re Ann Court development

WQ.88/2020

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR CHILDREN AND HOUSING BY DEPUTY S.M. AHIER OF ST. HELIER

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 25th FEBRUARY 2020

Question

Will the Minister advise the Assembly whether –

1. the new Ann Court development will adhere to the Disability Strategy for Jersey;
2. there will be purpose-built flats for people with disabilities within the development; and
3. special facilities will be incorporated in the development (such as hoists, wet rooms etc.)?

Answer

The Ann Court development will deliver 130 x one-bedroom apartments 35 x two-bedroom apartments.

1. The Disability Strategy for Jersey does not provide any direct instructions regarding new build developments. However, under Section 2.2 "Accessible housing options" the following areas are covered: -

• To ensure that social housing providers allow for adequate adaptations to homes, to meet individual tenant's needs. Andium Homes has an annual budget of £220k for medical adaptations and carried out 168 such adaptations in 2019.

• Andium works closely with the Occupational Therapy Services to ensure adaptations are carried out to the specific needs of the client.
• Andium Homes will also offer clients in bedsits and one bed apartments the choice of a bath or shower as part of its Bathroom Replacement Programme, and larger units if there is a medical need.

• To review current and future provision, as well as exploring options to increase supported housing provision for people with care support needs.

• Andium Homes is currently working with Health and Social Services to deliver a new purpose-built facility at Pine Ridge for two clients with significant complex medical and social needs.
• Andium Homes is also working with Health and Social Services to deliver 10 x apartments at the newly built Le Squez Phase 4 for clients with Learning disabilities.
• Andium Homes is also working with Autism Jersey to deliver a new purpose-built facility from which it can deliver its support services, along with several "autism friendly" homes within the development of the Ann Street Brewery site.

2. All the apartments at Ann Court are being developed in line with Technical Guidance Document 8 of the Building Byelaws. This will ensure that they all can have various adaptations carried out to meet an individual's needs, through the Medical Adaptation scheme mentioned in (a) above.

• All the ground floor flats will be fitted with wet rooms (10 x 1 beds and 1 x 2 bed)
• All one beds on the upper floors have a slightly raised shower tray. The two beds on upper floors all have a bath with shower above.
• All units will be lift accessible with low thresholds.
• All habitual internal room doors are enlarged 926mm leaf giving access of 850mm clear width.
• All balconies/terraces are level access, the communal podium is fully accessible.
• The ground floor two-bedroom apartment has provision to adapt to fully accessible with carer.

3. As mentioned in (a) and (b) above, all the apartments can have special facilities incorporated on a need's basis.

Demand for specialist disabled accommodation is not clearly defined within the current Affordable Housing Gateway. In my recently published response to the "Review of Access to Social Housing", one of the recommendations within the review was to develop a specific and discrete scheme for vulnerable households with care and support requirements. This is clearly an important issue and work will commence on this project this quarter.