HC Deb 01 December 1975 vol 901 cc1413-20

11.20 p.m.

Mr. Caerwyn E. Roderick (Brecon and Radnor)

It is my privilege this evening to raise the subject of the provision of further education for handicapped persons in Wales.

I have been interested in special education for a number of years, and I have been impressed with the good work that has been carried on in special schools, but I appreciate that provision cannot be made in every part of the country. While discussing the subject of school leavers with teachers in a special school, it occurred to me that we should take a look at post-school provision for handicapped youngsters. On investigating the provision I found that nine colleges in England provide for handicapped young people. Some of these are devoted entirely to providing for the handicapped. Others contain a department devoted to these young people.

Such a college is the one in North Nottinghamshire, at Worksop. I must admit that I have never visited this college, but from what I have read and heard about, it is a model that appeals to me. It is attractive, because handicapped youngsters are integrated with other students whilst they still have special provision and care within a department in which certain members of the staff have responsibilities to them. Some residential accommodation is also available.

Having considered the situation in England, I looked at the position in Wales. What did I find? There is not a college in Wales which has special provision for this category. I would not wish to be misunderstood. I should be very surprised if any college which had a handicapped student on roll did not do its utmost to help that student. But that would be a different matter from catering for a group of students; it would be catering only on an individual basis.

We have very good provision for further education in Wales, but provision specifically for the handicapped is limited. I envisage selected colleges in Wales being chosen for adaptation so that a number of handicapped students can be accommodated. These should be in certain selected centres—say, four or five places—in Wales, so that they can draw on a number of day students, but a number of students would also have to board on a weekly basis.

I have chosen this idea rather than having one central college, so that a central college would have a number of students who would have to be boarded for the whole term. I think that there is merit in a weekly boarding system which allows students to return home for the weekend. I would locate them, therefore, in situations where no more than this would be required.

These colleges would enable students to pursue academic courses, and they could receive craft training to prepare them for jobs. Some may not have had such opportunities at school. There are many rural areas in which no special provision can be made for school education. Others may have been slow in learning at school—for very obvious reasons. Further education can make up for these difficulties.

We have such a scheme in prospect at Bridgend, in Mid-Glamorgan. Mid-Glamorgan County has submitted a scheme to have 20 residential places for handicapped students, apart from places for day students, and for 20 residential places for other students. This is to be attached to the local college of further education.

We are now looking for money for this scheme to be implemented. This could be a forerunner for other schemes throughout Wales—in fact, a pilot scheme. South Glamorgan, on the other hand, is interested in creating a centre for more advanced studies, and this could serve the whole of Wales and beyond. It has a number of colleges of further education, providing a variety of courses, and it feels that it can incorporate provision in these colleges. I hope that when it fully formulates these ideas, they will be given a fair wind.

In discussing these ideas with officials in South Glamorgan, we came to the conclusion that it would be most useful if those Government Departments with an interest in these matters could meet from time to time at officer level—I am thinking now of the DHSS, the Department of Employment, the Welsh Office and the Department of Education and Science—to discuss the needs of these young people. There could be continuing discussions, and at various times progress reports might be made to Ministers.

I should like to quote one sentence from the Queen's Speech, which says that Within available resources, they "— that is the Government— will give priority to children with special needs and to the vocational preparation of young people aged 16 to 19. If we combine the two parts of that sentence, the result is provision for 16-to-19-year-olds with special needs. I hope that that is what is intended—that we shall not keep those two categories apart but will combine them and give priority to the category of 16-to-19-year-olds who are handicapped. I stress the importance of providing for this category.

If we believe that any young people in our society have to be taught independence, surely it must be those who are handicapped, whether they be mentally or physically handicapped. It is pathetic to see these people, having received very expensive treatment at school, being allowed to become—I must use this term—"cabbages", when no further use is accorded to them. I believe that it is incumbent upon us to do everything possible to train them to be self-sufficient both at work and at home. I believe that further education is the way in which this process can take place.

I have been told that the more intelligent can look after themselves. Certainly they are able to get by very often, but I do not believe that they can look after themselves. They have physical needs that must be catered for. At present, the colleges will not cater for these needs. Therefore, I hope that we shall press on to ensure that these young people will be given provision within existing colleges—because we do not need to build new places. We must adapt existing colleges and have available staff with special responsibilities, but these people must be integrated with other students so that they can associate with life outside. This is vitally important, because eventually they will have to live and work in the world outside.

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for turning out at this late hour to respond to this debate, and I beg of her to look closely at this problem, because at present the only provision which these young people have in Wales is that of attending other colleges in England, and that is a pity, because they are away for such long periods. Indeed, the parents of young people such as these are extremely attached to them, and feel the loss tremendously when they have to go to other parts of the country.

11.28 p.m.

The Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science (Miss Joan Lestor)

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this matter. I know of the interest that he has shown in this matter over a long period. I have a great deal of sympathy with the views that he has expressed and with the problems that he has highlighted. He may be interested to know that recently I visited the Hereward College and spoke to many of the students, who are, of course, all physically handicapped.

