AN initiative is being launched to move people with learning disabilities away from large day-care centres and into community-based projects.

As part of the plan, day services such as those provided at Beck House, Darlington, would be run alongside new, smaller projects which would encourage people into work and education.

At the moment, many people with disabilities spend their time in large day-care projects where they receive care and entertainment, but there are plans to make other opportunities such as employment available.

A spokesman for Darlington Borough Council said: "We are told that people no longer want to go into large day-care centres like Beck House, but would prefer to go into smaller units. We are told that people do like the staff at Beck House and would like them to continue to help to support them into the new service.

"Some people want to go out to work and be paid, so it is important for them to be able to do this.

"And some people want to be supported to go to work, so we need to make staff available to help.

"We know that Beck House is not the best place to help people, so we want to plan a range of services that move people away from big buildings.

"This means we have to look at smaller places, transport, staffing and all the other pieces that go to set up a day service.

"We know that Beck House is the biggest part of the service, but we also want to look at all the other places where people go."

The council spokesman stressed that there were no plans to shut Beck House in the immediate future.

Some employment projects are already run at businesses, including Morrisons stores and Techworx, but the council hopes to encourage more firms to agree to take on staff with learning disabilities.

The council also wants to make it easier for children with disabilities to move on to further education, rather than being fed into the adult service which may not be appropriate.

The project will be debated by the council in the New Year and the draft plan will be modified before work begins on revising services