The hidden reason for the closing of Remploy factories

In the UK there is supposedly a set of government policies to protect the poorest and most vulnerable members of society. One of these policies is the establishment of an organisation to provide sustainable employment for disabled people who are not able to find work in the mainstream workplace. These are typically people whose handicap has meant that they have been long term unemployed. The organisation that was established was Remploy and as part of the programme Remploy operated seventy or so factories where able bodied and disabled staff could work side by side. The purpose of these factories was to give those with disability a sense of purpose and some real world work skills that can be used to gain mainstream employment. The scheme worked well for a number of years, but three years ago there was a change from Remploy being a government body to being a public private operation, still part funded by government but also self funding with the idea that this would bring an enhanced commercial aspect to the organisation and would allow the disabled people being helped greater freedom to grow within the organisation.

As with so many public private initiatives (PPI) there have been issues from the outset, particularly around the roles of disabled people in Remploy factories, and the mismanagement of finances within the organisation. These have been well reported in the mainstream media, but in all of the stories of inefficiency, mistreatment of staff, poor conditions and inequality there is one key factor that seems to slip through the reporting net. The elephant in the room with Remploy, as with the use of commercial companies to provide welfare to work schemes generally is the whilst public bodies operate in the interest of the public, private organisations exist to serve the organisation. In a standard company this is not necessarily an issue since improving the ability f a workforce can bring increased efficiency for the organisation thereby improving the companies finances. The problem comes when there is an extra complication of the company in the form of the specific skills required to engage and nurture severely disabled workers. When disability is thrown into the mix what tends to be seen is that disabled workers are categorised into those with the ability to be trained easily, and those who aren't. Those who aren't tending to be left to fend for themselves as best they can.

This is the situation that has occurred leading to the current news that fifty four of Remploys protected factories are to close with the disabled staff being sent back to the unemployment office and back into long term unemployment. The official story is that disabled staff were not being suitably catered for in these factories and that the return on investment was not sufficient. The reality is rather different. Those most vulnerable members of society are being sold down the river simply because the mix of public and private business interests have made a decision that looking after them has become too hard. So, at a time when it is increasingly difficult for able bodied unemployed workers to find jobs we are about to see the re-introduction of a whole load of very disabled workers who will find it even harder to find work. What will be interesting to see will be what happens in six months time when these people are told that their benefits will be stopped if they can't find work. Expect a strong backlash as yet another example of why PPI doesn't work, particularly when it involves dealing with vulnerable members of the public.