Minor Adaptations and Low Level Equipment

Minor adaptations are those that are easily installed and do not require structural changes to the home.

Examples can include:

1. Grab rails and stair rails;
2. Provision of additional lighting;
3. Concrete steps, galvanised rails outside the property.

Low level equipment is a small piece of non-specialist equipment that can prevent, reduce, delay or meet a need and includes equipment to help people get in and out of a chair, bed or bath.

The Integrated Community Equipment Service (ICES) is a partnership between Social Care and Health whose contracted provider is Millbrook.  The contract provides equipment to support people with assessed needs to maintain and promote independence and safety regarding daily living tasks. This may include equipment that enables personal care, mobility, transfers, safe moving and handling and more.

For this document, the equipment service will be referred to as the ‘Provider’.

Within adult social care, this could be an Occupational Therapist, Occupational Therapy Assessor, Visual Rehabilitation Specialists, Social Care Assessors or Trusted Assessor who works under the supervision of an Occupational Therapist.

Equipment can be ordered from the Millbrook Healthcare online catalogue; Uniqus Web. Prescribers will require a username and password to access this web-based service.

There is a large catalogue of framework/stock equipment to order and the categories of equipment to order are available within: bathing, toileting, household, mobility, moving and handling, visual impairment, bariatric and recycled specialist stock.

To access equipment a service user requires an assessment of need under legislation which may include the Care Act 2014, Chronically Sick and Disabled Person’s Act 70 and Children’s Act 2004, Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Other legislation such as Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992, and other, requires robust risk assessment to take place and be documented as part of a decision-making process to provide equipment.

Cheshire West and Chester council has a Moving and Handling Policy that sets out how practitioners and prescribers must operate safely, practitioners must follow our local risk assessment procedures.

Please see the occupational therapy section in the local resources for full local guidance on equipment and moving and handling.

For more information around prevention of need and low level equipment our residents can use our online assessment tool “Ask Sara” Cheshire West and Chester - AskSARA.