Lochshore Disability Employment Hub
North Ayrshire Council · 3 December 2024
Back to Cabinet — 3 December 2024 and its agenda
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NORTH AYRSHIRE COUNCIL 3 December 2024 Cabinet Title: Lochshore Disability Employment Hub Purpose: To seek approval for the creation of a Disability Employment Hub at Lochshore Park, within the Garnock Valley, offering a wide range of opportunities for people with disabilities and long-term health conditions to develop skills for employment. Recommendation: That Cabinet approves the proposal to create a Disability Employment Hub at Lochshore Park to deliver opportunities which will improve outcomes and contribute to reducing the disability employment gap. 1. Executive Summary 1.1 The Employability and Skills Team deliver a flexible and inclusive service to assist residents to get back into work, start work for the first time or take the next step on the career ladder. Operating under the Your Next Move Working North Ayrshire brand, this hybrid model integrates in-house and external provision aligned to the Scottish Government's No One Left Behind (NOLB) policy and the employability pipeline framework. This approach is enhanced by a Keyworker approach to deliver person- centred support to address barriers to employment. 1.2 A key initiative within Your Next Move Working North Ayrshire is the Equal Programme, which focuses on supporting individuals with disabilities and long-term health conditions. Currently, this programme operates across multiple sites including Trinity Church and Eglinton Park, where trainees engage in hands-on work experience in areas such as horticulture and bike maintenance. 1.3 The proposal seeks to relocate the Trinity Church and Eglinton Community Garden operations to a new centralised Disability Employment Hub at Lochshore Park to enhance opportunities, increase reach and improve outcomes for people supported. This will increase the opportunities for trainees to engage in meaningful work experience and will also provide opportunities for independent travel supported by public transport options. The proposal seeks to maximise the potential for partnership with local organisations and employers to enable collaboration that benefit the local community, the trainees and the local economy. It also aligns with Lochshore’s focus on wellbeing and green economy principles. 2. Background 2.1 The Employability and Skills Team deliver a wide range of interventions to support residents to get back into work, start work for the first time or take the next step on the career ladder. A hybrid model branded Your Next Move Working North Ayrshire, this includes in-house and contracted delivery and delivers a flexible, inclusive and responsive employability services across North Ayrshire.
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2.2 The service engages with people of all ages aligned to the national Employability Pipeline Framework to support the effective delivery by addressing barriers to employment, offering vocational training opportunities, providing job matching support and ongoing in-work support. A keyworker, assigned to every participant, provides person centred support throughout the employability journey. The programme is funded by North Ayrshire Council, the Scottish Government No One Left Behind (NOLB) funding and the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund. 2.3 The Scottish Government’s NOLB Partnership Agreement for Employability with local government aims to create a responsive employability system in Scotland. The Partnership Agreement aims to reduce inequalities in the labour market and to help people of all ages find work. The NOLB Employability Strategic Plan is delivered in partnership between the Scottish Government and Local Authorities. This: • Outlines the key priorities and aims to help people prepare for education, training, employment, and volunteering. • Aims to provide support to unemployed and inactive people to improve their life chances through service delivery underpinned by the following principles: person- centred, integrated, evidence-based and easy for people to navigate. • Offers support to people regardless of age or background, including people with disabilities, people with convictions, care-experienced young people, single parents, minority ethnic people and people living in deprived areas. 2.4 The North Ayrshire Local Employability Partnership (LEP) oversees and guides employability provision in North Ayrshire. It aims to support the implementation of local and national employability policy and make best use of resources to deliver employment outcomes for people of all ages while focusing resources where the need exists most. The LEP ensures a co-ordinated approach across key partners aligns provision, maximises impact and targets resources to key priority groups. These include young people, people who are long term unemployed, parents from the key priority family groups and people with disabilities and long-term health conditions. The North Ayrshire NOLB Delivery Plan outlines the key actions to support delivery. 