Kingdom Housing Association’s Support and Care service, which supports around 260 vulnerable people throughout the towns and villages of Fife and Falkirk, has congratulated newly qualified staff with a celebration lunch and presentation.

Kingdom’s chief executive Bill Banks congratulated employees on their success in achieving SVQ qualifications of level 2 in Social Services and Healthcare and Personal Development Award in Supervision.

Presenting certificates, he said: “Kingdom is committed to investing in training and development for all our staff in support of the Scottish Social Service Council (SSSC) strategy of developing a national register for people who work in the fields of Housing Support and Care. Congratulations go to members of the support and care team on their achievements.”

Elaine Thomson, senior support worker in Kingdom’s Rosyth service, said: “I really enjoyed doing my PDA in supervisory management, I learned loads, and it was an excellent refresher on how to effectively support staff to achieve their goals and aspirations.”

Emma Matthews, who works as a support worker in Kingdom’s Falkirk service, is keen to build on her new qualifications.

She added: “I enjoyed doing my SVQ 2, and would love to do my SVQ 3 qualification in the future.”

Norah Smith, director of housing & care, who also attended the celebratory event, said: “We provide flexible, responsive and person centred support, delivered by our highly motivated staff teams. Supported by the Scottish Government Voluntary Development Fund, staff at all grades have opportunities to undertake vocational qualification to enable them to meet the criteria set out for registration by the SSSC.

“I am delighted that, with Registers for support workers due to open in 2017, our workforce is well prepared with over 90 per cent of staff qualified or currently working towards a recognised qualification.”