The agreement, officially signed at Scotland’s Housing Festival on 5 March in Glasgow, follows on from an ongoing partnership with Fife Council which has:

• delivered the joint ‘Big Conversation’ event in 2022, dedicating a whole conference to the needs and concerns of Scotland’s new and youngest housing professionals;
• supported the professionalisation of Fife Council staff with membership of CIH; and
• launched sector-leading research on the progress of Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans (RRTPs), how to improve reporting, gaps in resources needed to deliver RRTP ambitions, and how we can better utilise the PRS to address homelessness.

To promote the partnership, Fife Council has again agreed to sponsor a series of CIH Scotland events, including Scotland’s Housing Festival, the CIH Scotland Housing Awards and The Big Conversation, helping to ensure that these events remain in place for members in Scotland across 2024 and 2025. This support will help extend and enhance housing practitioner professional networks across Scotland.

In turn, CIH Scotland will work closely with the council to identify and develop a tailored CPD programme for staff, based on CIH’s Professional Standards Framework and Fife Council’s own management framework, as well as supporting the development of new pathways into the housing sector.

Commenting on the partnership, John Mills, head of housing at Fife Council, said: “Fife has supported four chairs of the CIH in Scotland to lead the contribution over the past 20 years to the Institute’s work to advance housing professionalism in Scotland. I was delighted to sign our partnership agreement for a further two years at the CIH Housing Festival in March 2024. We will work together to develop the Fife Council Housing Training Academy and to promote the CIH Professional Standards in Fife.”

Callum Chomczuk, national director at CIH Scotland, added: “I am absolutely delighted that CIH Scotland and Fife Council have agreed a new corporate partnership which will take us up to 2026. The partnership is a real demonstration of how CIH should be working with the sector, hand in hand, improving practice and supporting professionalism to give the sector the skills to address the common challenges we face.”