The relationship between handicapped school leavers and support agencies, and its effect on short-term employment in...

In a year-long survey beginning on 1 June 1989, the Employment Medical Advisory Service received queries from careers officers about 162 individuals whose past or current health problems potentially affected their employability. Respiratory, neurological, 'other', sensory and orthopaedic diagnoses were most common (20, 20, 15, 13 and 12.5% respectively). Up to six months after the initial query, 37 (22.8%) were unemployed and 21 (13.0%) had either changed or lost jobs or training. In 13/21 instances (61.9%), health problems were alleged to be the reason for the change. The School Medical Service detected only 29 of these cases (17.9%). The main reasons for this low rate were: late age at diagnosis, failure to attend for examination, and correct decisions that no health problems existed. These results suggest that school leavers with health problems may not be best served by current arrangements, since they may either be unnecessarily restricted or exposed to hazards as a result of their job choice.