Queen Elizabeth's Foundation for Disabled People

Queen Elizabeth's Foundation for Disabled People (QEF) is a leading UK disability charity working with people with physical and learning disabilities or acquired brain injuries to help them gain new skills and increase independence for life.

It operates a brain injury centre in Banstead and a mobility centre in Carshalton, as well as independent living services in Leatherhead in Surrey. It also operates a chain of charity shops in the south east of England.

The President of QEF is Corinna, Lady Hamilton of Dalzell DL. The Chairman is Rob Douglas CBE DL. The Chief Executive is Jonathan Powell.

The QEF family of charities also comprises the Voluntary Association for Surrey Disabled (VASD), MERU and Sutton Shopmobility.

History

Queen Elizabeth's Foundation for Disabled People was founded in 1932 by Dame Georgiana Buller, the Vice Chairman of the Central Council for the Care of Cripples. It opened as a vocational training college in 1934 under the name the Cripples' Training College, taking physically disabled trainees with conditions such as paralysis and tuberculosis. A women's section was set up in 1946.

In 1948 the foundation acquired the Dorincourt Estates in Leatherhead and in 1956 set up Banstead Place Medical Rehabilitation Centre. The College and the facilities at the Dorincourt Estates were amalgamated to become Queen Elizabeth's Foundation for the Disabled in 1967. The college developed a vocational approach to training disabled people and expanded to run workshops in areas such as engineering draughtsmanship and computer programming, as well as a mobility scheme.^[1] Between 2010 and 2015 QEF established a family of charities through mergers.

References

External links

• Website