Remploy plans factory closures with 1,700 job losses
Factories providing subsidised employment for people with learning difficulties in the following places and their wider hinterlands are to close accroding to this piece.
Aberdare Aberdeen Abertillery Acton Ashington Barking Barrow Birkenhead Bolton Bridgend Bristol Chesterfield Cleator Moor Croespenmaen Edinburgh Gateshead Leeds Leicester Manchester Merthyr Tydfil Motherwell Newcastle-on-Tyne North London North Staffs Oldham Penzance Pontefract Poole Preston Southampton Spennymoor Springburn Swansea Wigan Worksop Wrexham.
I have been involved with Landmarks a North Derbyshire College supporting people with learning difficulties for 17 years. I know how difficult it is for our students to find supported employment. I know how doubly difficult it is for those that live in our rural catchment. It is not fair for me to criticise the decision to withdraw funding from these factories from a political perspective. I just offer the reflection that this is just one amongst many examples of how the difficulties facing the public purse are having a disproportionately negative impact on one of the most vulnerable groups in society.
Changes to educational funding for people with learning difficulties (16-25) more widely, which will increasingly divert them to the cheapest provision in mainstream FE Colleges, and away from bespoke specialist provision, will exacerbate the challenges they face.
I fear when combined with huge cuts to day care budgets, increasing numbers of vulnerable people in this category will face a huge deterioration in their quality of life, with nothing to fall back on to rectify the situation.