City of York Council YorWellbeing team have created innovative links with two local voluntary organisations to enhance the offering of their Handyperson service.
The Handyperson Service takes requests from York residents, aged 60 and over or with a disability, for simple repairs or adaptations to homes such as fitting safety measures, removing trip hazards and general household and garden maintenance.
The service, previously run by Yorkshire Housing, has now been brought in-house. The council have collaborated with voluntary groups already established in the simpler, smaller tasks to work along side them in a trailblazing idea linking council with community.
The council awarded two ‘Small tasks at home’ grants to community supporting running charity GoodGym and The Blueberry Academy who provide employment opportunities for adults with learning difficulties.
GoodGym have always provided older people with a weekend service to help them with small simple household tasks like changing a lightbulb or hanging up curtains and garden clearing. The new grant will see them provide the service at other times during the week and for more specific periods.
The Blueberry Academy are now providing regular garden maintenance, like grass cutting.
The funding frees up the Council’s in-house Handyperson team to concentrate on the bigger technical tasks making resources go further.
The whole aim of the service is to help people live safely at home, because small jobs like these can have a big impact on residents’ lives, by preventing, reducing and delaying the need for NHS and care services.
The teams qualified and accredited handyperson can carry out a huge number of different jobs which includes: Assembling flat-pack furniture, fitting shelves, installing smoke detectors, hanging pictures, putting up or taking down curtains or curtain rails, securing loose carpets, putting up curtain rails, simple security measures and changing light bulbs.
People on income-based benefits can use the service for free and just pay for materials.
