Agenda item

To present the report of the Head of Housing Services.

The report of the Head of Housing Services which updated the Committee on progress with the Housing Service’s review of Performance Indicator 28 (the number of calendar days taken to deliver a Disabled Facilities Grant) was presented for consideration.

The report was presented by Councillor Nicola Roberts, Portfolio Member for Planning, Public Protection and Climate Change on behalf of Councillor Gary Prichard, Portfolio Member for Children, Youth and Housing Services who was unable to be present because of another Council commitment in relation to his portfolio duties. She referred to a statement prepared by Councillor Gary Prichard which confirmed that KPI 28 had been the subject of discussions between himself as the Portfolio Holder and the Head of Housing Services for some time due to concerns that the performance of the indicator was off target. The two main factors in the target not being met are changes in the eligibility criteria leading to an increase in the number of applications for a DFG for adaptations up to a value of £10,000 requiring no means testing, and a lack of contractors to undertake the adaptations work. In an effort to address the latter, a “Meet the Buyer” session for contractors was held in December 2023 and was well attended and expressions of interest were received. Although the performance of the indicator has not reached target in Q3 the trend is Green and the number of calendar days to deliver a DFG has reduced. The situation and data will continue to be monitored to ensure that progress is made and movement is in the right direction.

The Head of Housing Services in confirming the rise in applications for DFGs advised that cases are also becoming more complicated in terms of the nature of the adaptations required and are therefore taking longer to complete. Welsh Government is no longer focusing on the number of days taken to deliver DFGs but is instead looking at DFG expenditure on adaptations. The Housing Service has been collecting information about the performance of other authorities in delivering DFGs so it can benchmark its position and performance against those of other councils.

The following matters were discussed by the Committee –

·      The timeframe for completing the Housing Service’s review of Performance Indicator 28 and the elements of the work that remain to be addressed.

·      Whether other councils are experiencing the same kind of issues in delivering DFGs

·      The extent to which the performance against PI 28 requires a corporate solution.

The Head of Housing Services further advised as follows –

·      That work to review and amend policy has been undertaken and a new revised home adaptations policy will be submitted for approval by the end of the month The Service Level Agreement with the company acting as agent will be formalised and as part of the process a training event for Occupational Therapists in Social Services is planned in April to inform on changes to the policy. The Housing Services has allocated additional administrative resources to deal with DFG applications to improve performance against KPI 28. These are not new posts but involve a redistribution of duties among current staff within the service.

·      That other authorities are also reporting an increase in the number of DFG applications and are experiencing similar capacity issues in undertaking the work. It is fair to say that the challenges faced by Anglesey are being felt across Wales. In terms of tackling the issue, whilst there were positive outcomes from the Meet the Buyer event in December 2023 as regards contractor interest in working with the Council, these will take time to come to fruition.

·      That the main challenge lies in that part of the DFG process that involves assessing the client’s needs, formulating a care plan, obtaining a price for the works to be done and engaging a contractor to undertake those works. Without establishing an in-house team similar to the Housing Maintenance Unit linked to the Council’s own housing stock the scope for corporate intervention and solution is limited.

It was resolved to note progress to date with the Housing Services’ review of Performance Indicator 28 (Disabled Facilities Grants).