Are you a strategic thinker? Do you have experience of leading systems change? If so, this might be the perfect role for you at Forces Children Scotland.

About the role

Forces Children Scotland is looking for someone with the expertise, passion and drive to help support change across the sector. We are looking for someone to help the charity realise its strategic vision of becoming the sector-leading charity when it comes to supporting children and young people from serving, reservist and veteran families across Scotland. Our children and young people can encounter both positive and challenging experiences as part of a service family and we help them grow in confidence, develop new skills and gain valuable experiences. We do this by co-producing projects and services to support mental health and wellbeing, education and learning and put their unique experiences on the radar of civilian audiences. We provide life-changing experiences which forge new friendships and help develop a sense of belonging. We listen and provide financial help in lots of different ways and support those caring for loved ones or a member of the local community as well as those gaining qualifications at college or university.

You will work closely with the Chief Executive Officer, deputising as required, as well as ensuring external policy direction and research influences our work internally within Forces Children Scotland. You will champion our work and maximise its impact by sharing knowledge across organisational functions, our communication channels and externally with strategic partners, government, and professional sectors.

About the person we are looking for

To apply for this role, you will need to hold a professional qualification to post graduate level and have significant experience in a relevant field, such as health, education, social care. In addition, you will need a minimum of eight years’ experience in working with children and young people in a multi-agency capacity. You will need to evidence strong experience of facilitating systems change across multiple sectors related to children and young people as well as experience of establishing and leading cross sector partnerships and translating strategy and policy into practice, based on research evidence including data analysis and voices of lived experience. You will also need to experience of working with academic establishments across the UK and beyond in commissioning and disseminating research as well as experience of working with and influencing Scottish and/or UK Government and policy. Furthermore, you will need to possess experience of managing staff as well as project and service delivery. The role will also require a strong breadth of experience in the fields of mental health and wellbeing and education, as well as an understanding and experience of coproducing new service delivery models.

Please download our full person specification for further information.

Reason for Secondment/Loan: To lead on the planning, implementation and co-ordination of the Scottish Government's Framework for Chronic Pain Management.

Applications are invited from: NHS / Health and Social Care Partnership employees, people employed within the independent sector

Main Duties

This is a great opportunity to work on the implementation and co-ordination of Scotland’s first Framework for Pain Management that aims to drive improvement in the care, treatment and support available to people living with chronic pain, and their carers. You will join during the draft Framework public consultation and therefore have the chance to review consultation responses/ contribute to refining the final Framework.

This is a challenging time in the health system, as it continues to respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, but with it comes the exciting prospect of re-designing services to improve person-centred outcomes. To ensure successful delivery of the commitments set out in the Pain Management Framework, you will:

• Cross government and partners collaboration – build relationships with a wide range of policy, implementation, analytical and clinical colleagues (including within Healthcare Improvement Scotland, NHS 24, Public Health Scotland and the Centre for Sustainable Delivery based at the Golden Jubilee) to lead development and agreement of an implementation plan that sets out clear actions, accountability, metrics and timescales – taking into account activities already underway.
• Drive change – liaise with NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnership management to influence the pace and scale of change as part of wider operational and recovery planning and programmes, including addressing health inequalities.
• External stakeholder engagement - work with advisers to involve stakeholders in shaping delivery and reviewing progress including people with lived experience, healthcare professionals and third sector organisations.
• Programme planning and risk management – use change and improvement methodologies to manage and monitor delivery including project resources, to keep activities on track – mitigating against risks and problem solving to address issues.

Key Competencies

Leading others:

• Actively manages environment, making connections across boundaries to build strong networks and partnerships.
• Contributes to and develops clear, creative and detailed policy communication strategies to achieve outcomes.

Communications and Engagement:

• Manages internal and external relationships, creating positive networks and maintaining trust and credibility.

Analysis and Use of Evidence:

• Uses relevant evidence, recognising validity and limitations, in evaluations & assessment of risks against desired outcomes, engaging analytical specialists appropriately.

Improving performance:

• Set targets to improve the value achieved from resources, utilising financial data in business cases for change and monitors outcomes using performance measures.
• Uses relevant tools, techniques and skills development to facilitate continuous improvement.

Essential Criteria

1. Highly developed communication skills with the ability to manage and influence a range of internal and external relationships including at senior levels, promoting collaborative working - building consensus for vision and buy-in for changes/ action, within the context of competing priorities.
2. Proven ability in working well under pressure, expressing clear logical thinking and creative problem solving in the face of challenging opposition by articulating persuasive arguments to overcome issues.
3. A robust working knowledge of the health and social care system in Scotland, its structures and governance and a history of managing complex change programmes to achieve improved outcomes - using experience of programme and project management principles/ improvement methodologies effectively to review and analyse progress and adjust delivery accordingly.
4. Experience in identifying, developing and using a range of outcome measures to assess performance against goals.

Further information about the Organisation:

The role is part of the Healthcare Quality and Improvement Directorate within the Scottish Government, led by Jason Leitch, the National Clinical Director. The Directorate seeks to achieve the best health and care outcomes for people by ensuring the provision of high quality health and social care services.

The Clinical Priorities Unit within this Directorate has responsibility for policy on national strategies for various health conditions such as Cancer, Long Covid, Diabetes, Stroke, Chronic Pain and many others. The role offers a supportive team environment, which would be beneficial to applicants where it may be their first experience of working on national programmes. Given many of the delivery challenges are similar regardless of condition, our implementation leads work closely together to achieve the best outcomes and share knowledge and experiences. The cross cutting nature of the plans also provide lots of development opportunities to influence and contribute to policy and its delivery across other Government Directorates.

