An additional £50m for the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) has been announced by the Government.

The 2025-26 funding could support around 5,000 more people to install home adaptations such as stairlifts, ramps, accessible bathrooms and assistive technologies and brings total DFG funding to £761m.

Minister of state for care Stephen Kinnock said: ‘Home adaptations … play a crucial role in easing pressure on our NHS - preventing falls, speeding up hospital discharges and reducing admissions. This investment is part of our commitment to shift more care out of hospital and into the community, where people want to be.'

The DFG supports around 60,000 older people and people with disabilities each year, with an average grant of around £10,000.

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Cllr Dr Wendy Taylor, chair of the LGA's Health and Wellbeing Committee, said: ‘Councils are committed to supporting disabled adults and older people to live independently, safely and with dignity in their homes. The additional funding for the Disabled Facilities Grant is a vital mechanism in supporting councils to deliver this.'

Director of practice and innovation at the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, Karin Orman, welcomed the funding but warned it was ‘only part of the solution', adding: ‘Without urgent investment in occupational therapists too, people risk waiting longer for expert assessments, which means people can get the changes they need to make their homes safe and accessible.

'Without occupational therapists, the right support can't reach the people who need it most, when they need it. Disabled people deserve timely, tailored support that will help them live the lives they want, which means more than just money.'

ADASS chief executive Sally Burlington echoed the call for more investment in occupational therapy, commenting: ‘Our members tell us that occupational therapy services who are administering the grant still face multiple challenges such as increasing demand, lengthy administration processes including unnecessarily lengthy paperwork, restrictions on what the money can be spent on and limits to how much can be spent per person meaning local authorities can't support people quickly enough with this grant.'

Burlington called on the Government to review the statutory disabled facilities grant framework ‘as a matter of urgency … complete and publish its review of the £30,000 upper limit and means test criteria, and better resource occupational therapy to ensure the grant can go further to improve people's health and wellbeing'.

Lee Peart is editor of Hemming Group’s Healthcare Management magazine.