Decision details

The decision to fund temporary additional staff is necessitated by the current DFG referral
backlog and the need for improved service delivery. The adaptations team is currently managing
a backlog of 806 cases. To provide some context, in the year 23/4, the adaptations team
received 727 DFG referrals and without significant investment would lead to further delays and
an increasing backlog. Current completion timescales are 294 days which is significantly outside
of the target completion for major adaptations of 182 days.
This extensive delay significantly impacts the quality of life for individuals awaiting vital home
adaptations.
Current capacity within the adaptations team is insufficient to drive the required changes at the
necessary pace to address this backlog effectively. Business support in the adaptions team
have dealt with some 300 customer queries for the month of May alone. Moreover, the team
lacks the resources to implement sustainable processes and adequately support the crucial
migration to MOSAIC, which is due to begin in September 2024.

To utilise funds from the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) to finance three Business Support Officers and one Technical Officer on 12-month contracts. This temporary additional capacity will enable the adaptations team to:
1. Address the current backlog of DFG referrals.
2. Implement and improve customer-facing communications.
3. Support the migration efforts from their current systems to Mosaic.
The temporary increase in capacity aims to tackle immediate challenges while enhancing longterm efficiency and service quality.

Alternative to the proposed option is not to recruit and continue to address the backlog using current resources.