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Disabled people - home adaptations and aids

An adaptation is a change to your home, which increases your independence or safety in daily activities or helps your carer look after you more easily. Anyone living in the Durham City area who has difficulty with daily living due to illness, age or disability or their carer can apply for an adaptation.

Read more about the Housing Adapation Service [PDF 225.64KB] .

Examples of adaptations are:

• Grab rails / Hand rails
• Stair rails
• Stair lifts
• Ramps
• Level access showers

If you are a Council tenant you can email: adaptations@durhamcity.gov.uk or alternatively fill in an application form for an assessment [PDF 7k] following which the Special Needs Officer will contact you to arrange a visit to carry out an assessment of your need.

If you live in rented accommodation or are an owner occupier, you should contact Social Care and Health on 0845 850 5010 who will then arrange for an Occupational Therapist to visit you at home to carry out an assessment of your need.

An information booklet Housing Adapation Booklet [PDF 416.63KB] is available.

As is common with most of the services the Council provides, we regularly consult with our clients and customers to maintain and wherever possible improve the quality and value of the service we provide.

Housing Adapation Standards [PDF 6.36KB] .

We welcome your suggestions, comments or compliment.

We also publish the results of recent satisfaction surveys and details of what we've done to change things in feedback follow-ups. Housing Adapation Survey Results [PDF 554.14KB]