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Dept for Education and Employment;Employment Service

Answer

Mr. David Marshall: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will list the number of blind and disabled people and the number of able-bodied people employed in each sheltered workshop in Scotland indicating the cost of each category in each workshop; and if she will make a statement. [40034] Mr. Forth: 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 Mike Fogden to Mr. David Marshall, dated 14 October 1996: The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the number of people employed in Supported Workshops in Scotland. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency. Information on the number of people in Scottish workshops supported by the Employment Service (ES) under its Supported Employment Programme is provided at Annex 1. The Programme is provided under contracts between the workshop owners (who are local authorities or voluntary bodies) and the ES and covers placements with employers as well as workshop places. Information on the costs of workshop employees in the requested categories (blind people, other disabilities and non-disabled people) is not available. It is not required for management purposes by the ES; no figures are therefore obtained or kept. Information on the per capita costs of disabled employees supported by the ES is gathered by the ES from voluntary body and local authority contractors as it is a requirement for funding. Contractors provide this information to the ES on a confidential basis as it is commercially sensitive and so individual workshop figures are not publicly available from the ES. However the average cost per disabled employee in Scottish workshops, in 1994/95, the latest year for which figures are available, was £10,695. In that year costs ranged from a loss of £18,783 per worker in one workshop to a loss of £4,421 per worker in another. I hope this is helpful. ANNEX 1 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Name of workshop Location Number disabled Number blind Number non disabled Number other workers supported workers{2} workers not disabled workers by ES{1} including supported by ES{1} supported by ES{1} not supported by blind ES{1} Beltane Wishaw 19 1 4 0 Blindcraft Edinburgh 73 45 41 0 Dovetail Enterprises Dundee 70 28 48 0 Matrix, Fife Dalgety Bay 47 8 6 0 Blindcraft Glasgow 118 82 72 7 The Sign Factory Falkirk 38 6 5 0 Camphill Newton Dec 82 0 30 0 Erskine Hospital Workshops Bishopton 32 1 27 3 Hansel Village Symington 30 0 11 0 Haven Products{3} Glasgow 90 3 81 6 Lady Haig Edinburgh 27 3 10 0 Lord Roberts Edinburgh 8 0 5 0 New Trinity Industries Edinburgh 53 1 20 0 Blindcraft Inverness 21 2 7 0 Glencraft Group (Blindcraft Aberdeen 71 25 36 0 Aberdeen) Scottish Braille Press Edinburgh 26 7 7 1 Totals 805 212 410 17 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} Employment Service. {2} Includes partially sighted workers. {3} Haven Products operates from four separate sites but has been counted as one workshop unit in the table above.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

40034; 282 c726W;282 c724W

Session

1995-96

Subjects

Staff Disability Employment schemes Employment Service Scotland Visual impairment Workstep

Contains statistics

Yes