§ Mr. SoleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement regarding his decision to stop the expansion of the sheltered placement scheme in 1990–91.
Mr. Jackson[holding answer 31 January 1991]: The sheltered placement scheme (SPS) is part of my Department's sheltered employment programme. Since 1985 the scheme has been extremely successful in offering people with severe disabilities a wide choice of employment opportunities.
In 1990–91 my Department is making available to local authorities and voluntary organisations £4.2 million more than the previous year to support jobs for people wiih severe disabilities. Our first priority in using this additional money has been to help maintain the jobs of existing SPS workers by increasing the grants paid to sponsors to assist in meeting their rising wage bills and administrative costs. In 1990–91 the scheme will support an average of 6,700 sheltered placement jobs throughout the country at an estimated cost of £15.7 million. Whilst there has been no increase in the number of SPS places in 1990–91, previous patterns of turnover indicate that some 1,000 existing places nationally are likely to become vacant to allow new entrants to join the scheme.