SQA award us with "high confidence"

Tuesday 8 June 2021

Within our Strategic Plan for 2021-2024, we have developed 5 Key Goals which hold true to our organisational Mission and Values and look to build on our success as a provider of high quality support for vulnerable people in our communities. Goal 3 states ‘by 2024 we want our workforce to be more skilled and motivated in in the delivery of high quality services to the people we support’.   Staff colleagues are fundamental to the delivery of quality support services and we are committed to working with our staff to ensure that we continue to achieve an engaged workforce who are motivated, skilled, knowledgeable, personable and qualified to assist the people we support to achieve their outcomes.

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Part of how we do this is being an SQA Approved Centre.  This means we are able to deliver SQA Qualifications to all of our staff.  SQA are responsible for the development, accreditation, assessment and certification of SVQ’s and we go through a rigorous process each year which scrutinises how we deliver and conduct SVQ assessments.

Following our annual external quality assurance verification visit on 18th May 2021, we are delighted to announce that we have been awarded with a pass of “high confidence” from SQA which means we have achieved greens in all subject areas and SQA have complete confidence in us as a centre to deliver SVQ’s.

The subject areas assessed are: -

  • Resources
  • Candidate Support
  • Internal Assessment and Verification

Gaining this award is by no means an easy task to ensure standards are maintained.  It takes a lot of commitment and investment from candidates, their managers, assessors and internal verifiers to achieve “high confidence” results. Given the centre had to respond to the pandemic, receiving such exceptional results has been an even higher achievement as we had to respond, and quickly adapt, to the way we normally deliver SVQ’s.  This meant moving to “remote delivery” using technology to support candidates who couldn’t attend SVQ workshops or meet with their assessors face-to-face. As assessors were unable to attend services to carry out candidate observations and to ensure candidates were not being disadvantaged by the pandemic we also had to move over to video enhanced observations using MS Teams, Zoom and WhatsApp.  All of this has been achievable by L&D Assessors and Verifiers pulling together and sharing experiences. 

Our recent results demonstrate ongoing and continued commitment to workforce qualifications from everyone at national and regional levels. 

One candidate who completed their SVQ during the pandemic said: -

“My assessor was absolutely fantastic in explaining everything, being available at the drop of a hat, and so easy to talk to when concerned about things.  I felt before completing my SVQ I wasn't a very confident person but by completing my SVQ I feel my confidence has definitely grown”.

The External Verifier said: -

“I spoke to EC, PB, GS and GD. Our discussions were mostly around how they have been maintaining contact with candidates through the Covid restrictions. All assessors have managed really well and have adapted by using Teams, phone and also the Royal Mail. All the candidates had continued to progress with their awards despite the restrictions and all assessors felt that the centre had done really well in working together to identify how to adapt to the guidelines. All assessors felt well supported by the centre and said they had been in regular meetings via MS Teams”.

“I spoke to two candidates, one who was working towards 2 level 4 units and one candidate who was at stage 2 of a Level 3 award. Both candidates said they felt well supported by their assessors and had maintained regular contact with them since commencing their awards. One candidate said that the feedback and planning with his assessor had been very helpful and he described her support as brilliant".

Well done to everyone who has achieved or is working towards their SVQ’s!  A special thank you to Josephine (Joy) Douglas, our SVQ Co-ordinator, who has been instrumental in keeping everything on track!

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