Can I appeal Disabled Facilities Grant

[yomellamoHelly]

Ds is 3.9. Have just moved house to give him a downstairs bedroom, but no downstairs bathroom. Was hoping a grant would provide this.
Had SS OT round who said she'd need to bring back a surveyor to draw up some suggestions. When she came back, though, there was no surveyor.
Her manager has said that since ds has improved so much in the 2 years they've known of him he may well continue to improve. They therefore want to wait until he is 5 to pay out for any adaptions.
Here it takes 18 months from the moment the ball starts rolling to to the adaptions apparently.
So for now we have an upstairs bathroom and he's not exactly light. I do 99% of the carrying him around.
My MIL was saying today we ought to appeal that decision.
Does anyone know if this is possible and what route I should follow?

The issue here is will your son be able to manage stairs safely and independently during the next year and in subsequent years? If he can access the upstairs of the property independently then you would not have grounds for appeal. If you are totally carrying him or supporting his weight whilst assisting then you would have grounds for appeal because at 3.9 years old I imagine he weighs too much to safely carry him yourself. I think it if it clear from physio reports that he is never going to manage the stairs without your physical assistance then they should not delay the adaptations any more. The Social Services department would just be delaying the adaptation for bugetary reasons. Some SSD teams do like to wait and see and the adaptations must be "necessary and appropriate". If you are clear that delaying the adaptations would put you at risk, then you should complain using the council complaints process in the first instance. Put physios opinion, how much he weighs and how many times you have to go and down stairs each day and any physical effects it has on you, back pain, fatique etc... so that the risks are apparent.

Yes you can appeal. I used our council's complaints procedure where the council came up with our DFG (ds1 was breaking windows with his head- we wanted double glazing, they wanted to nail perspex to the windows).

It worked, ended up with the big boss sat in my living room and the double glazing was approved.

I appealed on our council's website - there was a form where I could fill in a stage 1 complaint.