Jobs for disabled promises Labour

Press, 14 May 1984, Page 5

Jobs for disabled promises Labour

Oliver Riddell

Labour has promised that, if elected, a constant and a fair number of jobs will be made available for disabled people in the State sector.

Special employment officers would be appointed in the Labour Department to provide assessment and guidance for the disabled. The policy was unveiled at a Conference for the Disabled at Hamilton by Mr G. B. Braybrooke, the member of Parliament for Napier. He said that Labour would call a special conference early in 1985 to air all the problems associated with the sales tax, import duties, and customs duties on the special equipment and transport needed by disabled people. Changes would be made to allow the maximum assistance possible.

Home-help services would

be extended and special attention paid to providing support services for those people caring for the disabled at home, he said. The disadvantaged would receive the concern and care to which they were entitled in spite of tight economic circumstances. Maximum co-ordination of all services would be ensured by a re-examination of all Ministerial responsibilities, Mr Braybrooke said. Disabled people would be represented on committees involved in planning their future, and consideration would be given to the appointment of an advocate for the disabled.

A strengthened Council for the Community Welfare of Disabled Persons would be given responsibility for co-ordinating all rehabilitation services, he said. One of the new council’s first tasks would be to provide statistics giving a com-

prehensive picture of the handicapped so policies devised were appropriate, and finance could be allocated to the areas of greatest need.

Legislation would be introduced giving free access for all children to the education or training they needed, Mr Braybrooke said.

Wherever possible, disabled children should attend ordinary schools. This would require funds for such items as special books for the partially sighted. To provide for young children with handicaps, Mr Braybrooke said that Labour would ensure the development of after-care services, the training of workshop facilities for handicapped children beyond school age, and a community-based residential facility for those who were not independent and who could not live at home.