The Malta Labour Party's spokesman on social solidarity, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, has appealed to the National Commission for Persons with Disability to intervene in an effort to prevent a deterioration in the quality of life of persons with disability.

She insisted that the so-called reforms the government was carrying out at adult training centres were making the situation there worse both for the employees and, more so, for persons with disability.

Ms Coleiro Preca said reforms in this sector should be carried out in a way that did not disturb the disabled unnecessarily because any disturbance would have serious repercussions for disabled persons and their families.

There are a total of nine such adult training centres that receive about 500 persons with disability during the day. The centres were integrated within the Foundation for Welfare Services and fall under the agency Sapport.

Ms Coleiro Preca said workers who had been employed with the centres were being bypassed when it came to the filling of vacancies and in recruitment. There were many anomalies in the granting of contracts; there were workers who carried out the same work under different contracts.

All this, and the way Sapport senior managers treated workers, was leaving them without any motivation.

Ms Coleiro Preca said the so-called reform was having a negative impact on the food offered to persons with disability. The same food was being offered to disabled persons irrespective of their condition and needs. The food that was being offered was being prepared by employees at the centres, resulting in fewer employees being available to care directly for disabled persons.

She also lamented the government's failure to ensure the necessary number of professional staff was available.

The adult training centre at Hal Far, attended by about 100 persons daily, has been without the service of a nurse since July and parents were asked to give the medicine to disabled persons themselves. The centre in Sta Venera, where 70 persons attend daily, has been without a nurse since May of the last year, Ms Coleiro Preca said.