For OTs to achieve the goals of Housing Without Delay, making stairways accessible is therefore a critical priority
Only AAT can deliver stairway access without delay.
The Sella stairclimber, AAT’s top-selling model, is typically funded through equipment budgets and requires no installation. This means:
All that’s needed is a PEOP assessment to ensure suitability.
Unlike fixed stairway solutions, the Sella is fully portable. It can be used across multiple staircases—indoors and outdoors—enhancing both physical and mental wellbeing for the client.
Its design also reduces the need for transfers between seats, wheelchairs, and stairlifts. Once the stair transfer is complete, the carer can continue onward without moving the client from the Sella, supporting the carer’s wellbeing as well.
Most local authorities already own at least one AAT stairclimber. When no longer needed by the original user, it can be re-prescribed, recycled, and re-issued quickly and affordably.
The total cost—including PEOP assessment, servicing, and 1:1 carer training—is under £1,000. This enables timely preventative action without major capital expenditure.
No other stairway access provider offers this level of flexibility and value.
🔗 Learn more about AAT’s stairclimbing solutions: www.aatgb.com/s-max-sella
🔗 Explore the Housing Without Delay initiative: Foundations UK
REFERENCES
(1)https://www.foundations.uk.com/beyond-adaptations-launching-housing-without-delay/
(2)https://bregroup.com/press-releases/bre-report-finds-poor-housing-is-costing-nhs-1-4bn-a-year/
(3)https://www.rospa.com/campaigns-and-fundraising/current-campaigns/safer-stairs
Stairs- or our ability to use them- is one of the biggest issues facing people with limiting conditions, whether a short- or long-term problem, whether in a flat or house.
They are one of the main reasons disabled people need to move to accessible housing if their home is structurally unsuitable for an adaptation such as stairlift or through-floor lift.
Where appropriate, provision of a stairclimber could turn existing inaccessible homes into accessible homes.
AAT’s S-Max Sella- Britain’s top-selling stairclimbing wheelchair- is a stand-alone, mobile, battery-operated Class 1 Medical Device certified mobility aid. It can be supplied with an integral seat or fixed to a wheelchair.
The S-Max Sella has been designed and engineered with the capability to accommodate almost all staircase designs, even turns or narrow flights.
It does not require structural fixing or alterations. Because it is not fixed to the building fabric, one stairclimber can solve stairway access in townhouses, blocks of flats, or where external egress is impeded by steps.
It also does not impede the stairway for other users of the house or block of flats. All it requires is someone who can operate it (whom AAT trains to LOLER standards as part of the service) to safely transfer the limited person up and down stairs, such as the person’s resident carer.
And the cost of providing the kit can be almost negligible. Most local authorities already have at least one as part of their community equipment. Further, the Sella can be re-prescribed to another user when the original recipient no longer needs it, without any of the time, cost nor disruption of ‘making good’ with a permanent fixture.
Says Peter Wingrave, AAT Director, “I appreciate the solution depends on a number of variables. I accept it is not an answer in every case. But surely we should at least consider alternative ways to use already available resources, to address the hardship being faced by so many and avoid further encroachment on green belt?”
Full details of the stairclimber, including how it works video, can be found @
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Social housing landlords face a growing problem.
The majority of their tenants:
- have a long term impairment
- do not have the adaptations they need(1)
- housing stock is increasingly (35+% and growing(2)) flats.
We have an answer that offers best value for all involved.
Where appropriate, provision of a stairclimber enables the impaired person to get out of their home, up and down stairs safely, with dignity, without any permanent fixture that obstructs the stairway for other users.
In essence, a portable kinematic, battery-powered device that ascends or descends steps, at a rate set and controlled by the operator, our stairclimber will execute 300 steps from one charge.
Versions include integral seats, clip-to-wheelchair, and tracked. It can be accessorised to provide safeguarded, personalised correct postural support.
When not in use, it folds compactly away.
A stairclimber delivers compliance with the Equality Act Section 36.
It can also eliminate the need for DFG funding. It can enable the Housing Association to safeguard and mobilise tenants within a matter of days, whether for the short- or long-term, and manage the risk of their accessing all areas of their home and the community.
Use of the equipment means the tenant is no longer trapped in their flat, or on one level of their house. It also means no other residents are restricted in their use of the stairs.
It also addresses efficient evacuation with changes to the Building Safety Act coming into force in 2023.
As an added benefit, when the original tenant no longer needs it, the stairclimber can be allocated to another tenant anywhere else within the Association’s stock, without any need for structural modifications or making good.
Further, as part of the offering, we can train a nominated person within the Association to undertake the stairclimber issue process or manage it on the Association’s behalf. We will service the equipment in line with LOLER requirements.
“Stairs are one of the most common areas that require adaptation.
"But 35+% of social rented households are flats, with all the issues of enabling ALL tenants to safely get in and out of their homes- and the building.
"Our stairclimbers are proven in 90+% of cases in which we are involved to be the answer to overcoming the barrier of stairs, managing risk, improving safety, and enhancing dignity and independence.
"They are proven to have an impeccable safety record, and, with thousands of units already in use by local authorities across the country, a trusted, safe, unintrusive option."
Peter Wingrave, AAT Director
For a demonstration of the equipment, or free, no obligation review of a tenant’s suitability by one of our assessment managers, click the link: https://www.aatgb.com/mobility-stairclimbers/, email
sales@aatgb.com or telephone 01978 821875.
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References:
