Home adaptations processes for disabled children in Wales: An investigation into families’ and
professionals’ perspectives: Dr Gail Boniface, Deborah Morgan of Cardiff University.
This research project was funded via the Welsh Government (NISCHR) and carried out by
researchers in Cardiff University in collaboration with Shelter Cymru and Contact a Family Cymru.
Families who wished to be interviewed on their views were accessed through a number of other
organisations and this brief report outlines the main findings of the research for those other
organisations and the families who took part in the research. The research is also being presented at
an occupational therapy conference and will hopefully be published in peer reviewed journals for
the professionals to consider the findings.
The research’s aims were to investigate:
1. Families' perceptions and experiences of the adaptations grants process for disabled
children in Wales; and their reasons for engaging with it or not.
2. Local authority professional staff's (housing grant officers and occupational therapists who
are involved in the assessment, instigation and administration of adaptations grants)
perceptions and experiences of the adaptations grants processes for disabled children in
Wales.
3. The similarities and differences in adaptations grants’ processes and procedures across local
authorities in Wales.
A summary of its findings are: A staff questionnaire was returned by a mix of 39 professionals from
20 of the 22 local authority areas in Wales. It found that despite clear instructions from the Welsh
Government (2015/2016) that the start time of an adaptation funded by a disabled facility grant
should be recorded from the first point of contact, only 45.5% of respondents stated this was the
case in their local authority area. In the other instances (31.8%), the start time was recorded from
the first assessment being carried out (usually by an occupational therapist) and 22.7% as starting
when the grant application was submitted by the family. The questionnaire allowed for comments
from the professionals and these were linked into themes such as: Concern around the time taken
and the timeliness of the adaptation; the complexity of the process; the nature of the housing
tenure and its effect on the process; issues around communication.
48 families were interviewed either in their own homes or via an online questionnaire. The
children’s disabilities included autistic spectrum disabilities, learning disabilities, global
developmental delay, cerebral palsy and some genetic disabilities. Families were generally satisfied
with the adaptations once they had been completed, although many were dissatisfied with the
process they underwent. Not all families described the length of time an adaptation took, but time
and timeliness was identified as a theme. The other main themes were: issues with communication;
the need for a coordinating identified individual whom they often saw as the occupational therapist;
the need for more space than usually initially offered; the need for a professional who understood
the disability; the impact of the adaptation on quality of life, independence and other family
members; families contributing to the cost despite children’s adaptations not being means tested;
passivity of families in the process; the meaning of home rather than a house with a disabled
adaptation.
This project added new information related to adaptations which appear specific to disabled
children rather than the general area of adaptations provision. These are the need for additional
space, thinking ahead/future proofing the adaptation to accommodate the growing child,
understanding of the housing adaptations’ needs of children with autism, the effect of the
adaptation on the rest of the family, autonomy in the decision on the nature of the adaptation, the
initial assessment and (despite the removal of means testing for children’s adaptations) the reality of
families funding aspects of the work themselves.