Let us know if you’re having difficulty getting into the bath; getting on and off the toilet; using your kitchen or coming into and out of your front door.
How we can help
If there are physical barriers that make it difficult for you to live in your council home, you can arrange an assessment with an Occupational Therapist to work out what your needs are.
Once we have a better idea of what you need we get you the right help and advice.
You’ll need to go through an assessment process first.
Arrange an assessment
To arrange an assessment with an Occupational Therapist:
- For an adult, fill in the referral form
- For someone under 18 email: disabledchildren@bristol.gov.uk
What you need to tell us
We’ll need to know your:
- medical details and how these affect you
- contact details; phone number and address
- height and weight
- what you’re having difficulty with
When we’ve looked at your details, we’ll contact you to arrange a date for the assessment.
What happens at the assessment?
The Occupational Therapist will identify what can help you.
This could be one, or a combination of, advice, rehousing, equipment or an adaptation to your home.
If the Occupational Therapist’s assessment shows that you should have an adaption to your home, they’ll make a recommendation to Accessible Homes.
If the assessment shows that you don’t need the adaption this will be explained to you, and advice will be given to help you.
What Accessible Homes does
After the Occupational Therapist makes a recommendation to us a number of checks are carried out.
These include checks that you haven’t broken any conditions of your tenancy, for example not paying your rent or being involved in anti-social behaviour.
If you’ve broken any conditions of your tenancy agreement we’ll need to make sure these are being addressed before we agree to carry out any works.
We also consider how much any adaptations are likely to cost.
If the adaptation costs over £10,000
If the adaptation costs over £10,000, your request will automatically be reviewed by a panel of Occupational Health Therapists, Housing Managers and Accessible Homes that meet every month.
The panel will discuss:
- if the property is suitable for the work you want doing
- if moving could be a better long term solution for you
If your home is under occupied
If your property is not being fully occupied and there are two or more bedrooms which are not being used, we’ll support you to move to another property as an alternative.
How long it takes
Your referral will be dealt with in priority and date order. We’ll tell you how long it’s likely to take once we’ve received the referral from the Occupational Therapist.
Moving to a more suitable property
It may be better for you and your household to move to a property that already meets your needs. It may also be quicker than waiting for your current home to be adapted.
We can help you:
- find a more appropriate property
- make the arrangements to move house
- with the moving costs
If you’d like to find out about moving to a more suitable property email mbus@bristol.gov.uk with your name, address and phone number and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
Doing the work yourself
You’re allowed to make some home improvements yourself. If this feels like something you’d like to do, find out if you need permission and then get permission to make the improvements yourself.