Issue - meetings

Members gave consideration to a report which sought approval of a revised Housing Assistance Policy.

The West Lindsey Housing Assistance Policy was approved in 2018. The policy had two different elements; the Independent Living Grants which were funded through the Better Care Fund Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG),  received from Lincolnshire County Council (LCC), and the Capital Grant works, funded via the Council’s Private Sector Renewal Capital Budget.

When the policy had originally been devised, criteria was included to ensure that funding was allocated to the most in need for both grant types. the policy was now a year old and a review was required to ensure that the criteria was still relevant and to look at how more can be done to assist those in need.

Section 4 of the report detailed the revisions made to the Policy and offered rationale for the changes having been made.

In opening the debate, the Opposition Leader expressed concern at the length of time DFG applications took to complete, suggesting that a large number of people died waiting for the adaptations.  Whilst he acknowledged that the lengthiest delay was as a result of the time taken to secure an Occupational Therapist (OT) visit, he questioned why the Authority, despite being aware of the situation did not appear to be putting any pressure on the County Council to try and resolve this situation.

It was questioned whether there were other options the District Council should be considering for example procuring the OTs direct on an ad hoc basis.  Opposition Members were strongly of the view that the most vulnerable people were being failed, and these lengthy delays had impacts across a number of other areas of the NHS.

In response, Officers’ offered assurance that the District Council’s element of the process was being progressed as quickly as possible, and strongly refuted the allegation that a large percentage of people passed away whilst waiting for the grants.  Officers were aware of the delays with OT appointments, but again stressed that this was a statutory function of the County Council, and the District Council’s role was to influence where possible.

Officers indicated they could provide the number of cases open within the District but not across the County, this was county data not accessible by all.

By way of re-assurance the Chairman of the Committee advised he was a member of the Housing Health and Care Delivery Group and outlined some of the work the group were undertaking.  The Group were fully aware of the issues surrounding OTs and had already taken some steps to address the matter.

The reasons for the underspend in this area were explained and this was fundamentally as a result of referrals not being made quick enough.  The District could only commence an adaptation on referral from the County.

In respect of the Private Sector Renewal element of the grant, some councillors expressed concern at the means testing and suggested this should be scrapped, as there was concern this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28