A ramp to enter flat — Scope | Disability forum
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A ramp to enter flat

Mumtaz123
Mumtaz123 Community member Posts: 11 Listener
I would like to know if there is any help that I could get to build a ramp for my scooter in a council flat 
becouse it is hard for me to get it in and out and I have to ask my friend and next door to help me and the council want help me 

Comments

  • Jean_OT
    Jean_OT Community member Posts: 513 Pioneering
    Hi @Mumtaz123
    Is the ramp going to be in an area only used by you/your household or are you intending to put a ramp in a communal space? fixed or temporary?
    Best Wishes
    Jean 

    Jean Merrilees BSc MRCOT

    You can read more of my posts at: https://community.scope.org.uk/categories/ask-an-occupational-therapist

  • Mumtaz123
    Mumtaz123 Community member Posts: 11 Listener
    It is in a communal space and I need it to b fix
  • Mumtaz123
    Mumtaz123 Community member Posts: 11 Listener
    My flat is in a block of 6 flat 3 up and 3 down 
    my is the ground floor near the entrance door so please if u can help me I would b very greatful 
  • Geoark
    Geoark Community member Posts: 1,463 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi @Mumtaz123 you will need the landlord's permission, and it is unlikely this would be given. So you would need an occupational health assessment which would need to include the ramp as a recommendation. Even then the landlord could refuse depending on the layout of the communal area and their fire risk assessment.

    Hopefully Jean_Scope will have more positive news.

    As an individual I stood alone.
    As a member of a group I did things.
    As part of a community I helped to create change!

  • Mumtaz123
    Mumtaz123 Community member Posts: 11 Listener
  • Jean_OT
    Jean_OT Community member Posts: 513 Pioneering
    Hi @Mumtaz123

    Unfortunately, experience tells me that you are likely to find having a permanent ramp constructed in a communal area a difficult thing to achieve. Especially as it is for a mobility scooter rather than for a wheelchair that you have to use indoor and outdoor. 

    As @Geoark has already said the ramp is going to require the permission of your landlord and that can be a lengthy and frustrating process that often ultimately ends in refusal.

    It is likely that they will require an assessment report from an Occupational Therapist (OT) [NB: Occupational Therapist not Occupational Health,as mentioned in a previous post, they are two different professions and occupational health assessments are only concerned with the work/employment]. However, even this may prove problematic to obtain as increasingly we are hearing that Community OT's are no longer being allowed to visit to assess needs related to scooters. This is because scooters are obtained privately and tend to be for outdoor use only, in contrast to electric wheelchairs which can be issued by NHS wheelchair clinics to those that need them to mobalise indoors and outdoors.  

    If you are unable to get permission from the landlord but they are struggling to fund the work it might perhaps be possible to get some financial assistance from a charitable grant giver but this is in all honesty a bit of a long shot as most charities are reluctant to  fund adaptations that they perceive statutory organisations should be funding themselves. I truth there really is little point in exploring this possibility unless permissions, plans and costings had already been obtained.

    So I think all you can do is keep negotiating with your landlord, getting the support of your neighbors in the block and your MP might encourage the council to give your request more consideration.

    Best Wishes
    Jean
      

    Jean Merrilees BSc MRCOT

    You can read more of my posts at: https://community.scope.org.uk/categories/ask-an-occupational-therapist

  • Mumtaz123
    Mumtaz123 Community member Posts: 11 Listener
    Thank u and I do use a wheelchair same time which I got from the mobility centre 
    i use it when am unable the scooter 
    i have career who has to push me out side and I use my hands indoor 
  • Jean_OT
    Jean_OT Community member Posts: 513 Pioneering
    ...so might it be worth seeing if the NHS wheelchair clinic would assess you as needing an electric wheelchair? If they said that is what you need and the barrier to you being allocated one was the lack of access into your flat it might strengthen your position with the council......

    Jean Merrilees BSc MRCOT

    You can read more of my posts at: https://community.scope.org.uk/categories/ask-an-occupational-therapist

  • Geoark
    Geoark Community member Posts: 1,463 Disability Gamechanger
    @Jean_Scope thank you for picking up the mistake, and @Mumtaz123 my apology to you for making it.

    As an individual I stood alone.
    As a member of a group I did things.
    As part of a community I helped to create change!

  • Topkitten
    Topkitten Community member Posts: 1,285 Pioneering
    This is an area fraught with difficulties. When my walking distance dropped to 10-20 metres I contacted these people. Firstly my request for help getting a wheelchair was refused on the grounds that I could walk 3 steps or more. Then I was refused a ramp when I planned to get a wheelchair on the grounds that I wasn't wheelchair bound.. Nor was I able to have a wheelchair accessible place for the same reasons. So now any walking causes suffering and I am only just able to apply again, even then it is likely to be difficult as I can only move about the house by walking and accepting the suffering it causes. I live in a council bungalow so there are no communal issues fortunately. I tried to explain that my condition was progressive so it was only a matter of time before I would be wheelchair bound but now, thanks to no support with appropriate medication from my GP, it has all happened in a couple of weeks a year earlier than expected. I was not even ready to accept my loss of being able to walk a year earlier than necessary.

    The system is dreadful and very punitive, I think it is disgusting we are treated this way. I do hope that things go better for you @Mumtaz123 than it has for me.

    TK
    "I'm on the wrong side of heaven and the righteous side of hell" - from Wrong side of heaven by Five Finger Death Punch.
  • Mumtaz123
    Mumtaz123 Community member Posts: 11 Listener
    Try the mobility centre in Leicester 
    they helped me 

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