Housing adaptations make a vital contribution to supporting older people and disabled people to live safely, comfortably and independently at home.  In doing so, they are a key preventative measure, helping to reduce the number of emergency hospital admissions through falls and other accidents.  Timely interventions can support smooth hospital discharge, avoid unnecessary house moves and help maximise a person’s ability to remain at home in their community with fewer care needs.

However, historically, the provision of adaptations has been complex and subject to inconsistencies across tenure and geographical/local authority area.

The Scottish Government commissioned The ‘Adapting for Change ‘Working group to consider how the delivery of adaptations services could be improved and the group produced their report in November 2012 . The Scottish Government responded in March 2013 and instigated a Test of Change Programme with 5 demonstration sites taking part over 2 years across Scotland. 

The sites tested a wide range of improvements and a series of ‘Practice Examples’ have been produced and shared. The AFC programme will officially finish at the end of March 2017 but the sites are working on sustainability plans and embedding improvements.

Another key output of the AFC Programme is the development of the Housing Solutions Training Modules which are available for use across agencies within local Partnerships LINK. 

The tests of change, outputs, outcomes & contributions to National Improvement processes are illustrated in our ‘Theory of Change’ model. (download model)

An external process evaluation has also been carried out and the Key Research Findings and Full Report are available. The Scottish Government will consider the outputs from the AFC Tests of Change and respond in terms of the way forward in due course.

The provision of Adaptations is now the responsibility of the Integrated Joint Boards, although the funding for Stage 3 adaptations provided by Housing Associations has not been delegated; advice is provided here.