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Scottish local authority fails to reverse waiting times for adaptions
A Scottish local authority has failed to reverse a huge increase in the time residents are waiting for special needs adaptions to their homes.
A report by West Dunbartonshire Council regeneration lead Jim McAloon found an average delay of 90.2 days between an application for changes being referred by an occupational therapist and the works being completed.
This figure – covering the 12 months to 31 March 2018 – was only down marginally from the 92.3-day average wait during the previous 12 months, which had prompted the local authority to announce measures to tackle the issue.
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Prior to that the average wait was under 40 days in both 2014/15 and 2015/16.
Initiatives to bring the delay down included distributing works across a higher number of architectural officers; asking the technical standards team to speed up applications where possible; and pre-arranging resident survey appointments to improve flow.
The report – which will be considered by the council’s housing and communities committee next week – said performance had improved in the second half of the most recent reporting year.
“It should be acknowledged that a number of longer term outstanding applications were completed during this period which has contributed to a higher overall total day count,” said the report.
The average wait for those schemes both referred and completed in the first three months of this year was 24 days
