§ Mr. Geoffrey Lloydasked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity to what extent her Department undertakes the rehabilitation for employment and retraining of professionally qualified persons who have sustained head or other types of injury which makes it difficult for them to return to their original occupations but who are unsuitable for training in manual skills; how many persons are now undergoing such retraining; and what plans she has for enlarging and improving training and rehabilitation for such persons.
§ Mr. Dell:Courses at my Department's industrial rehabilitation units are available to all classes of disabled persons, and it is planned to increase the 2,257 places now provided in the units to over 2,600 within the next five years. It is known, however, that these facilities are rarely used by the professionally qualified; precise figures are not readily available.
172WMy Department also provides training for the disabled in non-manual occupations at residential training colleges, at technical and commercial colleges and, by special arrangement, with employers. These facilities can be varied according to need. In suitable cases financial help is also given towards the cost of retraining at professional level, and on 9th March 45 trainees were being assisted in this way.