Jobs in Midlothian South, Midlothian

Introduction

We are seeking a playful, adaptable and confident individual for this post, to deliver high quality services, enabling children to thrive through play.

Please note that appointments are usually made to the first point on the salary scale.

About Play Midlothian

Play Midlothian is a registered charity (no. SC025474) working to support children to thrive through play. We focus on play because we know how much this benefits children’s health, wellbeing and development. It is important for their lives in the here and now as well as for their future life chances.

We strive to remove barriers to play where they exist, to ensure all children have access to play that meets their needs. We provide services for children and families and build the capacity of communities to support play. This includes training and development opportunities for other settings, including schools. We are also a partner in the Midlothian Play Strategy, which takes a strategic approach in planning for and promoting play in Midlothian.

We have an office base in Gorebridge (in an attractive modern building with a great cafe downstairs) but deliver services throughout Midlothian, and if commissioned, beyond.

About the role

Our Community Playworkers support session planning and the day to day practicalities of our play services, carry out playwork, and support services users. It is essential that the successful applicant enjoys all types of play and can respond flexibly to the needs of participants.

We are looking for someone who enjoys working as part of a team and can build productive relationships with our participants, colleagues and other stakeholders, while demonstrating an enthusiasm for Play Midlothian’s aims and values.

The postholder will be directed day to day by a Team Leader, and work as part of a team of Community Playworkers and at times volunteers.

It is important the postholder can be flexible enough about their hours, which will be worked over four or five days on a rota pattern. We could run sessions across the seven days of a week, and potentially evenings. At present we don’t have any Sunday sessions, only Saturdays, and four of our weekday shifts go on till around 6 or 6.30pm, so slightly into the evening. This may develop further in future as we take on new work. We value employees having work/life balance and aim to establish a rota pattern that shares out any evening and weekend working, so each employee has regular weekends off.

Play Midlothian’s services take place in a variety of community settings. Some are indoors, though a high proportion of our current services are exclusively outdoors (all year round), therefore the role will particularly suit applicants with a fondness for the outdoors.

We work with children and young people aged 0-13 (and at times older), with their parents/carers at some of our services, and at times with specific needs (including disability and emerging mental health challenges). We work with a variety of service models, though with the focus firmly on self-directed play. The ultimate goal is always to ensure that children have access to play opportunities that enable them to thrive.

Information on our current services can be found on our website. We are about to launch a new service supporting children aged 7-9 with emerging mental health challenges (such as difficulties with peer relationships, social anxiety or stressful transitions) through play in nature. We are also currently fundraising for group play sessions for disabled children and their families, which we hope to launch this year.

For the right candidate, this will be a highly rewarding and stimulating role, offering plenty of variety in their work – all the while enabling their passion for children’s play to shine though