When caring for a child with additional needs, ensuring they have the right equipment and adaptations in their home is crucial for their safety, comfort, and independence. Whether you are a parent or professional working with children, understanding the process of obtaining an assessment is key.
Understanding the need for equipment and adaptations for use in the home
Children with physical or developmental disabilities may need specialised equipment or adaptations to help them carry out daily tasks.
These are designed to:
- Enhance the child’s independence
- Improve safety within the home environment
- Support parents or caregivers in their care duties
- Enable children to participate more fully in family and community life.
If any support or equipment is required for outside the home, such as equipment for educational settings or sensory integration assessments, this is the responsibility of Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. For more information, please refer to WWL Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Children’s Occupational Therapy Service (external link)
If the child requires an assessment for support relating to a visual or hearing loss, please refer to our hearing and vision support (0-19 years) webpage.
If the child is aged 18 plus, please refer to the information on our equipment and adaptations for adults webpage.
Information and advice
Ask Sara (external link) is an on-line self-help tool which allows you to source your own solutions quickly. It provides tips, advice and guidance including what equipment or adaptations are available to support people. All you need to do is to answer a few simple questions about the child’s support needs.
If Ask Sara does indicate a full independent assessment of the child’s needs would be beneficial, or if you feel an assessment is required, please make a referral to Wigan Council’s Paediatric Early Intervention Occupational Therapists, contact details can be found below.
If the family are considering purchasing a new home, we are also happy to provide advice, support, and guidance around the suitability of potential future properties and any adaptations the child may need. Ideally, advice should be sought before making any offers on potential new properties.
For general enquiries about equipment and adaptations in the home, please complete our general enquiries form. We aim to respond to all enquiries within five working days.
Who can request an assessment?
- If you are a parent or guardian, you can make a referral by contacting our Children First Partnership Hub on 01942 828300. You will be asked a series of questions to help us to understand your child’s needs. This information will be sent across to Wigan Council’s Paediatric Early Intervention’s Occupational Therapist team who are responsible for carrying out home assessments
- For Professionals - doctors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, Family Hub, or any other professionals working or involved with the child, you can make a referral by completing the on-line professional referral form.
What will happen?
On receipt of the referral into the Early Intervention service, the referral will be screened. Depending on the child’s needs and demand at the time of referral, there may be a short wait for an assessment. A waiting list letter will be sent out containing useful information. Waiting list letters are not sent out for children placed on our priority waiting list as they are likely to be seen within a couple of weeks.
When the Occupational Therapist (OT) visits to undertake the assessment, they will visit the child at home and gather information about the child’s health, lifestyle, abilities and what the goals are e.g. bathing safely. The OT will evaluate the child’s abilities and challenges. This may involve asking to demonstrate how the child and the caregiver manage daily tasks in and around the home. They may also ask for input from other professionals who have been involved with the child e.g. Health Therapists, GPs etc. The OT will also consider the needs of the caregiver to ensure any recommendations not only support the child’s independence, but also make caregiving tasks easier and safer.
Support options may include:
- Provision of equipment such as supportive seating, or a mobile hoist and slings for safe moving and handling (excludes health equipment)
- Provision of minor or major adaptations in the home such as grab rails, level access shower, ramps
- Providing advice and guidance, for example, this could be around alternative methods of managing daily living tasks
- Providing assistive technology devices
- Referring to other relevant services, agencies, or charitable organisations.
Equipment
Specialist equipment is available for children with a disability or additional needs, both with or without an Education Health and Care (EHC) plan. Equipment is essential for some children to live their life safely and independently within their home setting. If the child is assessed as needing a large, specialist item of equipment, this may need to be ordered from a specialist supplier so may take a little time to arrive. There is no cost for equipment as it is considered on long term loan. If the child outgrows their equipment, a re-assessment can be requested.
Minor adaptations
The child may be assessed as requiring adaptations to the home. Sometimes, just minor adaptations are needed and at other times, more major changes may be required to the home. Minor adaptations are described as ‘simple’ adaptations which include grab rails, garden rails, window/door locks, secure fencing etc. Small minor adaptations are generally completed within 28 days following placing of the order. More bespoke minor adaptations can take longer. We aim to prioritise requests that indicate a more urgent need and therefore provision can be much quicker than this. There is no charge for adaptations costing under £1,000.
Major adaptations
Major adaptations are defined as larger adaptations such as ramps, showers (wet rooms), stairlifts, ceiling track hoists, through floor lifts, internal alterations, and extensions. A major adaptation is anything costing over £1000.
If the child is assessed as needing a major adaptation, the process is different depending on who owns the home.
Council properties
If the property is council-owned, recommended adaptations costing less than £10,000 will be arranged. For adaptations costing more than £10,000, we will work closely with the family and Housing Services to explore solutions. Potential solutions could be moving to a more suitable home environment to support the child’s independence and wellbeing or adapting the current home. Whilst exploring these options, consideration will be given to individual circumstances. As a council tenant, there is no charge for recommended adaptations in the home and the works are organised by Wigan Council. Council tenants do have the right to be considered for a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG). However, we work in such a way that, regardless of tenure, any resident that requires consideration for adaptations will be supported to meet their physical and environmental need as established as part of the Early Intervention assessment.
Private properties:
If the house is rented from a private landlord or the home is privately owned, adaptations are funded by a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG). To find out more information on DFGs, visit Disabled Facilities Grants: Overview - GOV.UK (external link). The maximum grant is currently £30,000. For children, we have discretionary funding in place for costs over £30,000 for recommended adaptations. For Housing Association properties, we request joint funding via the DFG and the Housing Association. The child’s adaptation will be organised by Wigan Council, though families have the option to organise their own private schemes in some circumstances.
Where it is not feasible to adapt a property safely or adequately, we will provide advice, information, and support to families to identify alternative solutions.
Next steps to the adaptation process
There are agreed timescales for each part of the adaptation process that we have control of, for example stairlifts need to be manufactured to requirements and more complex adaptations (such as property extensions) require architect sketches and are usually subject to the planning application process.
Requests for clinical emergencies and cases involving life limiting conditions are marked as urgent/priority and we look to process these cases before standard cases. Early Intervention will provide contact details for the Adaptation team who will work closely with the family and contractors throughout the process.
Contact information to request an occupational therapy assessment
Parent or guardian: Please ring the Children First Partnership Hub on 01942 828300.
Professionals: Complete the on-line professional referral form.
Contact information for general enquiries
For general enquiries about equipment and adaptations in the home, please complete our general enquiries form. We aim to respond to all enquiries within five working days.