Remploy to focus on mainstream employment

Remploy has announced that they will be closing 32 of their 83 factories across the UK, and merging another 11.  They will instead focus their funding on supporting disabled people into mainstream employment.
 
RADAR is supportive of the direction that Remploy is proposing, which involves investing more in supporting disabled people to get and keep open employment, and less in subsidised factories. We believe that all disabled people have the right to undertake employment according to our abilities, regardless of impairment.
 
RADAR has not commented on the detail of the proposals, as these will rightly be the subject of consultation with all who work in Remploy factories and other key stakeholders. Our support is, though, contingent on there being no compulsory redundancies of factory staff and on them being supported to secure other opportunities, either in open or sheltered work, on exactly the same terms and conditions as in Remploy.  Remploy has given these assurances.
 
The reasons RADAR supports the closure of some of the factories are that:
 
  • Remploy is funded by Government, which currently subsidises each disabled employee in a Remploy factory by (on average) £20,000. This is because many of the 83 factories are not economically viable (partly because manufacturing has declined).
  • It is not a question of ‘either’ sheltered employment ‘or’ open employment; but a question of the balance between the two. At present the lion’s share of Remploy’s budget goes on factories, set up after the 2nd world war at a time when a) factory work was widely available and Remploy factory experience equipped people for Britain’s labour market and b) no one considered disabled people going straight into mainstream employment. Times have changed.    
  • The resource made available to Remploy (well over £100 million per year) needs to be spent in the most effective way for disabled people. For the £20,000 it takes to subsidise one person in a factory, Remploy could support four disabled people to get and keep ordinary jobs. RADAR represents the interests of disabled people overall – including all those additional people who could benefit from Remploy resources if they spent them supporting more disabled people to work in open employment.
  • The Remploy model of subsidised employment is not sustainable in its current form.
 
RADAR understands that some people still think disabled people can only work in factories staffed predominantly by other disabled people.  However, we believe that, while these factories have been of real benefit in the past, disabled people are far more likely to have fulfilling lives, and to reach our potential, by working in an inclusive environment.
 
Many different organisations are expert at supporting disabled people to find work in open employment. Remploy alone has placed over 5,000 people in this way last year, more than are employed in Remploy’s entire factory network.
 
Remploy’s plans are likely to be the subject of much debate, especially in areas of the country that have a Remploy factory. There is much to discuss in the details of Remploy’s proposals – and RADAR will contribute to that. But the direction of travel – to more disabled people having greater opportunities for mainstream employment – is fitting for the 21st Century.