Vocational services review : the report of the Department Review Team on support for sheltered workshops and the provision of employment and vocational assistance to people with disabilities.

1.1 This report was prompted by the need to review the statutory responsibility of the Department of Social Welfare under the Disabled Persons Community Welfare Act (1975) to provide assistance to people with disabilities to undertake training, rehabilitation, and employment. These services are run largely through the Rehabilitation League, and the New Zealand Society for the Intellectually Handicapped and a network of independent sheltered workshops, some linked under the Federation of Sheltered Workshops. However, it is the sheltered Workshop and the 75% salary subsidy programme which are the focus of this report. While specifically looking at sheltered workshops, the review team has endeavoured to see them in the broad context of the department's own rehabilitation services, and within the still wider context of assistance provided by the Departments of Education and Health, New Zealand Employment Services and Accident Compensation Commission. The information was obtained during 1988 and early 1989 by departmental staff from the directorate responsible for services for Older People and People with Disabilities. The review aimed to identify the education/training and work/employment needs of people with disabilities and decide how these could be most effectively met. It marks the first step in an endeavour to develop new and more appropriate directions in Vocational rehabilitation services. [AJ].