§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will consider maintaining the number of staff posts at employment rehabilitation centres to ensure that disabled people do not face any loss in choice of trades available to them.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkIt is the function of employment rehabilitation centres not to train their clients in specific trades but to provide them with opportunities in which they can test and improve their physical and mental capacity for a return to work.
Current developments in the rehabilitiation programme, some of which involve staffing changes, are designed to make the overall service more relevant to the employment opportunities that are available and to the needs of disabled people.
§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for Employment what measures have been taken to ensure that the facilities employment rehabilitation centres share with skillcentres will not be affected following the closure of some skillcentres.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkFive employment rehabilitation centres share sites with skillcentres which are due to close 407W by March 1986. The Manpower Services Commission is now exploring with the Property Services Agency the feasibility, in each case of maintaining an independent employment rehabilitation centre on the existing site or whether it would be necessary to relocate the centre elsewhere in the same area.