Speaking after her speech at the Care and Repair Conference, Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, Heléna Herklots CBE, said:
“I welcome the announcement at today’s conference of the Welsh Government’s consultation to introduce service standards on housing adaptations to support older people and disabled people to live more independently.
“Adaptations play a significant role in maintaining older people’s health and independence, but older people often find the adaptations system complex and difficult to navigate. The service standards must improve consistency in the delivery of adaptation services, remove the complexities that older people face when receiving these services and improve the system in place to measure performance to reflect the impact and effectiveness of adaptions.
“Without appropriate adaptations to their homes, older people can be at an increased risk of falling, being unable to return home from hospital or entering a care home unnecessarily. This not only has an impact on individuals but leads to more costly health and social care interventions in the future. Research has shown that postponing entry into a care home by one year through adapting homes saves over £30,000 per person and that for every £1 spent on adaptations by Care & Repair there are £7.50 of savings for the taxpayer.
“Enabling older people to access appropriate adaptations in their homes is a key part of making Wales the best place in the world to grow older and I look forward to sharing my thoughts on the service standards with the Minister.”
