Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) and Other Adaptations: External Review.
This review of was commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care and written by the University of the West of England, Foundations, the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and Ferret Information Systems.
The review examined the operation of the grant and wider delivery of home adaptations to support the independence of disabled people living in their own homes.
It found the delivery of adaptations varies enormously from area to area and there is often a lack of integrated decision making and tracking of impact on those receiving grants.
The report recommends a new Home Independence Transformation Fund, equivalent to 1% of the DFG budget, be set up to help areas develop more integrated services.
Other key recommendations include:
- Annual increases to the DFG upper limit, currently set at £30,000, in line with inflation
- Including DFG in personal budgets and making spending on adaptations part of the social care cap (if the cap is adopted)
- A further five-year funding programme for DFG before the current programme ends in 2020
- Health & Wellbeing Boards should report separately on DFG funding based on ‘the number of people helped to remain independent at home’. They should also review and sign off a single adaptations policy based on local needs
- Renaming DFG as part of a national campaign to raise awareness of the support available
- Replacing current allocation system with a fairer and more transparent funding formula based on local data around the number of people with a disability, income, tenure split and regional building costs
- Introducing a national accreditation scheme for builders and tradespeople carrying out adaptations
- Including a smart home starter kit as part of every DFG application
In total, the review has made 45 recommendations. The government is considering its findings.