Case studies for comissioners
Rochdale Home Improvement Agency is responsible for delivering major adaptations in the public and private sectors of the Borough of Rochdale.
The agency has many innovative ways of dealing with major adaptations, such as:
a stairlift recycling programme
the use of modular buildings in some cases rather than traditional build (they now have three pods in place)
an adaptations panel
introduction of an equity release product
policy changes to include discretionary ‘top up’ grants if the cost of work exceeds the maximum grant level, and
customer choice (for example, if a customer would prefer an extension to meet their needs rather than a vertical lift and is willing to pay the difference in cost to achieve this).
Rochdale Home Improvement Agency has closely monitored changes to the DFG programme so that policies and procedures can be amended quickly to take account of them. Financial implications are highlighted as soon as possible so that additional resources can be secured if necessary (for example, when means testing for children’s adaptations was abolished, additional resources were needed to cover what would have been parental contributions).
The service displays high levels of customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction surveys are sent out to every customer at the end of the adaptation. Results show that satisfaction with the overall process is between 95% and 98%, and the service regularly receives positive feedback from clients.
Since the agency started providing adaptations nine years ago, it has been striving to improve upon waiting times and reduce the numbers of people waiting for major adaptations. Year on year, benchmarking has indicated that the time taken between various stages of the process has been cut and waiting times for assessments have decreased, partly due to the agency employing an occupational therapist to work specifically on the waiting list for those customers identified as only having adaptations needs. The introduction of customer support officers to chase progress has led to improvements in waiting lists, as have changes to the way in which the agency manages their list of approved contractors.