2.5 Delivery is currently supported through Employability Centres located in Ardrossan, Irvine and Stevenston as summarised below. In addition to these centres, Keyworkers meet individuals in community centres or other suitable locations throughout North Ayrshire to ensure the service is accessible, flexible and responsive: • Ardrossan: Parental Employment Hub; • Stevenston: Youth Employment Hub; and • Irvine: Equal Programme, Disability Employment Hub and CEiS Employment Hub. 2.6 This proposal seeks to relocate the Equal Programme from Trinity Church and Eglinton Community Garden a new centralised Disability Employment Hub at Lochshore Park, Kilbirnie. This will establish a dedicated Employability Centre in the Garnock Valley as there is currently no formal centre in this area. Lochshore Park offers an ideal setting for this purpose, providing a rural, wellbeing-focused environment with open green spaces that would provide an optimal environment for a Disability Employment Hub. 2.7 Lochshore Park has benefited from major regeneration, Community Wealth Building, placemaking investment and is identified as a key priority. It provides a regional outdoor visitor destination, health and leisure opportunities, active travel connections, play facilities alongside community and business opportunities. It is a flagship project in demonstrating the Council’s Community Wealth Building ambitions and the desire to
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develop an inclusive and green economy with wellbeing and climate change principles being central to the project and any future development. The project plays a key role in supporting economic recovery and renewal and creating new jobs. 2.8 The Lochshore Masterplan was developed through extensive community and partner consultation and engagement, reflected in the establishment of the Lochshore Development Group as an advisory body. The regeneration proposals have been, and will continue to be, co-produced with the local community and partners. The partnership approach proposed between the Employability and Skills team and the groups established at Lochshore would increase capacity for existing stakeholders and provide opportunities for training and employment, within a work setting. 2.9 The Hub would be operated by the Equal Programme, which supports people with disabilities and long-term health conditions to prepare for and progress to employment. The Equal Programme is an accredited SQA centre through which the team provide a range of activities for the target group to engage, gain qualifications and progress to employment, offering a drop in facility as well as structured training. The team are trained and equipped to support people with disabilities and in the last year job outcomes have increased significantly, contributing to the Scottish Government’s aim of halving the disability employment gap. 2.10 The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have advised that there are 199 people with a limited capability for work and 81 customers seeking employment with a health condition in the Garnock Valley. This relocation proposal would offer locally based support to enable this group of individuals to be able to access support from the services delivered by the Equal Programme. A referral pathway is in place to support these referrals, in addition to the existing caseload and ongoing referrals from North Ayrshire residents. 2.11 The Equal Programme currently operates from Trinity Church, Irvine and within Eglinton Community Garden, Kilwinning offering horticulture training and has a bike maintenance initiative based in Eglinton Country Park. These initiatives provide trainees with opportunities to volunteer and gain paid work experience as they work toward accredited qualifications and prepare for future employment. Locating the Equal Programme activities in one location at Lochshore Park would offer space to develop a broader range of activities, increased opportunities for partnership working with local organisations, enterprises and businesses, alongside increased opportunities for trainees to gain meaningful work experience. 2.12 The creation of a Disability Employment Hub at Lochshore Park would provide a range of opportunities for grounds maintenance work which would allow the Equal Programme trainees to gain the skills and experience to complete their horticulture qualifications, while improving the public area too. Furthermore, it is envisaged that a programme of tree planting and environmental improvements would be developed with the Park’s Stakeholders including Streetscene, Friends of Lochshore and The Conservation Volunteers, providing added value for all involved. 2.13 The location at Lochshore Park would also enable the programme’s bike maintenance work to be broadened through the linkages to the active travel network and 5km loop within the Park. Cycling Scotland have recently awarded funding to the Equal Programme to support their bike maintenance costs and purchase adapted cycles for people with disabilities. The use of these could be supported and promoted within the Park, improving access and complementing the existing offer of the accessible Lochshore Park Hub building, including the Changing Places facilities and recently completed play facilities. This also creates opportunities to deliver initiatives which will contribute positively to addressing the current transport barriers.
