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This paper describes supported employment, its growth as an alternative to traditional day services and research which indicates potentially beneficial outcomes in the areas of increased employee income, social integration, satisfaction, engagement in activity, employer satisfaction, and in the relationship between financial costs and savings. Outcomes may be reduced due to welfare benefit restrictions that hamper transition into employment, and more part‐time jobs are found as a result in the UK compared to the USA. Providers face problems with low expectations among carers, lack of knowledge of disability among employers, and their funding is precarious. If people with severe disabilities are not to be excluded from supported employment, commissioners need to consider the outcomes they require and the priority needs of clients when setting day service contracts.

This paper revisits the aspirations of the authors for supported employment development from 1997 against a changing policy context with the introduction of Valuing People and Valuing People Now. It reviews developments in employment policy, innovation, the framework for funding supported employment and changes in the level of employment for people with learning disabilities since 1997. It summarises the progress in this area over the period, and suggests the need for further action to deliver the Government's vision of employment inclusion and to secure the rights of people with learning disabilities to a place in the workplace.

This research looked at the TATE [Through Assistive Technology to Employment] Project and its delivery of ICT/AT to people with learning disabilities. It tested whether the Project affected the independence, skills, choice and control exercised by people with learning disabilities, and if staff attitudes and skills were changed. A purposive sample of 29 people with learning disabilities were selected, and keyworkers were surveyed with a postal questionnaire at two time periods. Questionnaires covered AT/ICT received and any outcomes in: independence; skills; choice and control. Staff were asked about changes in their skills and attitudes. Questionnaires were transcribed and organised into common themes. Staff became supportive of assistive technology and developed ICT skills. Service users used ICT, and developed ‘life stories’ using Powerpoint. A variety of AT was also installed leading to increased independence, confidence and skills. AT/ICT can improve independence and services by putting people with a learning disability at the centre of a well planned and resourced strategy.

That there has been a flood of this type of case in recent years—a flood which shows no signs of abating —must be manifest to all. In a paper “Food Sampling: Changing Trends” presented to a Sessional Meeting of the Royal Society of Health last March, Dr. H. Amphlett Williams, public analyst, tabulated a comparison of prosecutions in England and Wales reported in this Journal for five years before the War (1936–40) with five years since (1956–60). This showed that in the first period, “foreign body” cases were non‐existent compared with 37 per cent of total cases reported in the second period. It also showed that cases concerned with adulteration were 39 per cent of the total and milks, in particular, 41 per cent compared with 12 and 16 per cent respectively for the post‐war period.

Workers live two overlapping lives, at work and outside work. The spillover of favourable workplace experiences into non-work domains of life means that the workplace can be a means by which organisational members who experience network poverty arising from adverse social factors can overcome social exclusion. Social acceptance and interaction data from 105 adults with mild to moderate learning disabilities working in eight social enterprises in the UK and Ireland is examined to establish the link between organisation culture and workplace social integration. In this study organisation cultures in which user/worker-involvement in management and control decision-making is emphasised seem to engender a positive influence on the social interaction experiences of members with learning disabilities in work and non-work domains of life, having regard to difference in demographic factors, employment characteristics, country of residence, and level of disability. The study accentuates the importance of workplace democracy in enhancing the quality of life of working adults with learning disabilities, who might otherwise be disenfranchised in numerous areas of life.

A pet phrase of a competent teacher of mathematics years ago was: “Figures by themselves have no meaning.” And everyone knows that statistics are deceitful things. Mr. W. Johnston's batting average in this country this year was 102, although his position in the batting order was never higher than number 11. He is reported indeed to have said of himself: “I am the ferret of the Australian team; they put me in after the rabbits.” But his position at the head of the batting averages could lead to a preposterously erroneous conclusion.

The war between formidable rivals for the use of the word “Champagne” continues. It began in 1958 at the Old Bailey with a prosecution brought under the Merchandise Marks Act alleging the application of a false description, viz., “Spanish Champagne” to goods and a second charge of applying the false description “champagne.” For the prosecution it was stated that “champagne” could only come from the Champagne district of France, which in 1921 the French Government had officially established and limited as the sole area for the production of champagne. Such a description applied to a Spanish wine, therefore, was false and misleading. The prosecution failed. The judge had stated there was overwhelming evidence of wines having lost the territorial origin of their names.