  • Minor adaptations

    Minor adaptations are smaller works that typically cost less than £1000 and are paid for by West Kent. These can include:

    • Grab rails – usually near a bath, shower, toilet, or door
    • Drop down rails – usually near a toilet
    • Hand rails – to make stairs and steps safer
    • Half steps –  to make it easier for you to safely move around your home
    • Lever taps – to make it easier to turn taps on and off.
  • Minor equipment

    We are also able to assess for and provide some minor equipment.

    Our enablement team is community equipment assessor trained and have access to Kent County Council provided equipment.

    Some examples of community equipment that we can assess are:

    • Raised toilet seat
    • Toilet frame
    • Bath board
    • Perching stool

    An occupational therapist would be required to carry out an assessment for more specialist equipment such as hoists, lifting equipment, wheelchairs, and mobile shower chairs.

  • Major adaptations

    Major adaptations are usually major changes to your home which will typically cost more than £1000. These adaptations would need to be recommended by an occupational therapist via Kent County Council.

    These can include:

    • Level access shower - making it safer and easier for you to wash if have you have mobility issues
    • Stair lift or through-floor lift: making a big difference to allow you to safely access the upstairs rooms of your home
    • Complex ramping - giving improves access to safely access your home if you use a wheelchair or other mobility aids
    • Wheelchair accessible space - spaces within your home designed specifically for wheelchair users
    • Kitchen adaptations - making your kitchen layout it more accessible
    • Specialist toilet facilities - ensuring safety and independence when managing personal hygiene

    These kinds of works often involve structural changes to your home or building. This means we’ll also carry out an asbestos survey if we don’t already have one.

How to apply

  • Minor adaptations

Contact us via our customer services team to let us know you're interested in the service. They'll pass your details onto the enablement team who will be in touch. We may ask for a letter of support from your GP or medical practitioner. 

Minor adaptation requests are usually completed within 2 months of being approved.

  • Major adaptations

Contact Kent County Council’s assessment and enablement team on 03000 416161 and ask for the occupational therapist duty officer, will decide if you have an eligible need following a visit to your home.

We’ll work closely with your occupational therapist to help you get the funding you need, assess your home and decide what adaptations will help you the most.

This includes applying for a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) of up to £30,000 from the local authority to fund the adaptations recommended. These grants are means-tested, so you may have to pay towards the cost depending on your financial situation. However, this does not apply if the adaptation is for a child under the age of 18 or if you are on a qualifying benefit.

Once an application has been formally submitted the local authority has to give a decision within six months and once the grant is approved, work must be completed within 12 months.

What if my home isn't suitable for adaptations?

If your home is unsuitable for adaptations, we’ll discuss other options with you. This may include moving to a more suitable home.

Service highlights

Over the last year, we:

  • Completed 255 minor adaptations, including grab rails, handrails, half steps and other practical improvements.

  • Delivered 97 major adaptations across 71 homes, including level access showers, stairlifts, access improvements and adapted kitchens.

  • Completed 62 Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) cases.

  • Continued to improve the speed of delivering adaptations, with more cases completed within our six-month target timescale.

  • Improved communication with residents throughout the adaptations process to help reduce delays and improve customer experience.

As well as carrying out new adaptations each year, many of our homes already include accessibility features to help residents live safely and independently. The figures below show some of the key adaptations currently installed across our homes.

  • 174 stairlifts

  • 50 through-floor lifts

  • 1247 flush floor showers

  • 40 adapted toilets.

Demand for accessibility adaptations continues to grow, and we are committed to working with residents and partner organisations to ensure homes remain safe, accessible and suitable for people's changing needs.