Hobcarts for children

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32803, 31 December 1971, Page 11

Hobcarts for children

Handicapped children in Britain will benefit through co-operation between apprentices at an engineering firm and young offenders in detention centres, who are making invalid carriages for the children.

The carriages are in the form of hand-operated hobcarts and have been specially designed by apprentcies at a Wolverhampton firm of precision engineers.

Their manufacture was suggested to young offenders at the Stoke Heath (Borstal) centre who, says the British Home Office, “responded with spirit” to this opportunity to serve the community. They completed 100 of the vehicles in time for Christmas. Stoke Heath has a modern machine shop which is now tooled to manufacture 1000

of the carriages, while other penal establishments are contributing machine parts, upholstered seats, and number plates.

Commenting on current British schemes which aid young offenders to rehabiliation, Mr Mark Carlisle, a Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Home Office, says: “There is clear evidence that, given opportunities of working directly for the handicapped, for the old, or the infirm, the trainees respond with spirit. “Our reward will be the knowledge that, with the help of the prison service, some handicapped children will acquire a degree of independent mobility they would not otherwise have had,” he said. The hobcart can be used by children aged from three

or four up to about 12 years of age who are paralysed below the waist.

It is propelled by a forward and backward movement of the arm and body and can be turned almost within its own length. A gear lever enables the child to go forwards or backwards at will. Apart from a brake for the child’s use, there is a locking brake on the rear wheel, which can be operated by an accompanying adult who can also push the cart with a removable handle which is stored by the child’s seat.

Britain’s prison industries are engaged in a wide variety of work in textiles, woodwork, engineering, printing, laundry and other service industries.

Current production is running at a level of £10,000,000.