Sustainability
Sustainability
A fairer , more equitable housing and adaptations service
Jenny Haslock looks at work in Leeds to better match people with disabilities to already adapted homes , to meet their physical , psychological , sensory and cultural needs .
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t is recognised that there is a strong link between housing and physical and mental health , and Leeds City Council addresses this through its health and wellbeing strategy . The council has a designated housing occupational therapy team , which is one of many teams that contribute towards a key priority of ‘ improving health through housing ’, with a strong emphasis on being fair , sustainable and inclusive .
The team specialises in matching people with disabilities to already adapted homes to meet their physical , psychological , sensory and cultural needs .
Originally , I was placed within housing to support surveyors advising on larger complex adaptations . It wasn ’ t long before colleagues in lettings began to enquire about what to do with empty properties that had already been adapted .
At this point there was no set process , other than the adaptations being removed and discarded and the properties being returned to their original state . To me this felt wasteful in terms of financial resources and time .
The trial solution was to work closer with the area lettings teams , matching adapted properties to applicants on the housing list with medical needs . It made sense to avoid wasting precious resources and speeding up the rehousing process for those in need .
The trial proved successful and the demand for matching properties increased . By recording what adaptations were being reutilised along with cost savings , helped justify further occupational therapy resources .
With the addition of new team member , Sally , the service began to have a stronger occupational therapy presence , allowing us to develop a more systematic approach . This guided the service in a new direction , promoting the benefits of re-using adapted properties , thus reducing the number of valuable resources , such as stair-lifts , ramp and , wet floor showers from being removed .
It also demonstrated the benefit of rehousing individuals and families that needed more specific adaptations , creating a fairer , more equitable service .
In conjunction with working with Leeds City Council lift section , obsolete or unrepairable stair-lifts and through floor lifts were also being reused for parts for repairs .
Over the past 10 years , we have become more efficient with processes and recording what adaptations have been reused . Dedicated software systems have been put in place linking the housing occupational therapy service to lettings / housing , and we are now a team of 10 , with a range of senior and community occupational therapists , graduates and occupational therapy assistants .
Our cost savings are based on Leeds City Council ’ s average installation cost of each adaptation , along with recording the re let of adapted properties . This supports the team ’ s growth and commitment towards the council ’ s core values of spending money wisely , being fair in the application process of matching customer needs and sustainability in re-using valuable resources ( see below ).
Summary of re-use in terms of resources and cost savings ( figures taken from April 2022 to April 2023 )
Number of adapted properties re let 550 Number of stair-lifts recycled 51 Number of ramps recycled 141 Number of through floor lifts recycled 5 Number of wet floor showers recycled 523 Overall cost savings £ 3,453,422.31
Words JENNY HASLOCK , Senior Housing Occupational Therapist , Health and Housing , Leeds City Council jennifer . haslock @ leeds . gov . uk
September 2023 OTnews 17