Ellon woodwork project for adults with learning disabilities to ‘temporarily’ close

Other Ellon Day Opportunities facilities will remain open.

By Chris Cromar

February 6 2025, 6:02 pm

Benchmark provides adults with learning disabilities the chance to get involved in woodworking. Image: Benchmark and Can-Do/Facebook.

A woodwork project for adults with learning disabilities in Ellon is to “temporarily” close due to a lack of skilled staff.

It is hoped Benchmark Day Services, located on the Castle Park Industrial Estate in Ellon, will be able to reopen.

But in the meantime, the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership is working to ensure users are able to transition to other opportunities.

Despite reports that Ellon Can-do, which gives adults with learning disabilities the opportunity to be involved in gardening and recycling, is also to close, the partnership confirmed this is not the case.

Benchmark Day Services, Ellon. — Benchmark Day Services is located at Castle Park Industrial Estate in Ellon. Image: Google.

Other Ellon Day Opportunities facilities, which include the Ellon Resource Centre (“The Hub”) – based at Station Road and home of the Ellon Editors group – will also remain open.

The Hub offers a variety of groups and activities, including cooking, exercising and para football.

Ellon Editors, meanwhile, provide skills development for adults with learning disabilities interested in computers.

Members produce a monthly magazine.

Gordon and Buchan MP Harriet Cross has written to the Aberdeenshire Integrated Joint Board, which has representatives from both Aberdeenshire Council and NHS Grampian, to express her “extreme disappointment” at the loss of Benchmark Day Services.

Harriet Cross MP. — Gordon and Buchan MP Harriet Cross is unhappy at the decision. Image: Jason Hedges/DC Thomson.

Ms Cross said: I know from my time as an MP and a previous visit to Benchmark and Can-do the positive impact it has on adults with learning disabilities accessing its facilities in Ellon.

The Conservative politician also said that any “potential closure” of the Benchmark project would “undoubtedly have a negative impact” on the independence and community integration of its users.

‘We regret that we will be temporarily closing Benchmark’

A spokeswoman for the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership said: “We regret that we will be temporarily closing Benchmark Day Services due to lack of skilled staff to support our service users.

“We will work with all of our clients and families to ensure they are able to transition to other opportunities within Ellon Day Service.”