Disabled People (Hansard, 6 February 1995)

§ Miss Widdecombe

Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from M.E.G. Fogden to Mr. Gerry Steinberg, dated 6 February 1995: The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the number of disabled persons registered with the Employment Service and actively seeking work and disabled person attendance at Jobclub in the Durham District. I am unable to tell you how many people with disabilities are registered with the Employment Service in the Durham North District and are actively seeking work because we do not gather this information. However we do record the number of clients with health/disability problems who are placed in jobs by Jobcentres. I am pleased to be able to tell you that within the Durham North Employment Service District (covering the Durham City, Consett Stanley, Chester-le-Street and Spennymoor areas), 302 clients with health/disability problems have been placed into jobs during the period April-December 1994. This represents 4% of the total job placings for the ES Durham North District. Placing unemployed people with disabilities is a key activity of the Employment Service and is not the sole responsibility of our specialist staff such as Disability Employment Advisors (DEAs) or our Placing Assessment and Counselling Teams (PACTs). Not all ES clients with health and disability problems actually register as disabled persons under the Disabled Persons and Employment Acts 1944 and 1958. Some people are reluctant to disclose that they are disabled and many disabilities are not visible. Our services and help are available to any client with long term health or disability problems which affect the kind of work they can do, irrespective of whether they are actually registered as a disabled person. The ES Access to Work (ATW) scheme offers practical help and advice in a flexible way, tailored to suit individual need in individual jobs. ATW is only one of many programmes and special help provision available to clients with health problems. There are 7 Jobclubs within the ES Durham North District. During the period April-December 1994 there has been a throughput of 1060 clients including 79 people who though not necessarily registered disabled under the Acts, indicated that they have a long term health problem or disability which affects the kind of work they are able to do. Of these 1060 clients, 468 found a job but I am unable to say how many of these clients had previously had a health problem. I hope this is helpful.