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Smashing the Skills Shortage

Published: 15/12/2022

An inaugural conference entitled ‘Smashing the Skills Shortage’ took place on 28 October at Coleg Cambria to launch a Flintshire-based pilot project to promote employment opportunities for disabled people and to address the skills shortages and recruitment issues affecting locally operating businesses. 

Flintshire County Council has been working in partnership to develop the initial stages of the pilot project with Deeside Business Forum and other supporting partners such as Hft and the North Wales Together: Seamless Services for People with Learning Disabilities team. 

The event, jointly organised by the Council and Deeside Business Forum, was attended by Neil Ayling, Chief Officer, Social Services and Councillor Christine Jones, Cabinet Member for Social Services and Wellbeing, who both spoke in support of the new initiative. Councillor David Healey Cabinet Member for Climate Change and the Economy also spoke at the event.

Councillor Jones said:

“It was a real pleasure to attend this event to show the Council’s support for this wonderful project.  We are fully committed to providing quality services for people with learning disabilities, and supported employment is a key priority.  Everyone deserves to have the same opportunities – earning a wage, living independently and developing friendships.  

“We have a supportive business community in Flintshire and those businesses present today have a fantastic opportunity to be part of Project Search in Flintshire, from the very start, and to benefit from having these talented people as part of their workforce.”

The conference also included presentations from Hft, Next Steps, a local authority mental health support service and Double-Click Design Social Enterprise and showcased the successes and the positive impacts that supported employment opportunities can provide.

Guest speakers at the event included Lord Barry Jones, Jack Sergeant MS and Terry Mills, a Welsh Government Disabled People’s Employment Champion. 

A special video message of support by Vaughan Gething, the Welsh Government Minister for Economy Minister, was also shown at the conference. 

The event was extremely well attended and provided a valuable networking opportunity for social services, third sector partners, educational services and local businesses which will drive the success of this exciting pilot project as it progresses to its next phase of development.  Since the event there have been three enquiries from businesses with potential offers of employment.

^{Pictured L-R: Sian from Double-Click Design, Jo Taylor, FCC Disability, Recovery & Progression Service Manager, Carolyn Thomas MS, Neil Ayling, and Cllr Christine Jones}