Your own home maybe suitable, however you may require a smaller more manageable property. Or have you considered creating a Granny Annex within or at your son or daughters house for example, allowing for a family care approach to be considered.

We work closely with our Partner Occupational Therapists to help and advise you in a totally unbiased way, recommending only what’s suitable for you on an individual basis, not what we want you to have! Whatever your age or disability, we always take into account what your future needs might be.

Nick Collyer MRICS, Managing Director

Our assisted living solutions include carefully selected products and services such as:

• Changing your bathroom into a wet room or level access shower room
• Installation of shower toilets
• Installing assisted baths
• Tailoring your kitchen for easy access
• Bringing essential areas to the ground floor
• Lift installations
• Solving the problems of disabled access throughout
• Additional security through automated door entry and key storage
• Supporting homecare packages with home systems
• Extensions including design, planning applications and construction
• Granny Annex design and installation services

We take care of the design and have teams of professional installers to undertake any required works, or you can take advantage of our Design and Supply service where we can assist your family builder to undertake the works with full technical support.

Quite simply our aim is to assist you in a considered, structured, trouble-free and timely manner, at what can sometimes be a stressful time.

We can also supply any specialist adaptation goods and materials, all displayed in our online shop 4-Life. If you require bulks purchases or specific products we do not display please call us to discuss your requirements.

Our aim is to help you retain your independence for life.

Nick Collyer MRICS

Managing Director

Depending on what your OT assessment identifies, we offer you the choice of: -

• Independent 4 Life’s complete design, supply and professional installation service, where we manage your project from start to finish. Before we start work on site we carry out a pre-fit survey, to ensure your project will run as smoothly as possible.

• Our Design and Supply service, allowing your own preferred local builder to undertake your work, with the full support from our in-house technical team.

Our online shop 4-Life supplies an ever-increasing range of quality home adaptation products, to make your life easier and help maintain your independence. We are not tied to any one supplier or manufacturer and can source an even wider product range at competitive prices to suit your needs.

Please follow this link to see our full Terms and Conditions, for Services offered by Independent 4 Life Limited on a pdf >>>

According to the Government:

• you can claim if you, or someone living in your property, is disabled and you, or the person on whose behalf you are applying, are either the owner or tenant (including licensees) of the property
• you can certify that you, or the person on whose behalf you are applying, intend to occupy the property as your/their only or main residence throughout the grant period – currently five years
• a landlord may apply on behalf of a disabled tenant
• all applicants must undergo the national means test of resources, to determine their financial contribution towards the proposed work. Local councils may then award a Disabled Facilities Grant to cover any balance, subject to the grant limit set by central government.

Follow this link to the Directgov website – public services all in one place – to find out more about grants in your area

Will I have to pay VAT on my works and for material purchases?

If you are registered disabled or chronically ill, as defined by HM Revenue & Customs, then subject to our agreement we will deduct or credit your VAT back to you.

Follow this link to the HM R&C website for further information

1. Many products can be supplied without VAT for people with disabilities and or chromic illnesses. We are VAT registered Number: 942 4477 11.
2. We are proud to be part of the Government Trading Standards Approved Traders “Buy with Confidence” scheme. All our staff and subcontractors are checked on the Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) register.
3. We hold Professional Indemnity, Employers Liability, Public Liability and Product Liability Insurances.
4. Data Protection Act Registration Number: Z2058735.
5. Independent 4 Life Limited is registered in England and Wales: Company Number 06294300.
6. Independent 4 Life Limited is regulated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Registration Number 051409 and is audited by them annually. This requires that any monies we request on deposit (which would only be for specialist or custom made products) are held in a secure Client Account and only released with your agreement and when the works are completed to your satisfaction.

The aim of the Dignity in Care Challenge is to create a care system where there is a zero tolerance approach to the abuse of, and disrespect towards people using care services.

Even though we don’t provide care services, we at Independent 4 Life see ourselves as guests of our Clients while we undertake design and adaptation works. We are Dignity Champions as we understand the importance of treating our Clients with Care, Respect and Dignity, and remain committed to the ten point dignity challenge.

The Dignity Challenge Ten Point Challenge

1. Have a zero tolerance of all forms of abuse
2. Support people with the same respect you would want for yourself or a member of your family
3. Treat each person as an individual by offering a personalised service
4. Enable people to maintain the maximum level of independence, choice and control
5. Listen and support people to express their needs and wants
6. Respect people’s right to privacy
7. Ensure people feel able to complain without fear of retribution
8. Engage with family members and carers as care partners
9. Assist people to maintain confidence and positive self-esteem
10. Act to alleviate people’s loneliness and isolation

For further information please visit:

www.dignityincare.org.uk

If you are planning to undertake your own adaptation works, we recommend you check whether you need planning permission with your local Planning Department.

Depending on the type of works you are undertaking, from replacing a bathroom, installing an electric shower or constructing an access ramp, we strongly advise you to check whether the Building Regulations would apply.

The needs of all people including those with disabilities, in accessing and moving around buildings, is covered by Part M, with domestic electrical works being covered by Part P.

Quick link to the Building Regulations:
http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/buildingregulations

BS8300: 2009 Code of Practice for the design of buildings and their approaches to meet the needs of disabled people.

BS: 8300 does not apply to residential buildings for severely disabled people, nor does it apply to temporary structures, but it can provide useful guidance and explains how the built environment can be designed to anticipate, and overcome, restrictions that prevent disabled people making full use of premises and their surroundings.

To purchase a copy, click here:
http://shop.bsigroup.com/en/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000030217421

This website (www.independent4life.com) endeavors to conform to level Double-A of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0.

These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities. Conformance with these guidelines will help make the web more user friendly for all people.

This site has been built using code compliant with W3C standards for HTML and CSS. The site displays correctly in current browsers and using standards compliant HTML/CSS code means any future browsers will also display it correctly.

We are continually seeking out solutions that will bring all areas of the site up to the same level of overall web accessibility. In the meantime should you experience any difficulty in accessing the Independent 4 Life website, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

To avoid giving the wrong impression about the size of a room, skirtings should have the same LRV as the wall so that the junction between the skirting and the floor marks the extent of the room. In the case of door opening furniture, the ease with which blind and partially sighted people are able to distinguish furniture against its background is influenced by its 3-D form (giving light and shade) and shiny nature of the finish, whether metallic or non-metallic. For such products, it is considered that a difference in LRV between the product and background of at least 15 points is acceptable.

For flat surfaces, it is thought that LRV differences are less important between two large areas, e.g. between wall and floor, than between a small object on a larger background surface, e.g. a light switch on a wall.

BS 4800 should be consulted for the range of colours and their LRV’s.

Using BS 8300:2009 – Zones of good, acceptable and poor visual contrast in relation to the LRV of two adjacent surfaces can be worked out using Figure B.1.

Figure B.1 - Zones of good, accessible and poor visual contrast in relation to the LRV of 2 adjacent surfaces

The LRV scale runs from 0, which is a perfectly absorbing surface that could be assumed to be totally black, up to 100, which is a perfectly reflective surface that could be considered to be the perfect white.

Because of practical influences in any application, black is always greater than 0 and white never equals 100.

In order to meet the recommendations of BS 8300 states ‘Whilst there is considerable confidence in recommending a difference in LRV of 30 points or more (the good zone) there is also some evidence to suggest that a difference of around 20 points might still be acceptable, provided the illuminance on the surfaces is 200 lux or more.

A test method for measuring the LRV of flat surfaces with opaque materials, including those coated with non-opaque coatings, or coverings and multi-coloured surfaces is described in BS 8493.

Reference: BS 8300: February 2009