Brighton and East Sussex

In Touch HomeSafe Brighton & Hove

In Touch
113 – 119 Davigdor Road
Hove
East Sussex
BN3 1RE
Contact:
Tel: 0800 313 4457
(Office open Mon to Fri 9am-5pm)

About the service

We aim to provide advice and practical assistance to help residents of Brighton and Hove to remain living in their chosen home in greater comfort and safety.

How can we help?

We will carry out a home safety assessment within your home and advise on appropriate solutions. This may include a referral to our handyperson service or with your permission to other organisations that may be of assistance to you.

What type of work can our handyperson do?

Our service could help by:

  • Repairing or secure doors, windows etc
  • Fitting locks and chains
  • Fitting child safety equipment
  • Fitting grab rails
  • Carry out minor building, joinery and plumbing repairs (compliant with legislation)
  • Moving furniture
  • Fitting of keysafes (standard installation charge of £15)
  • Carry out odd jobs such as putting up curtain rails, shelves, hooks
  • Changing light bulbs or installing low energy light bulbs

Are there any jobs our Handyperson service cannot carry out?

There are some things that we may not be able to help with such as:

·         External works above ground floor level
·         Gas or electric works (apart from plugs and fuses)
·         Gardening work
·         Decorating work
·         Jobs taking longer than two hours

Is there a charge for the service?

We do not charge for our advice. If you require handyperson services then there will be a cost as follows:-

  • If you receive a means tested benefit a charge of £10 will be made
  • For all other applicants a charge of £20 will be made

In all cases you will be required to pay for the cost of materials (you can supply these yourself or we can purchase them for you).

Eligability criteria

You must live within the boundaries of Brighton and Hove City Council and be:

·         Aged 70 or over; or
·         Disabled: in receipt of a disability benefit, i.e: DLA, registered disabled, blue badge holder, physical or sensory impairment that is registered with the local authority or long term incapacity benefit
·         A single parent with a child or children under the age of 18; or
·         A family with a child or children under the age of six

What next?

If you’d like to talk to someone about how we can help, call us on 0800 313 4457 or visit the office above at the address above.

Winter Home Check Service

(1 January – 31 March 2012 only)

We are offering an extension to our existing scheme (in partnership with Brighton & Hove City Council and NHS Brighton and Hove ) to provide a case worker service offering advice on keeping warm in winter, and installing simple energy saving measures – all aimed at making the home safer and warmer in winter.

 Our advice FREE OF CHARGE could include:-

  • Services that can assist you if you are unable to leave your home during cold weather
  • Arranging home delivery of nutritional meals during cold weather snaps
  • Managing fuel costs (including applying for winter fuel payments, how to use appliances more efficiently, and what grants there are to make your home more energy efficient.)
  • Welfare benefits
  • Reducing your risk of trips, falls and accidents
  • Reducing your risk of hypothermia
  • Reducing your risk of fires within the home (we have a limited amount of money to renew electric blankets if more than five years old).

 Practical assistance could include providing you FREE OF CHARGE

  • Emergency heating (convector heaters) in event of heating failures.  Purchase of convector heaters
  • Rapid Ice Melt (to disperse snow and ice)
  • Fire guards
  • Minor building repairs to prevent water ingress (broken windows, etc.)
  • Lighting
  • Handrails for vulnerable areas (limited)
  • Thermometers
  • Ensure main access is free from vegetation
  • Gutter checks (first floor only) to assist in clearance where appropriate
  • Lagging of external exposed pipes

Referral form

If you would like to refer someone for this service please download and complete the Referral form – HomeSafe (Word format)

Independent living Service (formerly managed by Anchor Trust). 

The Independent Living Service is funded by East Sussex County Council to assist people to remain in their chosen home in great comfort, security and independence. A series of events have taken place throughout the county that were fun, interactive, and informative.

The service aims to enable adults (over the age of 18) to access services that will enhance their daily living.   These can include advice on community activities, welfare benefits, safety within the home, entitlement to welfare benefits and much more.  The service acts as a single point of access for people who require Simple Aids for Daily Living such as chair raisers, bath boards and perching stools. 

