A COUNCIL is championing employment opportunities for disabled people and aiming to find jobs for hundreds of residents.

Essex County Council has pledged to become one of Britain’s first accredited employers under the Department for Work and Pension’s Disability Confident campaign and is challenging other businesses to close the disability employment gap.

The council wants disabled people to make up at least 7.5 per cent of its workforce by 2018, from 300 to 500 employees.

The county’s first candidate, Chelsey Reynolds, of Constance Close, Witham, impressed so much during three weeks’ work experience at County Hall, Chelmsford, that she secured a full-time role as a Communications Officer.

The 25-year-old disability equality campaigner and model said: "In 2011, I was working as a healthcare assistant and training to be a nurse at Broomfield Hospital and all of a sudden I got this condition called POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), which came out of absolutely nowhere.

"It basically means my blood just isn’t doing its job properly, so when I stand up, no blood goes to my brain and I just pass out. Therefore I have to stay seated all the time so I’m in a wheelchair.

"It was really difficult losing my job. I absolutely loved caring for patients at the hospital and felt I’d found my career, so to lose that at 20-years-old, I just thought ‘what am I about now, what’s the point?'"

Miss Reynolds spent four years volunteering at an organisation championing diversity in media and fashion, but desperately wanted a paid role to give her the independence she craved.

She said: "The council went out on the UK’s first Disability Confident tour earlier this year to urge the county’s 63,000 businesses to think about hiring disabled people.

"But they wanted to practice what they preached, so they came up with the work scheme.

"It’s been a huge help to me personally. Becoming a wheelchair user with no warning was a huge dent to my confidence, and being undesirable for work because of a disability that wasn’t my fault was absolutely crushing.

"But now I feel super confident and I’ve honed my skills, so I can take them further in my career."

Essex County Council is set to work with charity Purple, which offers support to businesses to help them achieve all three levels of the Disability Confident accreditation.

For more information visit workingforessex.com