Remploy (Hansard, 20 February 1995)

§ Ms Hodge
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is his Department's view on the decision of Remploy in Barking to increase the number of able-bodied employees and of the effect of this policy on employment opportunities for disabled people.

§ Miss Widdecombe
Remploy's Barking factory is a twin site, with both bookbinding and packaging units. There are 146 severely disabled employees with 15 non-disabled employees in clerical, technical, supervisory and managerial roles. Remploy has not increased, and does not intend to increase, the number of non-disabled employees in either unit.

§ Ms Hodge
To ask the Secretary of Stale for Employment what consideration his Department has given to the knock-on effects of the interwork scheme on the skills base of Remploy; and if he will make a statement.

§ Miss Widdecombe
Remploy has around 8,900 severely disabled employees of whom about 1,450 are employed under interwork. The interwork scheme enables Remploy's disabled workers to be supported in jobs in a variety of host firms outside Remploy. The interwork scheme has had no knock-on effect on the skills base in Remploy factories; the company is in fact taking steps to increase the skills of its employees.
Remploy has introduced a special programme called Choices designed to give new recruits to Remploy, as well as the company's existing employees, the opportunity, guidance and training to plan a career best suited to their individual needs. Remploy has introduced individual training plans aimed at improving skills. Company training programmes encourage development of basic core skills, such as numeracy and literacy, while aiming to help people gain a national vocational qualification or 6W employed by (a) Remploy, (b) local authority workshops, (c) voluntary run workshops, (d) local authority sponsored sheltered placements and (e) voluntary organisation sheltered placements on each of the last five years.

§ 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. Peter Thurnham, dated 20 February 1995: The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the average cost per person on the Supported (formerly Sheltered) Employment scheme. The information you requested is shown in the following table. This shows the full cost to the contractor, per person, per year, towards which the Employment Service (ES) makes a contribution. In 1993/94 the ES contribution was £3,480 per worker to local authorities and £4,310 per worker to voluntary bodies. In the same year, the subvention for Remploy was £89.2 million.
credits towards one. Remploy groups are working towards investors in people status and some factories have already achieved this.