What is the history of the Social Firm movement?
The Social Firm movement in the UK is a relatively recent one. Inspiration was originally derived from developments in Germany and Italy where significant employment levels for disabled people had been achieved through the development and support of Social Firm businesses. Social Firms UK itself started as a European funded project, with partners in these two countries, and initially commenced raising awareness about the model in this country with the help of German and Italian partners in 1997. From 1999 to 2006 Social Firms were defined as market-led enterprises set up specifically to create good quality jobs for disabled people. (From 2007 that definition was wided to include people suffering other disadvantages in the labour market.) Initially, when Social Firms UK began life as a project in 1997, there were five Social Firms and an unidentified number of emerging Social Firms. By the end of 1999 this number had increased to 22 Social Firms and a further 50 or so emerging Social Fi
