Providing practical help to home owners, the small repairs and handypersons service helps older and disabled people stay in their homes as long as possible. Over the past year the service carried out 2,890 jobs in 1,921 houses, helping over 300 clients a month.

The service is managed by Horizon Housing Association on behalf of Link Group Ltd, and is funded by North Lanarkshire Council and NHS Lanarkshire.

Care and Repair’s small repairs service helps owners, who are of pensionable age or are disabled, with small repairs - such as adjusting doors, small plumbing repairs and minor electrical work in the home. These are carried out by the team’s repairs officers. There is a small charge of £10 plus VAT and the owner must pay the cost of any materials.

A handyperson service is also available to older or disabled residents (irrespective of whether they are home owners or not) to help with tasks such as putting up curtain poles; changing light bulbs, changing batteries in smoke alarms and other general household tasks.

Councillor Barry McCulloch, convener of housing and social work services, said: “It’s great news that the Care and Repair North Lanarkshire service continues to help residents across our communities. It’s testament to the excellent local partnerships in place here and the fabulous volunteers who make this service possible.

“I’m sure the service will continue to provide a vital lifeline to many older people and help keep people safe in their homes. I wish Care and Repair every success for the future.”

“As well as raising the service’s profile and carrying out more repairs we’ve also been recruiting additional volunteers to assist with handyperson tasks to allow us to help more people,” added Aileen Carson, services development manager, Horizon Housing Association Ltd.

“To help these volunteers we’ve introduced an induction session and arrange training for them too. We’ve also seen a new joiner, electrician and volunteer project worker joining the team.

“This service is a fantastic example of how people can work together to make a real difference across communities.”

Clients are asked to complete a satisfaction survey for every job completed. For 2015/16, 99 per cent of clients rated the service as excellent and 1 per cent as good. It’s great to have this feedback.

Some comments include: Mrs M, Wishaw, said: “This service is wonderful. It is a great help when you have no one to do the job for you. I have recommended the service to many.”

Mrs. S. from Cumbernauld said: “Staff are so kind, from the initial phone call to the handyperson arriving. They are well mannered and polite.”

And, 15,000th customer, Mrs Cairney from Airdrie, added: “It’s a valuable service that helps out with small jobs that have become difficult for us to manage on our own.”