Healthcare professionals

The William Merritt Disabled Living Centre is a registered charity and social enterprise. Led by General Manager, David Blythe, it is staffed by a team of occupational therapists, approved driving instructors and administrators. The Centre is an accredited member of Driving Mobility.

We are commissioned or contracted by Leeds City Council’s Adult Social Care service, by NHS CCGs and by the Department for Transport. We welcome referrals from professionals and we offer advice, information and training courses.

What we do

Our team carries out impartial assessments for:

Daily living
Scooter & powered wheelchairs
Walking and general mobility
Leisure & work

Vehicle adaptations and fitness to drive
Passenger & driver car access
Assistive technology
Driving lessons for adapted vehicles
Theory test support for learners

Services we offer professionals

Information, advice & events
Moving & handling training – see course dates here

Back care and wheelchair courses
Equipment demonstrations

Who can refer?

We welcome referrals from professionals:

NHS healthcare professionals – it is free to refer patients to us (except for the Try b4u Fly aircraft cabin assessment).
Private therapists – fee of £400
Rehabilitation case managers – fee of £400

Professionals at DVLA, Motability and the police may all refer clients to us.
Clients can also self-refer. A fee is required in some cases and these vary – they are explained on the services pages.

Children’s safety beds

We request that safety beds referrals come from a supporting professional directly rather than the family because we have to ensure there are no safeguarding concerns around this type of bed being used in the family home.

We are a stand-alone charity and do not have access to NHS or Social Care services or databases, therefore the information given to us is what is provided on the referral form. We also do not see the children at home and provide the assessment as a snapshot in time of what is most suitable for the presentation at our Centre on the day.

If this referral is for us to look at an enclosed bed where the child is unable to get out independently, we want to make sure that we are looking at the least restrictive option for the child and other solutions have been explored beforehand.

Please advise if you think that a safety bed is a suitable and necessary piece of equipment for this child, and why, to allow us to proceed with this referral.

Refer for a children’s bed assessment

If you would like to refer your client or patient, please use the Booking button at the top of the page.

What regions do we cover?

Adult and paediatric services: primarily LS, BD and WF postcodes, but we welcome enquiries from further afield.
Driving assessment service: Yorkshire. Offered in Leeds and at our satellite centres in York, Sheffield, Hull and Doncaster.

Feedback from our clients

A very helpful and informative practical assessment by friendly informative assessors, very helpful.

The OT was very good, pleasant and thorough.

The assessment was a pleasure, informative & ultimately successful. I would willingly recommend William Merritt.

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