Sayce says no more Remploy subsidy

Sunil Peck

The closure of Remploy factories would boost the job prospects of disabled people in the mainstream labour market significantly, a leading campaigner has concluded.

Liz Sayce, the Chief Executive of Radar, was commissioned by the Government to review specialist employment support.

Her review concluded that by withdrawing subsidies to Remploy, worth £25,000 a year per employee, the Government could redirect that investment to double investment in the Access to Work fund. This would, in turn, increase support for disabled people entering the mainstream employment sector.

Where economically viable, Liz Sayce said that Remploy factories should be supported through a transition process to become social enterprises led by disabled people.

She went on to say that current Remploy employees should be supported to find alternative employment.

The review also recommends diverting money away from residential training colleges, which supported 230 disabled people into work in 2009-10 at a cost of £78,000 each.

The review concludes that residential training colleges should compete for funding from alternative sources and introduce more flexible support.

Speaking at the launch of the review, she said: “I am recommending empowering disabled people and employers by opening up Access to Work, widening access to information and peer support and ensuring support can go with the individual, from job to job, equipping disabled people for the economy of today and tomorrow.  Young people do not expect a job for life – so we need to design support that can go with the individual, from job to job.”

Mike Smith, a director of the Disability Rights Partnership, a group made up of Disability Alliance, the National Centre for Independent Living and Radar, said: “The Sayce review’s recommendations would, if implemented by Government, contribute to economic growth in the long-term by ensuring more disabled people are better able to participate in work. We will know the Government is serious about ensuring disabled people can move off benefits and into sustainable employment when it accepts the Review recommendations.”

Paul Farmer, Chair of the Disability Charities Consortium, an alliance of the biggest disability charities, said: “The review’s recommendations on supporting Remploy factories to transform into social enterprises are another positive example of a bid to make support for disabled people work in the real world.”

Asked for her views on tackling employer prejudice against disabled people,Liz Sayce told Disability Now:  “The best way to break down prejudice is to have direct contact between disabled and non-disabled people in the workplace. We know that employers tend to become less prejudiced when they’ve employed somebody who is disabled. So rather than campaigns, the best approach is for employers to have the information and support that they may need to enable them to employ disabled people.”

The Government had not responded to the recommendations put forward in the review as Disability Now went to press.