Context of the Role

SFHA is the voice and membership body for housing associations and co-operatives in Scotland. Our ambition is that everyone has a good home in a successful community, with a range of high quality, affordable, safe and accessible homes that meet people’s changing needs and aspirations throughout their lives.

The Social Housing sector has been working to increase digital inclusion and participation in recent years, and the pandemic has only increased the desire and regulatory requirement for alternative methods of engaging with residents and carrying out essential services such as repairs and estate management tasks. Some smaller organisations have found it especially difficult to consider digital alternatives to traditional in person appointments - therefore the opportunity to adopt something that is already tried and tested is very appealing, and SFHA have secured funding for a post to support the housing sector to roll out Near Me.

Job Overview

The post of Near Me in Housing Project Lead for the Near Me Video Calling services has been funded by the Scottish Government for an initial period of 12 months.

The post holder will support the development and rollout of video calling services across the housing sector, for both SFHA members and Local Authorities.

Reporting to SFHA Innovation and Future Thinking Manager, the postholder will work flexibly with colleagues within SFHA, SFHA member associations, Local Authorities and the Scottish Government Near Me team.

A full Job Description and Person Specification is available for download below.

We are Housing Scotland: join us

Homes save lives. Everyone has the right to live in a safe, warm, affordable home, in a thriving community. SFHA’s members work day in, day out to make that right a reality for people across Scotland.

We are recruiting an intern to help us represent Scotland’s housing associations and co-operatives, building strong relationships with politicians and policymakers, to help our members achieve their potential.

You will provide support in managing political relationships, work with our expert policy and communications teams to draft punchy, readable briefings and identify opportunities to share our members’ work with politicians.

Enthusiasm and initiative is more important than experience for this exciting role, where you’ll have the chance to develop your communications and lobbying skills in an organisation that’s driving real change.

Working closely with the Digital and Design Manager, the Design Co-ordinator will be a pivotal role in helping to influence, shape and deliver our key business priorities both internally and externally. There will be great opportunities take ownership of our brand as well as to learn new skills, gain experience and knowledge related to design, as well as understand wider business context and the housing sector.

The post of Business Services Assistant is a generic role that contributes to the SFHA’s success by meeting the administrative support needs of the whole organisation.

The post holder will provide administrative and business support in line with organisational needs and priorities and will work generically, recognising differences in aptitude, experience and preferences within the team. The post holder will be required and expected to operate flexibly as part of a team sharing knowledge, workload and tasks as directed by the Office Manager. They may be supervised day to day by the Director of Operations, Director of Public Affairs and Communications or Director of Policy and Membership (or other staff as delegated) when supporting those business streams.

This approach is designed to permit a flexible approach to business needs ensuring that resources can be directed to key priorities as and when needed and will also promote consistency of the quality of support provided. It will also allow for personal growth and development by enabling post holders to work across all areas of SFHA and therefore enhance their overall skills and knowledge within a matrix environment.

Help us build the homes of tomorrow today

Technology is fundamentally changing the way we live our lives. The internet has opened up access to information and services and provided us with greater choice and control than ever before. Advances in technology are increasingly changing how we interact with services and manage our lives.

In the housing sector some providers have embraced truly innovative approaches, using digital technology to support greater independent living and many more are exploring how they can do so. There is significant opportunity for digital to further support the way that services are delivered, and to empower more people to actively manage their own health and wellbeing.

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations doesn’t just work to support social housing providers in 2019, we want to continue to do that well into the future. To achieve that we must continually be looking at how technology will enable people to live independently for as long as possible.

Our Technology Enabled Care project is contributing to the Digital Health and Social Care Strategy for Scotland and as it enters its second phase, we are looking for a Co-ordinator to drive service redesign with people at its heart. They will be facilitating a major change in how housing providers use technology to bridge the gap between housing, health and social care providers.

Project Overview

The Technology enabled care in Housing (TECH) programme intends to scale up housing’s contribution to the Digital Health and Social Care Strategy for Scotland, and where useful to contribute to the National Care Service as it develops. Building on the success of the existing programme this next project phase will focus on the key challenges for housing providers in embedding technology enabled care into their service, ensuring customer engagement and using a service design approach.

With oversight from an expert Programme Board, the programme is funded by the Scottish Government, and hosted by the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) on behalf of the housing sector.

To find out more about the work of TEC in Housing see techhousing.co.uk

The Designer plays a key role in SFHA’s success by maintaining and developing a consistent and modern brand with a social conscious.

As a membership organisation the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations must be seen as a leader in the Scottish housing sector and well respected by a wider network of partners and stakeholders. A key component of our membership representation is to ensure the visual identity of our organisation is always reproduced at the highest standard across all platforms including online, digital, social media channels, print and events.

