18.11.15
New evidence that home adaptions can alleviate pressures on NHS and care budgets
Elderly people who have had adaptations made to their home via the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) move into residential care around four years later than those who have not, an investigation has found.
The study, by the national body for home improvement agencies, Foundations, also showed that people who access the grant – provided within the NHS Better Care Fund managed jointly by the NHS, social services and CCGs – can benefit from substantial financial savings.
Recently absorbed by the NHS, DFG is the main source of government support for home adaptations, injecting £220m into the Fund for 2015-16. The average grant costs less than £7,000, compared to residential care costs averaging £29,000 annually.
Older people or those with disabilities can apply for a grant to make changes to their homes, such as widen doors, install ramps, improve access to rooms and facilities, enhance the heating system and adapt lighting controls.
To investigate the benefits of the grant, Foundations sent a Freedom of Information request to all councils in England with social care duties asking them to analyse the care needs of people depending on whether they had previously applied for a DFG to pay for adaptations.
Within residential care, those who had previously received a DFG moved into care around their 80th birthday, staying there for two years. Those who had not applied for the grant moved when they were 76 and stayed for around six years.
Council figures also indicated that those who need care at home require less hours of home help after adaptations, trimming around £1,300 every year.
And with government guidance recommending that adaptations be considered in future spending plans, DFG could be used to mitigate growing pressures on the NHS and social care budgets.
Paul Smith, Foundations director, said: “It makes sense that adapting your home means that you can live there independently for longer, but this research indicates that modifications such as stairlifts, level access showers and ramps really do help to delay people moving into care homes – by four years.
“We have an ageing population and this brings growing financial pressure on both the public purse and the finances of individuals. That’s why enabling people to live in their own homes has never been more important – home adaptations via DFG offer a cost-effective and empowering solution.”
There is an interview with Smith about the benefits of home adaptations for the NHS in the current edition of NHE’s sister title, Public Sector Executive.
Councils are also now able to link adaptations to social care spend, even though most local authorities use different recording systems that could not be readily linked in the past.
The new ability to link up data could allow commissioners to look for evidence of impact in order to back up increasingly difficult spending decisions.
Smith said: “It’s a requirement of the Better Care Fund for the NHS and social care to link their information system using the NHS number. I would like to see this extended to the IT systems used to manage DFG applications and other housing interventions so that all local authorities can track the benefits and also start to target people who may be at premature risk of moving into residential care.”