It is clearly right, as my hon. Friend said, that students suffering from handicap and disability should have the fullest possible access to opportunities for further education, and these are by no means as extensive as we would wish them to be. It is also true that the problem is not just an educational one. Ideally, one would like to see a range of closely linked services for the disabled—educational, caring, housing, employment and health services—in which handicapped school leavers could be given the best possible opportunities for development.

As my hon. Friend is aware, we have on the statute book the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 which, among other things, requires that those undertaking the provision of buildings intended for educational purposes shall—I here quote from the Act— in the means of access both to and within the building, and in the parking facilities and sanitary conveniences to be available (if any), make provision, in so far as it is in the circumstances both practicable and reasonable, for the needs of persons using the building who are disabled". That Act was followed by the issue in 1970 of a joint DES-Welsh Office circular giving advice to local education authorities not only in connection with their statutory responsibilities under Section 8 of the Act but also in terms of the action which could be taken to provide easier access and better facilities for the handicapped in existing buildings. Since then, it has been the practice of the professional staff of the Welsh Education Office in Cardiff to check whether plans for new educational buildings show specific provision for disabled students and, where necessary, to remind authorities of their responsibilities under the Act.

A great deal can often be done, at relatively modest cost, to adapt existing buildings to the special needs of handicapped students. The bids made by local education authorities for the next programme of minor works suggest that this is well appreciated in Wales. In any case, it would be wrong to imply that the further education system in Wales is at present completely closed to the handicapped.

My hon. Friend is well aware, for example, of the industrial workshop centre with the Bridgend Technical College, which has been running since September and which provides remedial teaching as well as industrial training for pupils leaving ESN(M) schools and remedial departments of secondary schools. A similar project, but linked with the Industrial Rehabilitation Unit at Port Talbot, has been running for several years.

There are a number of courses, based on further education colleges, to help handicapped school leavers bridge the gap from school to work. The Cross Keys Technical College has recently started an experimental course for ESN(M) and ESN(S). In informal further education there are already established a number of youth clubs providing specifically for the handicapped.

I do not deny that this represents no more than a modest beginning, and my hon. Friend is right when he speaks of the need to ensure that the handicapped are not isolated from other areas of further education and general activity. We need to assess the needs more fully and to measure them against the facilities already available.

It is that need to get to grips with the size of the problem which led my right hon. Friend, in conjunction with the Secretaries of State for Wales and for Scotland, to set up the Warnock Committee of Inquiry to inquire into the educational provision for physically handicapped children and young people in England, Wales and Scotland. That Committee is hard at work on its brief, which includes transfer from school to work and, therefore, further education.

Evidence to the Warnock Committee will be supplemented or updated by the results of a national survey, which Her Majesty's inspectors, in Wales as in England, are conducting, of current provision for the handicapped in further education. The survey covers further education colleges, youth clubs and organisations and adult education, and will seek to bring together the views and experience of local education authorities, responsible bodies and the college principals, officers and others who are working in this field.

The need for an across-the-board approach to this problem has been recognised in Wales, as my hon. Friend is aware. During the last two or three years, there have been continuing interdepartmental discussions between the Welsh Education Office, the Welsh Inspectorate, the Social Work and Medical Services Divisions of the Welsh Office, and the Department of Employment. The WJEC co-operated by conducting a survey of Welsh local education authorities in 1973 to assess the number and needs of disabled school leavers. On the basis of this joint study a pilot scheme was devised for making special provision in a selected area. Progress was frustrated by the moratorium on educational building in October 1973, but the resumption of building programmes in 1974–75 made it possible to re-open discussions of the scheme. By that time, the Bridgend Technical College had been chosen as the location for the experiment and the Mid-Glamorgan authority has since prepared the scheme in detail and has submitted it for approval in the 1976–77 further education building programme. The project involves the provision of a lift for the existing three-storey teaching block at the college, a room of between 650 sq. ft. and 700 sq. ft. as a home base for the students, special toilet provision, ramps, and an extension of the dining area. It also includes the provision of a hostel on the college site with accommodation for 30 students, 15 of whom would be disabled, the other students being students pursuing full-time courses at the college who currently have to find accommodation in the Bridgend area. It is thought very desirable that disabled students should have this opportunity of mixing with other students and of thus becoming more integrated into the life of the college. I share my hon. Friend's views on this matter.

The indications are that authorities in Wales are giving thought to these problems and are very concerned about them. The newly-established institute of higher education in Clwyd is studying what special provision it might be able to make for disabled students. According to Press reports, the South Glamorgan authority is considering the feasibility of providing a student hostel and adapting its further education colleges to the needs of the physically handicapped. At present, all authorities are bound to be concerned about the pressure on their resources, and no doubt none of them feels able to do as much as it would like in this field. My hon. Friend can be assured, however, that the important interests which he has so ably defended here today are not in danger of being overlooked.

Mr. Roderick

Earlier in her speech, my hon. Friend mentioned discussions that took place between various Departments. Can she give hon. Members some idea of the way in which the talks progressed? We had no idea that they had taken place, and have had no report on them.

Miss Lestor

I shall certainly do that. From the interest that my hon. Friend has shown in this matter, I know that he will be very glad to have details of the discussions and what it is hoped will come out of them for the future. I shall write to him on that point.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at twenty-two minutes to Twelve o'clock