HC Deb 11 May 1970 vol 801 cc808-9
14. Mr. Brooks

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT the estimated number of adult males and females, respectively, who are suffering from such disorders of mind as to make them unlikely to find stable employment; and whether he will make further proposals to devise sheltered employment for such persons on the precedent of the Remploy factories.

Dr. John Dunwoody

The information is not available on which an estimate of this kind could be based. But hospital and local health authorities provide rehabilitation and training facilities for the mentally disordered, and both work closely with disablement resettlement officers of the Department of Employment and Productivity who arrange placements in sheltered and open employment. Further development of these activities seem to me to promise more than the devising of a new form of employment opportunity.

Mr. Brooks

Does not my hon. Friend agree that this is a very large and growing problem? Will he at least consider the possibility of giving matching aid to voluntary organisations which are prepared to raise funds for such purposes as the provision of sheltered employment following the precedent. say, of the provision of youth centres?

Dr. Dunwoody

This is a large problem. We are going some way towards solving it, though much remains to be done. It is interesting to note that 15 per cent. of Remploy employees and 25 per cent. of those in local authority and voluntary sheltered workshops are in the disability group of the mentally disordered. My Department will consider sympathetically any work done by voluntary organisations, although I would not want to go on record specifically as endorsing my hon. Friend's suggestion.

Mr. Fortescue

Is it not regrettable that the statistics asked for are not available? Will the hon. Gentleman consider recommending to his right hon. Friend that the unemployment statistics might be rearranged to include a special category for unemployables of this kind?

Dr. Dunwoody

As I have said, this is a large problem. We would not get the information that my hon. Friend the Member for Bebington (Mr. Brooks) wanted merely from studying the unemployment figures. We not only have the problem of the unemployables. We have the problems of those who may not be registered for employment at all. It is exceedingly difficult to obtain accurate and worthwhile figures on a national basis.