Help for disabled council tenants
Help currently available for disabled Council tenants includes:
- Equipment to help with day to day living
- Small and large adaptations for your home
If you are a City Council tenant and have a disability we may be able to help by:
- Providing aids to daily living
- Adapting your present home
- Or moving you to an already suitably adapted home.
How you get these services will depend on what you need. You should apply by contacting the Adults and Housing department.
Aids for daily living
For aids to daily living, such as commodes and raised toilet seats, apply to:
Aids for daily living
For aids to daily living, such as commodes and raised toilet seats, apply to:
| Name: | Adult Access Team |
| Address: | 1 Grey Friars, Leicester LE1 5PH |
| Telephone: | 0116 253 1191 |
| Email: |
Baths and showers
If you are having difficulty bathing, we may be able to install an over-bath shower or remove the bath and fit a level access walk in-shower instead.
For showers apply to your local neighbourhood housing office
Other adaptations
Other types of adaptations, such as grab rails, ramps, stair lifts, etc, may also be available.
You should apply to the Adult Access Team (see contact details above).
What happens once I've applied?
If you've applied for aids to daily living, they will arrange for an assessment of your needs to be carried out.
They will then either:
- Arrange for the necessary equipment to be provided, or
- If you need some minor adaptation in your home, such as grab rails, they will arrange for housing staff to carry out the work, or
- If major work is needed they will ask for a Housing technician to visit your home with an occupational therapist to work out the best way of meeting your needs. The occupational therapist will arrange the visit with you.
If you've applied for a shower, a Technician will visit your home and discuss the possibilities with you and agree the new layout for your bathroom.
Once funding is available we will arrange for the work to be done.
If you have applied for other types of adaptations, staff will arrange for an assessment of your needs to be undertaken.
A Community Care Worker or an Occupational Therapist will arrange a time with you and will then come and visit you at home and assess what is needed.
After this assessment visit, arrangements will be made for a Community Care Worker or Occupational Therapist and Housing Technician to visit to see if your home can be adapted to meet your needs.
If your home can be readily adapted to meet your needs, they will discuss the various options with you and with your help make a decision on the work that will be done.
If, on the other hand, your home needs major adaptation or is not suitable for adaptation they will discuss with you what the options are. These may include a move to a more suitable property, possibly using the adapted Housing Matching Service to find a property that has already been adapted and would be a good match for your needs.
Adapting your home
If the decision is made to adapt your existing home to meet your needs, the Technician and Community Care worker or Occupational Therapist will, with your help, decide on the work needed.
Having agreed a sketch plan, the Technician, Community Care Worker or Occupational Therapist will visit you at home to discuss the proposals with you.
The adaptation work is then dealt with by Housing in priority points order (as assessed by the Occupational Therapist). People with the most urgent need, and therefore the highest number of points, are dealt with first.
The amount of work we can undertake each month depends on how much funding is available and how complicated the adaptations are for each property. These factors, plus the points system for deciding on the priority for each person, mean that it is impossible to tell you a long time in advance exactly when the work will be done. As soon as we do know, we will let you know.
Larger adaptations, such as extensions, will also need Planning Permission and/or Building Control approvals. If this is the case, working drawings and a written specification will be prepared.
The Technician and Community Care Worker or Occupational therapist will visit you at home again, so you can discuss the plans. They will also let you know how your case is progressing. You will be asked to sign the plans, to show that you agree with the proposed work.
If there are any minor changes to the design at this stage they can be done. It is important that you raise any questions or problems before you sign the drawings, since once the work has started it becomes far more difficult to make any changes. Changes after you have agreed the drawing can cause delays, additional disruption to your home and additional costs to the City Council.
If you are unsure about anything please do ask at this stage our staff will be happy to answer your questions and sort out any problems.
The Technician will then make any final minor alterations to the drawing and specification and if necessary apply for Planning Permission or Building Control approval. While we wait for planning approval we will also ask contractors to provide quotes for the work.
Once we have the prices and any relevant approvals we will then give an order to a contractor to do the work.
If you are having a large amount of work carried out, we'll make an appointment for the contractor and the Housing Technician to visit you, to show the contractor what work is required. We'll agree a start date for the work either at this meeting or the contractor will get in touch with you directly to arrange a convenient start date and give you some idea of how long the work should take.
Before the work starts
It may be that there is furniture, ornaments or carpets in the way of the work, and they will have to be moved before the work can be started. Arranging for them to be removed and returned or refitted is your responsibility. (Neither our staff, nor our contractors can re-fit carpets or floor coverings for you).
Usually tenants ask their friends, relatives or neighbours to help with this. If in the event this is not possible and you leave it to the contractors to move your belongings, you need to understand that we are not insured for them to do this work and any accidental damage to your property will not be covered. You will not be able to claim for the replacement of your property nor for any compensation.
While the work is being done
There is likely to be some disruption to your daily routine and some inconvenience to your family while the work is being done, although we will do our best to keep this to a minimum.
There may be some dust and mess. This will be kept to a minimum and we will clear away any rubbish. However, you will inevitably need to do some cleaning once the work has been completed.
