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About Us

QEF works with people living with physical and learning disabilities or acquired brain injuries to gain new skills and increase independence. Whether it’s learning everyday life skills, rebuilding a life affected by brain injury, acquiring the skills to drive a specially adapted car or training for future employment QEF supports disabled people to achieve goals for life.

History

It all began in 1932, when Dame Georgiana Buller, then Chairman of the Central Council for the Care of Cripples, suggested a need for a residential training college for disabled people. In 1933, as Patron of the Central Council, the late Queen Mother, then HRH The Duchess of York, expressed her support for the proposal in order that disabled people might be retrained and find suitable employment in either commerce or industry through the work of this specialised disability charity.

When the College opened in November 1934, it was called the ‘Cripples’ Training College’ and remained so until 1941 when, after an informal visit by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth (the late Queen Mother), she expressed the wish that it should bear her name – Queen Elizabeth’s Training College for the Disabled.

As more services were opened, the charity became Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation for Disabled People. In 1934, this disability charity supported 16 individuals, today it serves thousands of disabled people each year.