Resettlement policy and services for disabled people : a Department of Employment discussion paper for the National Advisory Council for the Employment of the Disabled.

  • Department Of Employment
Date:
1972]
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Resettlement policy and services for disabled people : a Department of Employment discussion paper for the National Advisory Council for the Employment of the Disabled. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Research Background 1 In May 1970, after consultation with the National Advisory Council, the Research and Planning Division undertook a detailed review of the Department’s policies and services for helping disabled people obtain and keep suitable employment. This was completed in March of this year. The aim of the review was to analyse the present situation, to undertake any necessary research, and to provide the Secretary of State with policy advice on how the Department’s policies and services might develop in the future. The results of much of the research will be made available either in this or in subsequent papers. 2 The review has naturally raised a number of important questions about the future development of the Department’s policies and services which are being considered within the Department and by the Secretary of State. Many of these questions have of course been examined by the Council and its sub-committees over the years; and members of the Council are well aware of the many difficult problems which need to be resolved. It is particularly important to emphasize therefore that no decision about future developments will be taken and no significant changes, should these seem desirable, will be made, until the Council and the other outside bodies concerned have been fully consulted. Programme of Consultations 3 The Department’s policies and services for helping disabled people obtain and keep jobs may for convenience be divided into four categories, namely: (i) The Resettlement Service. (ii) Industrial Rehabilitation and Training. (iii) The Quota Scheme and Designated Employment. (iv) Sheltered Employment. 4 These topics are of course closely linked but they are sufficiently distinct to enable them to be treated intelligibly as separate areas of policy — as long as it is constantly borne in mind that each affects the other. Consultations will take place with the Council on each of these issues on the basis of four separate papers or consultative documents. This approach will avoid the risk that progress on some issues will be delayed by attempting to make progress on all issues simultaneously. 5 The question of industrial rehabilitation and training illustrates this point. The Department is currently engaged in wide consultations about the proposal, set out in “Training for the Future”, that a National Training Agency should be established; and has already submitted papers on the implications of this proposal for the industrial rehabilitation and training of disabled people to the Council’s Training and Employment Committee. Until these consultations are complete, and a decision has been taken about the NTA, there would be little advantage in detailed discussions with the Council about the Department’s policies and services in this field. Moreover the recommendations of the Tunbridge Report on Rehabilitation, which was published on 15 June, need to be carefully considered before discussions with the Council on rehabilitation can sensibly begin. At any event it is hoped that a piecemeal approach will make the consultations more digestible for the Council. Summary of Paper 6 This first paper covers resettlement. The purpose is to analyse the characteristics of disabled people in the employment field and our present resettlement service; to
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