Affiliations: Rehabilitation Resource Centre, St Bartholomew School
of Nursing and Midwifery, City University, Northampton Square, London, EC1V
0HB, UK. Tel.: +44 1245 252829; Fax: +44 1245 252829; E-mail:
ajeurtis@fish.co.uk
Abstract: In 1996, a paper (Floyd, 1996), on the Vocational Rehabilitation
Services in the United Kingdom, reviewed the way in which the services had
evolved during the past 50 years, since the end of the second world war. The
author described the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944 and the development
of rehabilitation and placement services and sheltered workshops over the
years. He also gave readers a glimpse of possible future changes, and, in
particular, speculated that the UK might follow the United States in the
professional training and development of employment and vocational
rehabilitation personnel. This paper describes first the main services currently provided by
Government and then outlines the quite significant legislative changes and one
major policy development that have taken place in the past five years. This
includes an overview of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 which came into
force in late 1996, a brief look at some of the early outcomes, and describes
the latest proposals for amendment. A description of the major policy
development (New Deal for Disabled People) is also given but it is too soon to
report on its effectiveness. Whether the changes will lead to any lasting
improvement in labour market participation by disabled people, remains an
unanswered question; certainly, up to the present, from a statistical point of
view, it seems that the position remains much the same (Curtis J, forthcoming).
The paper concludes with discussion of the latest key issues and returns to the
question raised in 1996 about the training of employment and rehabilitation
personnel.
Keywords: vocational, rehabilitation, disability, management, workforce, UK
