Fixing the Broken Home Adaptations Model at Housing 25
- PROCare News
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
At Housing 2025, we were proud to see Laura Wood, Head of Invisible Creations (our in-house brand of stylish, dual-purpose grab rails), join Paul Smith, Director of Foundations, on the Procurement for Housing (PfH) stage to shine a light on something we’ve been passionate about for years: fixing the broken adaptations model.
Laura spoke as part of the Fit For Our Future campaign – a nationwide movement PROCare has backed from the beginning – calling for smarter, more proactive, and better designed home adaptations. And with 50% of social housing households in the UK including at least one person with a long-term health condition, it’s a conversation that’s long overdue.
Too often, home adaptations are treated as a crisis response. Falls happen. Hospital stays drag on. OTs and housing officers fight their way through a tangled web of means testing, budget restrictions and consent issues – all to get a simple grab rail or shower in. It’s slow. It’s reactive. And it’s costing us – not just financially, but in terms of people’s independence, safety and wellbeing.
Recent stories from the Housing Ombudsman’s Severe Maladministration report show the reality of the current system: a child undergoing chemotherapy waiting over two years for a bathroom adaptation; a disabled tenant confined to one room for eight years due to inaccessible design; another living without a bath or shower for 14 months. These aren’t just isolated cases. They’re symptoms of a housing and social care system that hasn’t adapted fast enough.
Even more shockingly, new figures reported by Derry Daily in May 2025 revealed that more than 600 people have died while waiting for vital home adaptations due to occupational therapy backlogs. It’s a devastating statistic that underlines the human cost of inaction and delay in housing policy and accessibility.
That’s why campaigns like Fit for Our Future matter. They ask urgent questions about accessibility, housing policy and how we prioritise people’s needs in the homes we build and adapt.
Laura’s message was clear – we need to move from crisis response to early intervention. From low-cost quick fixes to high-quality, future-proof solutions. From disjointed delivery to collaborative action. And most importantly, from inaccessible design to inclusive design – the kind that works for everyone, every day, without shouting about it.
At PROCare, we believe inclusive design should be embedded into housing from the outset. Whether it’s a new build, a retrofit project, or a void property about to welcome a new resident, we should be asking: what would make this space easier to live in? What adaptations could be built in now to save stress, cost and upheaval later? And how do we make those features discreet, stylish, and genuinely supportive of independence?
That’s exactly what our Fit For Our Future model sets out to do. It brings together some of the best ideas from occupational therapy, inclusive design, product innovation, and real-world housing practice. Things like:
Invisible Creations grab rails that double up as everyday items
Level access wet rooms that look like modern bathrooms
Bespoke shower screens made to fit awkward spaces
Proline deep bowl basins that support safe washing
Alternative materials like wall boards that save time and budget
What’s more, our future-proof bathroom concept was shown to be around £300 less than a traditional supply-and-fit package at this year’s DFG Champions Roadshows – proof that accessible housing doesn’t have to mean expensive housing.
But great products alone won’t fix the system. That’s why we’ve also been championing better delivery models. One of the key themes of the Housing25 session was the potential of landlord-led DFGs – where housing providers themselves take the lead in applying for Disabled Facilities Grants on behalf of tenants. This isn’t new (it’s been possible since 1989), but it’s massively underused. When done well, it can:
Reduce delays and bypass means testing
Give landlords control over design and quality
Ensure homes are adapted with long-term use in mind
Relieve pressure on overstretched local authorities
It’s an approach we’ve seen work in real life. As a supplier and partner to housing associations and local authorities across the UK, PROCare has supported adaptations by offering a full wraparound service, from tailored surveying and product specification through to rapid delivery from our 75,000 sq ft warehouse in Wigan. We work with occupational therapists, contractors, housing associations and other housing professionals across the sector, to solve challenges together.
We’re proud to stand behind campaigns like Fit For Our Future and partner with organisations like Foundations who are working to push that vision forward. The Housing25 conversation was a reminder of how far we still have to go – but also how much power we already have in our hands to make change happen.
Inclusive design isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity. And with the right people, tools and mindset, it’s something we can deliver right now.
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