§ Mr. Bradleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he has made any study of the employment of disabled people in the National Health Service.
§ Mr. Alfred Morris:Earlier this year I commissioned a study in Derbyshire, which was selected as a representative area health authority. At the time of the study, 1 per cent. of the authority's employees were registered as disabled. Every employee was sent a questionnaire and those returned were analysed.
The results suggest that the registration system under-records the number of disabled people employed in the NHS. The information given by employees showed that the number of people entitled to register as disabled, but who had chosen not to do so, is almost double that of the number who are registered. The study also showed that the proportion of disabled people who are registered varies to a considerable extent according to the type of disability. There was, for example, a low rate of registration for arthritics and sufferers from heart, circulatory and back complaints. Even for amputees, only one in two was registered. There was also substantial differences in the degree of registration as between different groups of staff. The proportion was particularly low in the case of nursing staff, where the study suggested that 1.06 per cent. of staff might be entitled to register but only 0.19 per cent. had done so.
The study also showed that the main scope for increasing the number of disabled people employed was in administrative and clerical grades, and this point has now been drawn to the attention of health authorities.