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Ombudsman recommends changes councils can make on housing allocations to improve services for disabled people
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) has highlighted the issues disabled people face when applying to councils’ housing schemes, in its third good practice guide for housing officers.
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Issues covered in this latest guide include councils’ delays when processing, assessing and reviewing medical assessments and housing applications by disabled people.
The Ombudsman calls on councils not to rely solely on advice from external medical advisors, many of whom it said never see the disabled person or their living arrangements.
Instead, councils are asked to retain sufficient discretion within the allocations scheme to be able to take into account people’s individual circumstances.
Cases mentioned in the guide include one where a resident applied to join a council’s housing register, providing evidence to show his current accommodation was affecting his mental health.
The council concerned took an initial three months to assess his application and then took a further seven months to complete a review, which found the resident needed to move to accommodation suitable for his mobility needs.
This delay in carrying out the review prevented the resident from bidding for suitable properties.
Amerdeep Somal, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “All too often we see councils not treating people – including disabled people – as individuals with their own set of personal circumstances when processing applications to housing allocations schemes.
“We have seen cases where local authorities have relied too heavily on independent medical reports to make a decision about a person’s priority, without taking a broader look at that person’s circumstances.
“And we have also seen officers stick too rigidly to flawed beliefs about their councils’ schemes, and assessing people’s applications against the wrong criteria.”
She added: “Our new Guide contains a number of useful recommendations that councils can use to take stock of the services they offer. It distils the key learning points into just a few pages and I would urge officers and decision makers who have responsibility for housing applications to have a read and see if their services could be improved.”
The LGSCO’s earlier guides covered access to homelessness support services and disabled facilities grants.
Harry Rodd
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