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2.14 The café facility within Lochshore Park Hub could also offer further opportunities to train and develop people with skills for a career in hospitality which is a growth sector, where demand exist across Ayrshire for these skills. The café is currently operated by Facilities Management, the aspiration is to test the market with a Prior Information Notice (PIN) to identify an operator and develop a partnership agreement to deliver a unique partnership to provide on site catering and training/employment opportunities. 2.15 The proposal has been informed by significant engagement with staff and the existing 180 service users. This has highlighted significantly more opportunities from the proposed relocation than challenges. The transport requirements of participants have been carefully considered in the development of this proposal, taking account of the transport challenges of the rural location. This noted that there are challenges with transport frequency, however appointments and training sessions could be arranged at times to suit the transport provision. Meetings have been undertaken with key stakeholders. These have all been positive in identifying many opportunities to work in partnership with existing groups at Lochshore, as well as local employers, to maximise opportunities. An Integrated Impact Assessment was also carried out which identified that there are opportunities to work closely with the large and small employers in the Garnock Valley to increase the number of local jobs for local people. 2.16 Travel expenses are paid for individuals to attend appointments and training, with some individuals already in receipt of free or subsidised disability travel passes. Supporting increased independent travel would also develop confidence in programme participants and travel solutions and can often be a key action within an individual’s employability action plan. The travel would support individuals to increase their labour market mobility and encourage widening access around travel to work. The location at Lochshore would also provide opportunities to work in partnership with local organisations to explore wider community transport solutions across the Garnock Valley 2.17 The creation of a Disability Employment Hub at Lochshore Park would complement the existing offer, support increased footfall, provide daily activities for trainees and deliver an accredited training facility in the Garnock Valley, supporting trainees from across North Ayrshire. It would increase the Employability team’s capacity to work with business to support recruitment and training and to collaborate with local employers to improve job outcomes for people with disabilities. 3. Proposals 3.1 That Cabinet approves the proposal to create a Disability Employment Hub at Lochshore Park to deliver opportunities which will improve outcomes and contribute to reducing the disability employment gap. 4. Implications/Socio-economic Duty Financial 4.1 The costs associated with the proposal will be met by the employability and skills funding outlined at Section 2.2. This would be scaled appropriately should the funding position change. The proposal also presents an opportunity to explore external funding and increasing resources by maximising the development opportunities available at Lochshore Park. Human Resources
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4.2 The affected staff and existing trainees have been consulted throughout the development of this proposal and are supportive of the proposed approach. Legal 4.3 None. Equality/Socio-economic 4.4 At the heart of the council’s employability approach and services are issues of equality, with a focus on providing support to those most excluded from economic activity. The proposal would deliver additional opportunities to support people to develop skills and progress to employment, located in an area with socio economic challenges. An Integrated Impact Assessment has been completed using the appropriate Toolkit to consider all aspects of Equality Impact Assessment, the Fairer Scotland Duty, Children’s Rights, Island Communities Impact, the Consumer Duty and crosscutting impacts. Climate Change and Carbon 4.5 The Sustainable North Ayrshire Strategy has a vision of a sustainable, climate ready North Ayrshire that drives area-wide reductions in carbon emissions in a way which tackles inequality, promotes fair work, supports Community Wealth Building and contributes to achieving a wellbeing economy. This proposal aligns with this vision providing additional resources while tackling inequalities and enhancing opportunities for people with disabilities to prepare and progress to sustainable employment. A programme of tree planting would offer training opportunities with carbon reduction outcomes. Key Priorities 4.6 The proposal would contribute to the Council’s Wellbeing priority and strategic aim to transition to a wellbeing economy, delivering prosperity, wellbeing and resilience for local people. It would contribute to the key activities of developing a community wealth building approach to a wellbeing economy by supporting pathways to employment for residents, promoting a fair work economy, using our assets to support wellbeing in local communities and ensure our places and spaces where we live, work and visit are well maintained and accessible. It would also contribute to the Communities and Local Democracy and Climate Change priorities and key activities through the development of relationships with communities and partners and the delivery of environmental improvements and woodland creation. Community Wealth Building 4.7 Tackling unemployment directly contributes to the pillar of Fair Employment by focusing support on those residents who have the most barriers to securing Fair Employment. Lochshore Park is a flagship project in demonstrating the Council’s Community Wealth Building ambitions and the desire to develop an inclusive and green economy with wellbeing and climate change principles central to its development. It plays a key role in supporting economic recovery and renewal, including through the creation of new jobs. The proposal will further enhance these activities, building on the Land and Assets pillar by ensuring that the potential of the site is further realised. 5. Consultation 5.1 In accordance with the Scottish Approach to Service Design, service users have been
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consulted, supported and empowered to actively participate in the definition, design, and delivery of the proposal and therefore their public services. A full Integrated Impact Assessment has been undertaken with service users and internal stakeholders. Engagement has also been undertaken with the wider stakeholders of Lochshore Park and have all been positive in identifying several opportunities to work in partnership with existing groups at Lochshore, as well as local employers, to maximise opportunities. RUSSELL McCUTCHEON Executive Director (Place) For further information please contact Laura Neill, Senior Manager Employability & Skills, on 07795 528243 Background Papers 0