All our advisors are trained to be able to advice on what daily living equipment is best suited to the needs of the individual.  We provide a telephone or personal visit to give holistic advice on health, housing and social care issues. Our service is Free.

Independent Living Advisors can

  • Carry out an assessment through a personal visit or telephone assessment (whichever is preferred)      
  • Work with the individuals to develop their self management plan
  • Identify goals to be achieved
  • Problem solving with the service user and carer.
  • Navigate people to support they need to achieve the goals
  • Refer on to low cost Handyperson Services

 For more information on this service, please contact us:

Freephone:  0800 917 4569

Independent Living Service

In Touch

First Floor Offices

Warrior Square Station

St Johns Road

St Leonards on Sea

East Sussex, TN37 6HP

Or e-mail us at:  ILS@familymosaic.co.uk

 

Stairlift services in Hastings & Rother

The  In Touch Stairlift & Mobility Services East Sussex offers a service within the area to collect unwanted stairlifts and daily living equipment, for example, perching stools, grab rails, trolleys, zimmer frames (non-electrical items) and install recycled or new stairlifts.

As a Social Enterprise, this service helps the environment by recycling equipment and enables individuals to purchase quality equipment at a reduced cost. If there are no suitable recycled stairlifts available we can also install new stairlifts at a competitive price.

Our team are based at premises in Bexhill and work closely with the Hastings Furniture Service, who are also a Social Enterprise.

This service is the first Social Enterprise within In Touch and is now going into its third year.  The service has so far proved successful and we are looking forward to expanding the service to cover the whole of East Sussex.
If you would like further information on this service, contact details or want answers to some frequently asked questions, please click the link below.

If you would like further information on this service, contact details or want answers to some frequently asked questions, please click the link below.

Alternatively, please call us on: 0800 066 5768 or email:

stairliftservices@familymosaic.co.uk

In Touch Handypersons Service Hastings & Rother

47 London Road
Bexhill on Sea
East Sussex
TN39 3JY
Contact:
Tel: 0207 089 3293

(Office open Mon to Fri 9am-5pm and Saturday 10am-3pm)

Who do we help?

The In Touch Small Works & Handyperson Service, East Sussex can help if you want to carry out minor repairs in your home. We can assist you with installing internal and external handrails and grab rails, changing light bulbs, putting up shelves, moving furniture, improving security to your home, installing keysafes, minor building, joinery plumbing repairs and much more.

Our service is available to anyone living in East Sussex.

What happens?

If you have any jobs that you need doing around your home, call us on 01424 224060 and we organise an appointment to visit you.

Depending on what work you need doing, we may be able to complete the job there and then. For more involved work we will provide you with an estimate and if you accept, make another appointment to carry out the work.

Finally we’ll ask you to sign an agreement if you want work to go ahead.

Fees

The cost of our service depends on the kind of work carried out. We do have a schedule of rates for “Smaller jobs”, but for larger scale items, we will provide an estimate. For larger jobs our estimate covers time, labour, materials and VAT. Plumbing and Electrical works are charged at £36 per hour inclusive of VAT.

More specialist services

Our staff are also trained to fit external galvanised handrails and ramps which can be supplied and fitted at the time of visit without any delay for ordering.  Please contact us if you would like any more information about this part of our service.

This service has been approved by the ‘Buy with Confidence’ scheme

The In Touch Handyperson Service has been approved by the ‘Buy With Confidence’ scheme. This scheme is run by East Sussex Trading Standards and provides a list of approved traders who operate in a fair, hones and legal way.

The scheme operated a rigorous entrance procedure and In Touch are proud to have acheived this accreditation.

To find out more about this scheme please look at the ‘Buy With Confidence’ website.

What do I do next?

If you’d like to talk to someone about how we can help, call us on 0207 089 3293, email us on smallworks@intouchsupport.co.uk  or visit the office above at the address about.