If the work involves removing walls or baths, or repositioning toilets or other fittings, you may find that your existing floor covering will no longer fit. You will be responsible for replacing your floor covering if you want new ones.
If the decoration to the rooms where the adaptation work has been carried out has been affected we will redecorate them for you at no cost to yourself.
You may be asked to sign a disclaimer letter agreeing to these conditions before the adaptation work is started. This is to confirm that you have read and understood the conditions outlined above, so you don't have to face any unexpected surprises while the work is being done.
If you have any questions or problems before or during the work, please do not hesitate to call 0116 252 6162. We will do our best to answer your questions and solve any problems.
Once the work has been completed
The Housing Technician and Community Care Worker or Occupational Therapist who have been working on your adaptation will visit you again, to check that the work is up to a satisfactory standard and that you are happy with the adaptation.
Once funding is available we will arrange for the work to be done.
If you have applied for other types of adaptations, staff will arrange for an assessment of your needs to be undertaken.
A Community Care Worker or an Occupational Therapist will arrange a time with you and will then come and visit you at home and assess what is needed.
After this assessment visit, arrangements will be made for a Community Care Worker or Occupational Therapist and Housing Technician to visit to see if your home can be adapted to meet your needs.
If your home can be readily adapted to meet your needs, they will discuss the various options with you and with your help make a decision on the work that will be done.
If, on the other hand, your home needs major adaptation or is not suitable for adaptation they will discuss with you what the options are. These may include a move to a more suitable property, possibly using the adapted Housing Matching Service to find a property that has already been adapted and would be a good match for your needs.
Adapting your home
If the decision is made to adapt your existing home to meet your needs, the Technician and Community Care worker or Occupational Therapist will, with your help, decide on the work needed.
Having agreed a sketch plan, the Technician, Community Care Worker or Occupational Therapist will visit you at home to discuss the proposals with you.
The adaptation work is then dealt with by Housing in priority points order (as assessed by the Occupational Therapist). People with the most urgent need, and therefore the highest number of points, are dealt with first.
The amount of work we can undertake each month depends on how much funding is available and how complicated the adaptations are for each property. These factors, plus the points system for deciding on the priority for each person, mean that it is impossible to tell you a long time in advance exactly when the work will be done. As soon as we do know, we will let you know.
Larger adaptations, such as extensions, will also need Planning Permission and/or Building Control approvals. If this is the case, working drawings and a written specification will be prepared.
The Technician and Community Care Worker or Occupational therapist will visit you at home again, so you can discuss the plans. They will also let you know how your case is progressing. You will be asked to sign the plans, to show that you agree with the proposed work.
If there are any minor changes to the design at this stage they can be done. It is important that you raise any questions or problems before you sign the drawings, since once the work has started it becomes far more difficult to make any changes. Changes after you have agreed the drawing can cause delays, additional disruption to your home and additional costs to the City Council.
If you are unsure about anything please do ask at this stage our staff will be happy to answer your questions and sort out any problems.
The Technician will then make any final minor alterations to the drawing and specification and if necessary apply for Planning Permission or Building Control approval. While we wait for planning approval we will also ask contractors to provide quotes for the work.
Once we have the prices and any relevant approvals we will then give an order to a contractor to do the work.
If you are having a large amount of work carried out, we'll make an appointment for the contractor and the Housing Technician to visit you, to show the contractor what work is required. We'll agree a start date for the work either at this meeting or the contractor will get in touch with you directly to arrange a convenient start date and give you some idea of how long the work should take.
Before the work starts
It may be that there is furniture, ornaments or carpets in the way of the work, and they will have to be moved before the work can be started. Arranging for them to be removed and returned or refitted is your responsibility. (Neither our staff, nor our contractors can re-fit carpets or floor coverings for you).
Usually tenants ask their friends, relatives or neighbours to help with this. If in the event this is not possible and you leave it to the contractors to move your belongings, you need to understand that we are not insured for them to do this work and any accidental damage to your property will not be covered. You will not be able to claim for the replacement of your property nor for any compensation.
While the work is being done
There is likely to be some disruption to your daily routine and some inconvenience to your family while the work is being done, although we will do our best to keep this to a minimum.
There may be some dust and mess. This will be kept to a minimum and we will clear away any rubbish. However, you will inevitably need to do some cleaning once the work has been completed.
If the work involves removing walls or baths, or repositioning toilets or other fittings, you may find that your existing floor covering will no longer fit. You will be responsible for replacing your floor covering if you want new ones.
If the decoration to the rooms where the adaptation work has been carried out has been affected we will redecorate them for you at no cost to yourself.
You may be asked to sign a disclaimer letter agreeing to these conditions before the adaptation work is started. This is to confirm that you have read and understood the conditions outlined above, so you don't have to face any unexpected surprises while the work is being done.
If you have any questions or problems before or during the work, please do not hesitate to call 0116 252 6162. We will do our best to answer your questions and solve any problems.
Once the work has been completed
The Housing Technician and Community Care Worker or Occupational Therapist who have been working on your adaptation will visit you again, to check that the work is up to a satisfactory standard and that you are happy with the adaptation.