By Claire Warrender

FIFE COUNCIL has diverted £70,000 to ensure over 700 disabled and vulnerable Fifers can remain in their own homes this year.

The extra funding is for minor aids and adaptations following fears that 708 people on a waiting list would have to do without equipment such as grabrails, chairlifts and toilet frames because of a lack of cash in the social work budget.

Minor adaptations are categorised as non-structural, temporary modifications to properties, and can reduce demands on other health and social care services by preventing unnecessary admission to hospital and reducing the need for other community care.

However, because of a growing elderly population, demand has outstripped the budget, and social work bosses warned earlier this month that the situation would continue as the number of frail elderly people in Fife was set to increase by 22% in the next two years.

In 2006/07, almost 4000 minor adaptations were fitted across the region, and the budget was overspent by £393,000.

So far this year, 1370 disabled people have received minor adaptations but it looked as though there was no money left to fit any more without additional funding.

Head of social work Stephen Moore has announced an additional £70,000 which should be enough to fit the adaptations of all 708 people on the waiting list.

However he added that the numbers waiting will grow during the remainder of this financial year unless other money is found.

Communities Scotland is considering an application from the council for £350,000.

Social work and health committee vice-chairman David Torrance welcomed the extra funding for those waiting since June.

“The budget for minor adaptations is under great pressure because of changes in population,” he said.

“More and more people are living into their very old age and there are growing numbers of people with complex needs and disabilities surviving childhood.

“Both groups need adaptations to help them live independently in their own homes.”

Councillor Torrance added, “The money available to fund minor adaptations in this financial year had been fully used up, but the SNP-Lib Dem coalition has diverted other money which was not going to be needed this year into the budget to allow continued provision of minor adaptations for the remainder of the financial year.

“This extra money will enable those who have been on the waiting list to have equipment such as grabrails fitted, thus resulting in a better quality of life for individuals living in their own homes.

“For the next year, the level of funding allocated for minor adaptations will be reviewed in the light of the growing need for such assistance.”

Meanwhile, Fife Council has been unable to complete 280 major adaptations outstanding from last year because of a shortage of skilled contractors to carry out the work.

Major adaptations include things such as concrete ramps, level access showers and heating conversions, and while the social work service has the money to do the work it is having trouble finding a contractor to do it.

Senior social work manager John Alexander said, “The issue is not our ability to assess or to fund, it’s a capacity issue for contractors to carry out the work.

“We are dependent on the ability of contractors to do the work, but there has been a skills shortage across the building sector in general across the UK.”

The council is now looking into the possibility of taking on and training its own staff to carry out this type of work in future.