Disabled facilities grant help - loft extension

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Hello

i posted on the SEN board about this a while ago but didn’t get many responses.

does anyone have experience of accessing the disabled facilities grant for their child.

We live in a 2 bedroom house and have 2 boys aged 4 and 6.

Our 6 year old has SEN and attends a specialist school and is non verbal with lots of behavioural difficulties.

The boys have shared a room but this has now become untenable. We’ve had to move the 4 year old in with us as his brother was hurting him and waking him up at all hours.

This has all been so stressful for our family and none of us is getting much sleep.

Our downstairs is open plan so we can’t convert the dining room to a bedroom or something.

We own our house and have looked into moving and simply can’t afford it as I’ve had to give up my better paid job as I couldn’t make it work around looking after my child with SEN as his school has no wraparound care. I do shifts at the pub in the evenings and weekends.

Would the disabled facilities grant help us with a loft conversion? Our social worker has referred us to occupational therapy for an assessment but I don’t understand how all this works.

Thank you

Its possible but only when its the cheapest option.

You would need to provide evidence that this is the only practical solution. Other suggestions would be partitioning the ground floor, a single story extension (if cheaper than the loft), or them rehousing you in a housing association house with suitable adaptions. You also would need to prove that the interactions between the brothers were significantly more detrimental than normal sibling issues. Talk to the ot.

Focus on showing occupational therapy all the things you have tried and what the outcomes were and why this is the only reasonable option.

I got a grant myself a few years ago for something else by doing this. You also need to show that you intend to stay in the property for at least 5 years after the work is done so maybe don't mention you were looking at moving. I rent and had to get my landlord to sign a 5 year fixed term contract and sign a letter agreeing to the work and that he wouldn't seek eviction.

Yes we were only looking into moving to get another bedroom to solve the issues with our sons but we simply can’t afford it - we live in the south east and can’t go too far from my son’s specialist school or from my husband’s job. Our other son is also starting reception at the nearby primary in September.

We haven’t tried anything aside from splitting them up though? Our son with additional needs was repeatedly jumping on his brother to wake him up or pinching him in the middle of the night and we couldn’t allow that to continue.

Having our younger son in our room is no good to anyone either as it’s disturbing us and him and he needs his own space as well.

The second bedroom is a good size double but would be ridiculously small if it was partitioned into 2. Not even sure that would work with the layout and how the door is positioned.

What about something like this
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdXe9H8H/

This looks really good and we did put a divider thing in the room but unfortunately our older one can climb anything and was absolutely determined to get to his brother so it ended up causing more trouble ☹️

Weve got an extra high baby gate on the door despite him being 6 as otherwise he’d be up and down the stairs all night or roaming the house.

The second bedroom is a good size double but would be ridiculously small if it was partitioned into 2. Not even sure that would work with the layout and how the door is positioned.
What size is your room? Could you swap and partition?

No I don’t think so as we have a wall of built in wardrobes and then there would be no storage space for any of their things

Would separate rooms even solve the issue? Might he just get up and go into his brother's room to wake him in the night.

Well he isn’t doing it now as we’ve separated them and his brother is in our room.

As I’ve said in a previous post he has a very tall gate on his room to stop him getting out

What would you suggest we do? Not being snappy - genuinely interested/at our wits end

Bunk beds in your room? Double on bottom for you and dh, single up top for 4 yo?

Or how would older child manage on top bunk and sharing with you to give 4yo own room and safe space?

Are you serious?

You think a good long term plan is to have our 4 year old in with us? With us on bunk beds with him?

Or have our non-verbal, profoundly disabled child on a top bunk with us on the bottom

I presume you don’t have a SEN child then.

Presuming your DS with SEN needs to be on the same floor as you for supervision, you might find you run into difficulties because the loft conversion wouldn't benefit your child with SEN directly.

Sorry for trying to help. You didn't say there was ideas you wouldn't consider.

What is your floor plan like? Can you post one with approx sizes? Could your downstairs be made into separate rooms? A single storey extension to the rear to move the kitchen / living room and create a third bedroom?

Rip out your storage in your room, create a split room with separate doorways, and look for clever storage options in all three rooms?

If you went up into the loft, is it even feasible - what shape are your trusses?

I get what you’re saying but surely it would as potentially otherwise he wouldn’t be able to have his own room?

Unless you’re suggesting that we should put our 4 year old back in there to be attacked on a nightly basis

I didn’t think people would suggest putting us in a bunk bed with a disabled child to be honest

Yes it’s possible - we live in a Victorian semi.

We actually got a quote to get it done last year before I had to give up my job.

Hi OP. I suspect many posting on this thread do not have a child with SEN. I think definitely speak to your OT - if you didn’t have a SEN child then fair enough they would be sharing rooms, but they can’t. And splitting doesn’t sound feasible if the rooms are quite small. Your OT should be able to evidence this all for you in support of the grant. Bear in mind the maximum grant is £30k and you would need to fund the remainder if you own/ mortgage the house.

We had a DFG and I asked for a loft conversion and they said no as it wasn't the cheapest solution. We had a very small room just big enough for a single bed cut out of another room. This was in a flat, turning it from a 2 bed to a 3 bed but with lots of tiny rooms.

Loft conversations are possible, but they are normally only done when there isn’t another option. Splitting bedrooms or using space downstairs will be considered first. LAs definition of small and most other people’s definition isn’t always the same. In many cases extensions are considered before loft conversions too.

In the meantime, do you have a specialist bed for DS to keep him and others safe?

We don’t unfortunately as they’re so expensive and our council do not help with funding them but we have looked into this

Do you have an existing plan of your house
perhaps there’s a more affordable solution

I wish they could share like many brothers I know. It’s heartbreaking ☹️

And I wish I hadn’t had to give up my job so we could’ve moved house as we’d always planned to.

We may be able to fund some of it but not the whole amount so any help from the DFG would be helpful