[Pathways leading to work--the Hamburg integration specialty service]

A model project of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Hamburg Integrationsfachdienst zur Eingliederung Schwerbehinderter (IFD Hamburg, selective placement and support agency for occupational integration of persons with severe disablement) has been active since 1998 in placing people with sensory or physical handicap in the open labour market, based on cooperative partnership between Adecco Dienstleistungen, a market-oriented temporary staff business, and the vocational retraining centre Berufsförderungswerk Hamburg, provider of training programmes for vocational rehabilitation. The IFD combines social competence with business considerations (counselling employers, clarification of wage subsidies or grants, in-depth job analysis, preliminary selection of suitable job seekers). A proactive customer orientation vis-a-vis the prospective employer is the clear message of the IFD's consultants, which hence acts as a professional staff service for severely disabled job seekers in its dealings with the prospective customers, in their majority company decision-makers from small and medium scale firms. Counselling and support offered to the disabled clients are based on a case-management approach, in partnership with the IFD's principals, i.e., employment office, pension insurance fund, industrial injuries insurance institutes, and sometimes also health insurance funds.