Sheltered Employment and Disability in the British Welfare State

Remploy, 1944–1979

Andy Holroyde

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9783031878756
• eBook ISBN:
  9783031878763
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

This book explores sheltered employment for disabled people in the British welfare state, focusing on Remploy as the flagship provider. It considers the fundamental areas of understanding Remploy, in terms of why it was created, how it functioned, who it employed, and how far it came to dominate the wider field of provision. The book further uses sheltered employment as a new lens through which to explore key aspects of the welfare state in the period. These include the creation of the post-war settlement; the extent of political consensus; the exclusion of disabled people from welfare and work; the role played by gendered thinking in the welfare state’s provisions; and the relationship between the state and voluntary sectors. In so doing, it sheds new light on the history of disability, employment, and welfare in Britain.

Table of contents

• New Directions in Welfare History
• Sheltered Employment and Disability in the British Welfare State
• Series’ Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• List of Tables
• 1. Introduction
• 2. ‘When the War-Drums Cease to Roll’, Creating the Postwar Scheme
• 3. ‘Human vs Economic’, Contesting the Purpose of Remploy
• 4. ‘If We Do Not Want a Man, We Do Not Take Him’, Eligibility, Recruitment and Retention
• 5. Women in Remploy: Access, Segregation and Status
• 6. The Mixed Economy and the Moving Frontier of the State
• 7. Conclusions
• Bibliography
• Secondary Sources
• Index