Adaptions to your home (Accessible Homes Team)

Adaptions and Equipment from the Accessible Homes Team

If your child has a disability they could be eligible for adaptations or equipment provided by Kirklees Council funded through the Disabled Facilities Grant. You are eligible for this funding if you are private homeowner, private tenant or council tenant.

The team who provide this support are called the Accessible Homes Team.

The Accessible Homes Team can also provide adaptions and equipment for over 18’s too.

There is also the Disabled Facilities Grants which can be applied for to help fund the changes to your home more information can be found on Disabled Facilities Grants | Finance and benefits | Kirklees SEND Local Offer (kirkleeslocaloffer.org.uk) (opens link in new window)

You may be able to receive help to allow your child to:

Safely access the property including ramping, step lifts, shallow steps and hand rails
Door widening to facilitate wheelchair access to rooms within the home.
Safely access their bedroom and bathroom
Safety adaptations and equipment to prevent your child from leaving the home unsupervised. We also provide equipment to keep your child from hurting themselves at home such as wall padding and window protectors
Ground floor bedroom and bathrooms
Bathroom adaptations to increase independence bathing and toileting

If you are struggling to care for your child or keep your child safe due to your physical home environment please get in touch with the Accessible Homes Team on 01484 225 335.

You can also email them at AHT@kirklees.gov.uk

We accept self-referrals from parents & carers so you can call to speak to our duty officers from Monday – Friday 10:00- 15:00 to submit a referral on behalf of your child. Our duty officers will ask you for information regarding your child’s medical diagnosis and a brief summary of the issues that are experienced at home. Once the referral is received it will be allocated to a member of the paediatric assessment team who will get in touch with you to arrange an assessment (this may now take place over the phone).

The team can also accept referrals over the phone for young people over 18’s from the person themselves.

During the assessment the assessor will aim to gain a more in-depth picture of your child’s function within the home. This will include asking about your child’s mobility and behaviours. This will be a time for you to discuss with us your concerns and help us understand your child better so we can suggest the best solutions for your child and your family. It may be a simple solution which is needed or a more complex solution which could involve building works within the property.

How can the team help children with SEND?

A seven year old boy who has been diagnosed with Autism (ASD) who was referred to our service to help with keeping him safe at home. He was a very active boy who enjoyed being outside and bouncing on his trampoline, however the fence wasn’t very secure and he could escape quite easily and his parents were worried that he would run onto the main road as he had no road safety awareness. Inside the home he enjoyed spending time in his room, he loved climbing and would climb onto his windowsill and bang the windows hard with his hands, mum was worried he would break the window and fall from the first floor or cut himself. Whenever he got into the bathroom he would turn on every tap and splash water all over the floor, at times this water would leak down into the kitchen ceiling.

When we received the referral we called his mum and made an appointment to come out. We spoke about his medical history and his function and behaviours within the home along with his likes and dislikes. I discussed with mum the options that we could offer and we made a plan to put secure safety fencing in the garden which we make it less likely that he would escape. We also showed mum window protectors which are material covers that protect the window, meaning that he couldn’t climb onto the windowsill and also couldn’t bang the window making sure that the glass window wouldn’t break. In the bathroom I discussed with mum the option of raising the door handle so Matthew could only access the bathroom with supervision and putting non-slip waterproof flooring in the bathroom to prevent flooding and provide a non-slip surface if the floor did get wet.

The adaptations enabled him to access all areas of the house safely and play in the secure garden. Here are some images of what we achieved.

Adaptions and Equipment from the Accessible Homes Team

How can the team help children with SEND?

Useful links

William Merritt Centre