Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Construction Informatics and Digital Enterprise Laboratory
Adapt-ABLE project is a collaborative research and development (R&D) project that aims to streamlines the processes involved in the administration of Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) by developing a digital solution for holistic management of all the stages / processes involved.
A significant proportion of the UK's ageing and disabled population desire to stay put in their own house, thereby enhancing community engagement, self-esteem, privacy, and high level of activity (Zhou, Oyegoke and Sun, 2018). To enable this, and associated cost benefits compared to living in care, the government have the statutory responsibility to provide financial assistance for housing adaptation. However, the process is currently cumbersome (and delay-prone), including referral, allocation, assessment, funding, and installation, all of which involve various stakeholders with less streamlined process. The time to complete the process ranges significantly with some taking up to 1460 days (Jones, 2017), implying that some of the applicants would have died or temporarily moved into care.
Whilst there have been some improvement in the last decade, there is currently no integrated and interactive platform for facilitating speedy self-assessment and adaptation. The proposed study adopts techniques in Machine Learning (ML), advanced optimisation, Decision Support System(DSS) and cloud computing to create an innovative tool (Adapt-ABLE) that streamlines the whole process from self / home assessment through installation to performance management.
The approach
To streamline the processes involved from application through installation to management of the adapted homes, Adapt-ABLE project involves the development of five integrated platform as follows:
Home assessment / analytics platform
The platform allows users to evaluate easiness of living in their home for aged and people living with various forms of disability. The platform will provide age and disability friendliness matrix, and suggest the changes required to support people as they age.
Adapt ABLE platform for indicative assessment
An accessible online platform that allows self or third-party referral. It is a one stop shop with an indicative self-assessment of need requirements that consider / determine eligibility threshold, level of adaptation, case risk band, automated means test, with an instant display of indicative assessment results. The system will also link unqualified applicant to where further helps could be sought.
Adapt ABLE procurement and tendering hermeneutics
This platform automates needs requirement to specification from the database. It enables applicants or their representatives to upload supporting documents, select pictorial description and contribute to contractors' selection. It facilitates tendering by contractor, whose information will be held / updated on the platform. The platform will standardise price scheduling, procurement and payment issues will be standardised.
Machine learning enabled predictive maintenance / repair
For effective management and proactive adaptation of housing stocks, this platform enables housing providers to predict adaptation needs of their housing stocks using machine learning algorithm. In addition, the system prevents the occurrence of failure by performing maintenance monitoring and notification.
Machine learning enabled predictive maintenance / repair
Interactive platform during installation stage site supervision and liaison. It includes monitoring and tracking system, multi-mode feedback platform, platform dealing with complaints and portal for knowledge base integration for monitoring of each process and overall adaptation over time. It will also enable local authority to benchmark their performance.
The impact
Our self-assessment portal, combining home assessment and indicative assessment, is based on home needs requirements and grant qualifying criteria. Through the portal, the users can:
With many applicants waiting for up to six months to discover whether they qualify for the DFG, and several months for their home assessment to be carried out in the traditional system, the Adapt-ABLE portal cuts the applicants’ journey (especially those that are not eligible for the DFG) from several months to about 10 mins. Some of its outputs could be accessed through AdaptMyHome.org.
Due to earlier engagement of stakeholders on the project, a report by the Centre for Social Justice disability commission titled “Now is the Time” recommends the use of the Adapt-ABLE website (Recommendation 20A).
Other parts of the Adapt-ABLE system, including the tendering units, adapted home register and smart performance management system are under development.
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