Who Vets the Contractor Fitting Your Stairlift? A New National Scheme Aims to Answer That

If your council is arranging a stairlift or another adaptation through a Disabled Facilities Grant, one question rarely gets asked out loud: who actually vets the contractor turning up at your door? A new national accreditation scheme is trying to answer that, and Nottingham City Council has become one of the first authorities in England to sign up to it.

The Home Adaptations Installers Network, known as HAIN, gives councils a ready-made list of vetted contractors for grant-funded work. Nottingham’s adoption was reported in mid-July 2026, and the organisations behind the scheme expect more authorities to follow before the year is out.

What HAIN is, and why it exists

HAIN has been developed by Nottingham-based accreditation specialists Diversity Customer Management in partnership with Foundations, the national body for Disabled Facilities Grants in England, which is funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

The reason it exists comes down to one uncomfortable statistic. Foundations surveyed local authorities and found that 41 per cent do not maintain an approved contractor list for Disabled Facilities Grant work, even though keeping one is recommended as good practice in the official DFG guidance. The same research found there is no centralised standard, so every council sets its own criteria, most authorities say they need more contractors to meet demand, and managing those contractors eats into the time of already stretched teams.

For a homeowner, that patchwork has a practical consequence. The rigour of the checks behind the installer fitting your stairlift has depended largely on which side of a council boundary you happen to live on.

What the vetting actually involves

Contractors accepted into the network are registered with TrustMark, the government-endorsed quality scheme for work carried out in and around the home. According to the scheme’s published material, the application process includes financial and county court judgment checks, insurance verification, confirmation of qualifications and trade memberships, health and safety credentials, references and consumer reviews, DBS certificates, and an on-site workmanship inspection of a live project.

Members also sign up to a published Code of Practice covering clear quotations, respectful customer service, health and safety, insurance and guarantees, and a transparent complaints process. TrustMark registration brings a minimum two-year workmanship guarantee and a two-year insurance-backed guarantee on projects over £500.

There is one more element that matters if something goes wrong. HAIN offers an impartial complaint mediation service sitting between the resident, the contractor and the council. Anyone who has tried to resolve a dispute over building work will recognise the value of a third party who is not employed by either side.

Who this affects

Disabled Facilities Grants fund more than £500 million of home adaptation projects each year in England, covering stairlifts, level-access showers, ramps, door widening and similar work. If you are going through the DFG route, your council typically arranges or approves the contractor, so the quality of its procurement list directly shapes your experience.

Sam Lucas, managing partner at Diversity Customer Management, framed the ambition in terms of the nature of the work itself, describing HAIN as a network of installers who understand that adaptation work “is different and vital” and who follow a client-first code of conduct. Ruth Stallwood, Team Manager for Adaptations and Renewals at Nottingham City Council, said using the network reduces the administrative burden on the council’s DFG delivery team while ensuring only suitably qualified and vetted contractors work in residents’ homes.

It is worth being clear about the limits. HAIN is a scheme councils opt into, not a legal requirement, and joining is free for local authorities while contractors pay a membership fee. If your own council has not adopted it, nothing changes for you yet. It is also aimed at the grant-funded market rather than at private purchases, though a growing accreditation register is likely to become a useful reference point for private buyers too.

What to do if you are arranging an adaptation now

Whether or not your council uses HAIN, the same practical steps apply.

• Start with your council’s occupational therapy team. A DFG application usually begins with an assessment of your needs, and the OT recommendation shapes what the grant will fund.
• Ask your council how it selects contractors. Does it keep an approved list? What checks sit behind it? Are you able to choose your own installer, and if so what evidence does the council require?
• Check registrations yourself. TrustMark and the British Healthcare Trades Association both publish searchable registers. Membership is not a guarantee of a perfect job, but it does mean the business has been through a documented vetting process.
• Get written quotations. Many councils ask for two or three. A proper quotation should itemise the equipment, the installation, any electrical work, the warranty period and what happens if the fit needs adjusting.
• Confirm what happens after installation. Servicing, breakdown cover and the length of the guarantee are easy to overlook when the priority is getting the work done.

A quiet but meaningful shift

Most reporting on home adaptations focuses on money: how much grant funding is available, how long the waiting list is, whether the £30,000 DFG cap stretches far enough. Those questions matter. But funding only produces a good outcome if the work at the end of the process is done properly, by someone who understands that they are working in the home of a person who may be anxious, in pain, or reliant on the adaptation to stay living independently.

A national standard for who is allowed to do that work is a small piece of infrastructure with a disproportionate effect on how the experience feels. If the scheme spreads as its backers expect, the practical benefit for households will be less variation in quality depending on where they live, and a clearer route to resolution when something is not right.

If you are weighing up an adaptation, our guides to stairlift grants and funding and current UK stairlift prices set out what to expect from the process and what typical costs look like. Prices quoted throughout our site are ranges reported by industry sources rather than fixed figures, so a written quotation for your own staircase remains the only reliable number.

Stairlift Guru is independent and not affiliated with any stairlift manufacturer.