The Clinical Priorities Unit is primarily based in St Andrews House Edinburgh, although home working continues to be our default position and we can accommodate candidates from other locations. We are supportive of flexible working and would encourage applications from those on flexible working patterns.

Background

Engender is Scotland’s feminist policy and advocacy organisation, working to increase women’s social, political and economic equality, enable women's rights, and make visible the impact of sexism on women and wider society. Engender believes feminism must be intersectional, and we strive to conduct all our work using an intersectional lens.

Engender works at Scottish, UK and international level to produce research, analysis, and recommendations for intersectional feminist legislation and programmes, advocating for those with power to make positive changes to services, policy, regulation, practices, and laws that affect women. We are proud to be a membership organisation and our members include women's and equalities organisations, voluntary groups, and a wide network of individuals around Scotland. We work to bring women and organisations together in a range of ways to share experiences, tell their stories, and influence decision makers.

As a feminist employer we strive to reflect our principles in our practice. We are proud to offer and consider a wide range of flexible working opportunities to enable our staff to combine paid employment with childcare, caring or other responsibilities, and to support work/life balance.

Engender is an accredited Living Wage Employer and was shortlisted for the 2020 top employer awards for our carer-positive position.

Engender is committed to equality in recruitment and selection. We particularly welcome applications from women, people of colour, disabled people, LGBT people, and other minoritised and under-represented groups.

Please let us know if you need recruitment information in another format, or if you have any other communications and/or accessibility requirements.

Job Purpose

The ED is the most senior role at Engender and represents the organisation with dynamism and a high degree of professionalism. The ED is a passionate advocate for women's rights and equality in Scotland and beyond as part of a global intersectional feminist movement.

The ED has overall responsibility for Engender’s strategic direction and policy development, working closely with the Board and staff team, providing leadership, vision, and sound financial management. The ED is an ambassador for Engender and ensures a high public profile for the organisation externally, building and maintaining excellent relationships with a wide range of stakeholders and driving the development of programmes and fundraising.

*We actively welcome applications for part-time, job-share or other flexible working arrangements and will work with you to support the realisation of this. Engender has also committed to moving towards implementing a 4-day working week.

The Wise Group is a leading social enterprise helping to lift people out of poverty across the UK. In 2020 the Wise Group supported over 40,000 people through various services and programmes across three key areas – employability, energy advice & advocacy and community justice. The Wise Group builds better lives, better communities, and stronger businesses in partnership with a diverse range of organisations across the UK.

The fallout from covid has impacted us all and The Wise Group have been working tirelessly to support those in need throughout 2020 and 2021, providing tailored services and embracing new organisational values. They want to attract exceptional people that want to join their winning team. The group have achieved so much in the last 12 months that they are on a high. Revenue has increased by 50% in this period to accommodate the delivery of key contracts and services. The Group expects this growth to continue as their services are in high demand UK wide.

The Wise Group now has an ever-growing pool of opportunity and they are looking to recruit a new Bid Lead. This post will own and manage all aspects of bidding to grow the enterprise income through competitive tenders, grant awards and other sources. The Bid Lead will project manage and continue to develop and improve the bid process whilst producing high quality, engaging proposals.

We are seeking enthusiastic candidates with a strong track record in bid management who can work with a range of stakeholders and lead teams. The role is open to bid experts from any background, if relevance and capability are highlighted within your application.

Can you help us to support more children and young people in Scotland with their mental health and emotional wellbeing?

Are you a successful Business Development Professional skilled at income generation, tenders and bid management, stakeholder engagement, relationship management and communication?

As the Business Development Manager for Scotland, you will play a key role in growing our services in Scotland to support children and young people to access vital mental health support when they need it

Your role will include the identification and delivery of new business opportunities in line with the organisational and Scotland business development working with a range of stakeholders, including schools, local and national Government, education and healthcare agencies.

You will work closely with the service delivery team to maximise opportunities and to ensure that robust processes are in place to ensure onboarding and contractual requirements are met.

You will bring enthusiasm and leadership skills to the team during this exciting period of growth for the organisation.

What will I be responsible for in my new role?

You will:

• identify opportunities through scanning, pipeline development and timely evaluation for business development opportunities in line with the organisational and Scotland business plan
• lead and advise on business development strategies and tactics
• identify and respond to tender opportunities ensuring that any tender responses or business development proposals are of the quality to be successful develop extensive and effective networks and relationships with potential commissioners including schools, Local Authorities, education and health bodies
• ensure all deadlines are met throughout the role and other activities as required in relation to contract management

Diversity and Inclusion

Place2Be is committed to equal opportunities and anti-discrimination practices and we positively encourage applications from all sections of the community. We are particularly interested in attracting applications from applicants from diverse groups.

About You

The successful candidate will have:

• experience in a wide range of income generation activity including proposals, bids, tenders and funding applications
• project management and managing and developing stakeholder relationships
• strong written and verbal skills including effective tender writing and bid writing
• the ability to coordinate multiple bid/projects with strong time management and prioritisation skills
• strong knowledge of formal tendering processes and commercial awareness
• experience of information analysis, essential for communicating business, finance and workforce plans

In return we offer you a range of fantastic benefits including:

• Enhanced Annual Leave entitlement
• Robust Learning and Development Programme
• Contributory Pension Scheme
• Life Assurance, 4x Annual Salary
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Mobile Phone Discounts (EE Network)
• Cycle purchase and season ticket loan schemes
• Extended Maternity/Paternity Pay

If you share our core values of perseverance, integrity, compassion and creativity and have the counselling skills and patience to support some of the UK’s most vulnerable young people and families, we would love you to join us. It’s sensitive and demanding work – but hugely rewarding and fulfilling - you will be helping to give young people a brighter future.