goodmoves

Venture Trust is a personal development charity supporting people, aged 16 years and over who are struggling with many and complex circumstances to overcome these barriers and realise their potential. Our strengths lie in the trust and relationships we forge, our developmental approach and in harnessing the transformational benefit of being outdoors and amongst nature.

Working in communities, in greenspaces and journeying through some of Scotland’s most wild places, we actively support people by focusing on individual’s strengths, equipping them with essential life-skills and building confidence. We want everyone to succeed and to continue to do so throughout their lives. We need a CEO to lead Venture Trust on an exciting journey that makes our vision a reality. We believe that with our partners we can beat the challenge of inequality in Scottish society.

The successful candidate will be responsible to the Venture Trust Board for providing strategic and operational leadership to secure the achievement of the organisation’s vision, strategic plans, impact and sustainability goals as set by the Venture Trust Board. You will play a crucial role in nurturing strategic partnerships, securing resources and shaping services and programmes to meet the charity’s objects, reflecting Venture Trust’s mission and values.

You will ensure that Venture Trust develops its position and reputation as the ‘go to’ partner for supporting young people in realising their full potential. You will ensure that the charity is managed effectively, demonstrating sound governance, financial and HR leadership and compliance with relevant legislation. It is important that you naturally lead with a style that reflects our Charity’s values.

To be considered for the role, you will have experience at a leadership level in devising and executing strategy, senior relationship management, securing resources and shaping services and programmes to meet the charity’s objects, reflecting Venture Trust’s mission and values. Experience of senior leadership in a charity and charity governance would be advantageous. We are looking for someone who shares our values and believes in the potential of people.

The Head of Corporate Services will act as the strategic head of finance and is one of several new roles being recruited for this growing charity.

Upmo is an Edinburgh-based charity that provides support and opportunity for adults with learning and other complex disabilities. Upmo was started in 2006 by Josh Barton and inspired by the belief that services for adults could truly be exciting, dynamic and meaningful.

In 2006, adults with learning disabilities lacked opportunities in higher education and there was a lack of understanding around individual needs. Those who understood the needs of service users operated with limited scope to encourage, inspire and motivate. As a result, many service users were isolated and desperately in need of opportunities to become more socially engaged, active and valued.

The response from Upmo was combining progressive learning within an educational curriculum and the development of support service provision – placing the needs of students at the heart of services. Since 2006, they have delivered these tailored support services alongside a respected curriculum of creative workshops, educational activities and vocational programmes. They encourage students to build confidence, use imagination and develop life skills and help them to play an equal, rewarding and contributing role in society.

The local authorities in Edinburgh and The Lothians love the fresh and innovative approach. Upmo is Scotland’s leader in providing exciting, dynamic and meaningful services to adults with learning disabilities and/ or autism.

Everyone at Upmo has the students and their families at heart and come to work motivated and passionate to help take the organisation forward successfully on its journey. They want to make a difference to the lives of adults with learning disabilities through tailored support and learning opportunities that will develop their potential and play an equal role in society. Upmo believe that they can be the exemplar model for Scotland and achieving this across the country, not only in Edinburgh and The Lothians, is a real driving force for everyone.

Upmo has plans to create “The Upmo Performing Arts Hub” in Leith - a bespoke and purpose-built arts centre and performance space, but this has been disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. While this aspiration has not diminished, external funding support has been re-prioritised to support their response to the ongoing crisis in the immediate term. Focus on creating an arts hub at the very heart of a new campus style approach for the charity endures and its creation is a major long-term objective for Upmo to ensure culture becomes accessible to all.

In 2020, Andrew Thomson was appointed as the first CEO of Upmo with a clear objective of propelling the organisation forward. Bringing a wealth of experience, Andrew has brought new thinking and drive to Upmo. Working alongside the Board, he has set the future direction of Upmo. A restructure has already taken place and to continue expanding operational activities two new departments – Corporate Services and Development, are being established with 4 additional appointments.

The Head of Corporate Services will focus on the financial management and income generation capacity of the organisation. This role will ensure that the appropriate governance and procedures are in place. It will also oversee the grants and funding function. This is a strategic leadership position and will be responsible for the overall financial management as well as supporting the charity to capacity build and expand services.