The role will have responsibility for co-ordinating all design outputs and projects. Taking each piece of work from original content to the final designed product i.e. digital publication, guidance, event signage and website updates ensuring they are delivered to a high standard, on time and efficiently. The role will involve supporting and collaborating with each team and individuals across the business to effectively achieve priorities linked to the SFHA Strategy 2021–24: Shaping our futures together which involve a design element.

Working closely with the Digital and Design Manager, the Designer will be a pivotal role in helping to influence, shape and deliver our key business priorities both internally and externally. There will be great opportunities take ownership of our brand as well as to learn new skills, gain experience and knowledge related to design, as well as understand wider business context and the housing sector.

Role Outline

Brand and design co-ordination:

• Co-ordinate, implement and manage the SFHA brand across online, digital and printed platforms
• Promote and police the corporate brand in all the SFHA communication channels
• Collaborate, co-ordinate the production of marketing communications internally and externally
• Liaise with and provide guidance and assistance for brand usage and implementation to staff and externally to members, partners and suppliers
• Prioritise and maintain the design projects and manage workload schedule on a weekly and monthly basis
• Co-ordinate with print, promotional and other suppliers. Prepare, produce and sign off on approval of any artwork
• Identify out-sourcing options when required if workload exceeds capacity

Website and digital support:

• Update and maintain the website content ensuring all information added is to a high standard
• Assist with creation of new and exciting design and content to add value to the products we offer online
• Ensure all daily news and e-newsletters are formatted correctly and any images are sourced
• Assist in the upkeep and implementation of advertising throughout the website
• Provide support to Digital and Design Manager in the development, maintenance and issue resolution of website and CMS. Help find solutions to any issues staff have with CMS functions.

Events support:

• Support the Events Team in developing and delivering a calendar of conferences and events through the production of the required marketing materials across multiple platforms
• Contribute and help realise ideas on how to advertise and promote events to our members
• Provide branded design materials that will be used at conference and events.

Marketing, Communications and Social Media support:

• To co-ordinate and produce design of SFHA marketing materials and communications internally and externally
• Maintain and produce designed templates and images for Mailchimp
• Provide support to staff on setting up Mailchimp campaigns
• Provide design assistance on a variety of daily, weekly and monthly marketing email campaigns primarily using Mailchimp
• Support design for social media
• Liaise with and provide final artwork to our various suppliers to produce materials and promotional items
• Design and produce Housing Scotland and Spotlight magazine
• Design and produce Annual Directory

Sales and advertising:

• Support Business Development officer in producing design elements of advertising and marketing communications for associates
• Membership:
• Support in delivering literature and marketing collateral in relation to membership benefits and services i.e. email, flyers, promotional materials
• Support the Digital and Design Manager with the provision and co-ordination of any external design offering and advice to members

General Requirements:

• Responsible for being a point of contact for the design services team, face to face, email and telephone
• Good upkeep of all design files and to maintain back-up of all work onto SharePoint Design hub
• Establish and maintain all design templates on SharePoint sites
• Adhere and administer to SFHA privacy policy regarding GDPR and Security
• Ability to use Office 365 applications to required levels
• General Administration duties as required
• Offer innovative ways of supporting the achievement of the business objectives of the SFHA
• Undertake any other duties considered reasonable within the scope and purpose of the post as may be instructed by the Digital Lead and Head of Departments

Person Specification

Required Experience:

• Must have 2 years minimum experience working in design industry i.e. junior design role within organisation, in-house or at an agency
• Minimum of HND in Graphic Design/Visual Design/Digital Design
• Proficient understanding of Adobe CC Indesign
• Good working knowledge of Illustrator & Photoshop
• Experience at taking brief from start to finish

Essential:

• Understanding of email marketing software specifically Mailchimp
• Understanding of Content Management Systems (CMS)
• Excellent command of English language including spelling and grammar
• Excellent Organisational and time management skills
• Highly effective inter-personal skills
• Competent in the use of MS Office / Office 365
• Ability to use initiative and follow direction, working in a team and trusted to work independently.

Desirable:

• Experience of motion graphics design
• Human centred design
• Experience of workshop facilitation
• Understanding of fundamental marketing principles
• Understanding and insight of Social media
• Understanding of housing associations
• Proven client driven design output
• Understanding of Customer Relationship Management software (CRM)

SFHA is the membership body for, and collective voice of, housing associations and co-operatives in Scotland. We exist to represent, support and connect our members.

Our vision is that our members will be central to Scotland’s social and economic recovery and renewal. It is everyone’s right to live in a safe, warm and affordable home, in a thriving community. Our members are uniquely positioned as community anchors across Scotland, supporting people and their communities.

We are looking for an Innovation and Member Services Co-ordinator to actively contribute to SFHA’s success by supporting delivery and development of our Innovation and Future Thinking (IFT) Programme and our Member Services work. This is an exciting opportunity for a candidate with enthusiasm, energy and a flexible approach to their work who is looking to gain a wide range of experience and involvement in a number of projects that support housing associations.