Kingdom Housing Association staff have been busy knitting in their spare time after receiving a request from Fife police for ‘Trauma Teddies’ to help comfort small children in trying circumstances.

Dave Roy, Kingdom’s health & safety officer, said: “I was approached by PC Brittany Primeau who is championing this initiative in Fife and we were delighted to be able to help out, some of our staff have kindly been knitting the teddies in their own time.

“The hand-knitted teddies are carried in police cars and will be given as a simple distraction to help take a child’s focus away from potentially upsetting circumstances such as a road traffic accident. The teddies are designed to help police officers build a relationship and turn the experience into something positive.”

Yvonne Duncan, senior support worker Kingdom Support and Care at the Lochiel project in Glenrothes, was one of the staff members who volunteered her knitting know-how when asked if they could knit “Trauma Teddies”.

She said: “It has been a pleasure and great fun to be involved in such a worthwhile project.”

Once PC Primeau receives all of the teddies they will be dressed in a Children 1st t-shirt and distributed to police vehicles across Fife. The back of the t-shirt features the number for child welfare charity ParentLine.

She said: “Police Scotland are very grateful to the Kingdom staff for their efforts. The teddies will be put to good use.”

The Trauma Teddies scheme was first launched in Australia and the positive impact has been widely recognised, adopted and praised across Scotland.