What are the case studies

doing that might provide

lessons for other areas

To aid localism a number of services had made use of the Regulatory Reform

Order to develop a Housing Assistance Policy which provided additional

discretionary top-ups for DFG funding or reduced means testing for lower

cost work.

Several services undertook community awareness-raising to improve access

to services, particularly focusing on high-need or underserved populations.

Setting up facilities in which clients could see and try out home adaptations

could reduce some of the barriers to using home improvement services.

There were several examples of new and innovative services which may

provide relevant lessons to other areas. All case studies were proactive in

seeking a range of supplementary funding streams which could fund these

services. Hoarding interventions had been developed in several areas, with the

best services taking a therapeutic approach rather than focusing solely on

clearance. Partnerships around hospital discharge were another growth area,

requiring strong relationships with the NHS, presence to build up awareness

and service referrals, and a highly responsive minor adaptations service.

Some areas were developing interventions related to hazards and condition

such as damp and mould, and hazards in the private rented sector. There

were also some examples of support for moving to more appropriate homes,

recognising that moving to adapted or more easily adaptable homes could

be beneficial for clients.

Services were investing in skills and training to avoid bottlenecks in the

system, for example using Trusted Assessors, and developing new specialist

technical roles to support the retrofit agenda.

There were several financing models, including paid-for services which could

subsidies other activities, and a range of loan offers that could help to unlock

the funding to undertake home improvements.

Evaluation and data were being used to design services and demonstrate

their impact. There were some examples of increasing customer feedback

data and building evaluations into pilot programmes.