Hello everyone and welcome to the Care & Repair Lanarkshire October Newsletter
Focus on Electrical Safety
Care and Repair have recently been awarded a £10,000 grant from Electrical Safety First https://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/ . Eligible clients in Lanarkshire will be able to claim up to £500 for electrical work to be carried out such as:
• Periodic inspections
• Portable Appliance Testing (PAT)
• Repairs/replacement of lighting for safety reasons
• Repairs/replacement of electrically powered showers
• Repairs/replacement of immersion and water heaters
• Relocation or installation of additional electrical sockets to make them more accessible
• Replacement of broken accessories, such as light switches and sockets
• Necessary upgrading of earthing, bonding, RCD protection and consumer units
Funding has been targeted at vulnerable people (home-owners) who are in receipt of a means-tested benefit and/or state pension (with no other income) and/or is registered disabled or living with a life limiting illness. All work will be carried out by a qualified electrician who will also have to gather and submit data on the condition of the electrical supply and wiring in the client’s property.
Electrical Safety First asks that this fund is used by the end of February 2024. Due to this, we have decided that, until the end of December 2023, we will only take referrals from partner agencies who are able to refer to us. We hope that by doing this we will initially reach those in most need of assistance. We will monitor the funding and, if sufficient funds remain in January 2024, we will open the fund up to self-referrals directly from eligible clients in Lanarkshire.
This is important work that will help to keep vulnerable clients safe at home.
Please – if you have a client who you think may benefit from this project, can you (with their permission) refer them to Care & Repair Lanarkshire using the referrals email address: referrals@careandrepair-lanarkshire.co.uk outlining the work that may be required.
Move to Electric Vehicles
We took the decision recently to move to an electric van the next time we needed to change one. We are very happy with the vehicle – it is performing well without any issues with range although it does need to be put on charge at the end of each day. Currently (please excuse the pun) fuel cost is about 50% of what we are paying for the petrol vans. The electric van is the one in the middle.
Fire Detection
Fire detection remains a high priority for the Care & Repair Team. We know that there are still people in Lanarkshire with limited or no fire detection at all – this puts these people at risk from fire and smoke inhalation. Installing fire detection is also not cheap!
Our Costs: Heat, Smoke and CO detectors are £18 each inc. VAT.
Installation is £12 inc. VAT for the entire install.
All devices installed will be compliant with current Scottish Legislation and fitted by our trained Care & Repair Small Repairs team.