Disabled jobs boost as Remploy places record number in mainstream roles

A record number of disabled people found work through using Remploy's services last year.

The specialist provider said in the 12 months to the end of March 2008, it found 6,600 jobs in mainstream employment for people with disabilities - an increase of 27% on the previous year.

The figures include 4,600 jobs under the government's Workstep programme, which is aimed at those who experience the greatest barriers to finding and keeping a job - a rise of 47% on the previous year.

More than 40% of the people helped into work by Remploy last year had a learning disability or mental health problem.

About a fifth of the jobs were administrative and 15% in warehousing and logistics, with the remainder are in a range of other roles in sectors including manufacturing, catering, hygiene and hospitality.

Bob Warner, Remploy chief executive, said: "These excellent figures are all the more remarkable because they were achieved while Remploy was going through a period of substantial change as we implemented our modernisation programme."

The organisation has a target of finding more than 20,000 disabled people jobs in mainstream employment by 2012.

Over the past year the GMB union has been involved in a bitter dispute with Remploy over planned factory closures as part of the organisation's modernisation plan.