This post is part of the senior management team, reporting directly to the CEO and working closely with the Head of Operations and Head of Development. The Head of Corporate Services will line manage a team of 3 – the new funding and Grants Officer and the 2-person Finance Team.

To be considered for this role, you will have held a similar level role and demonstrate leadership and strategic financial management experience within a business environment. You must be experienced across all areas of Corporate affairs including strategic financial management/cost accounting, budget preparation, statutory and local reporting, audit procedures and finance policy & procedural design and implementation. Excellent written and verbal communication skills and organisational skills are essential alongside being self-motivated and driven. You will be experienced working to deadlines, multi-tasking and working under pressure.

It is important that all applicants have a firm belief in inclusion, fairness and equality evidenced through work practice or personal experience. You must have a desire to ensure people are at the heart of decision making and an ability to balance this with the needs of Upmo.

This is rare opportunity to join a dynamic national charity in a key management position. This post plays a central role in managing the development and delivery of SDF’s work to improve Scotland’s response to problem drug use through the involvement of people affected by problem substance use. Currently this involves peer research and other involvement and consultation projects and the Addiction Worker Training Project which provides employment and training to people who have experienced problem substance use. This work is to be consolidated and expanded and form a platform for innovative activity in further involvement activity.

This is a senior management post involving key aspects of the organisation’s work, working closely with the Chief Executive Officer and the Management Team to support and represent, at both local and national levels, a wide range of stakeholders including people directly affected by problem substance use, promoting collaborative, evidence-based response to drug use.

The post holder will assist the drugs sector more broadly to develop wider support programmes linked to employability, welfare and housing.

The successful candidate will have comparable managerial experience and will be able to demonstrate the ability to take lead responsibility for project development and delivery. They will have a track record of working with marginalised populations and in particular people with drug problems. The role will include liaison with planning partners including Scottish Government and other NGO’s and will require solid communication and organisational skills, enthusiasm and drive and a collaborative work approach.

SDF offer staff excellent terms and conditions including a 35 hour working week, flexi time and generous annual leave and public holidays.

Benefits

As an SDF employee you will benefit from a range of learning and development opportunities, competitive pension contribution, generous annual leave entitlement, enhanced sick pay and an employee support and counselling service. SDF encourage a healthy work life balance and also offer a flexible working scheme.

The successful candidate will be based at SDF’s office, which is located in Glasgow city centre, close to Central and Queen Street Stations. Under current pandemic restrictions SDF’s office has been closed as a ‘non-essential office’. Candidates should be willing and able to work effectively from home under these circumstances. It is currently envisaged that some home working will continue after the pandemic restrictions are lifted but office attendance will be expected also.

Our ambition is to work together to promote a more inclusive environment, which attracts all candidates and signals our commitment to celebrate and promote diversity.

The Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ) works towards ensuring that Scotland’s approach to children and young people in conflict with the law is rights-respecting; contributing to better outcomes for our children, young people and communities. We produce robust ground-breaking work by bringing together children and young people’s contributions, research evidence, practice wisdom and system know-how to operate as a leader for child and youth justice thinking in Scotland and beyond. An evaluation of CYCJ, published in 2020, highlights how our significant contribution stems from our unique role and positioning:

‘CYCJ is a boundary-spanning intermediary organisation. Boundary spanners are capable of contributing to system change. Their work to redress the imbalances of information, to connect and share insight across groups, to coordinate people to collaborate on key issues as well as focused interventions on seemingly intractable issues can come together to create paradigm shifts in the system’

Our focus for 2020-2025 is on supporting Scotland to comply with its international commitments for children and young people in conflict with the law in relation to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), find our strategy here.

We work across three workstreams: Practice and Policy Development, Research, and, Participation and Engagement.

CYCJ is primarily funded by the Scottish Government and is hosted by the University of Strathclyde, in the School of Social Work and Social Policy. Our Executive Governance Group has oversight of CYCJ and our strategic direction, and consists of representatives from across policy, practice, research and lived experience.

We are seeking an exceptional new Director to lead the next phase of our development which is particularly focused on improving the participation of children and young people in shaping policy and practice developments, and strengthening our academic research contribution. As a boundary spanning organisation you may be an experienced leader from practice, policy, research or participation; or have experience across these domains. We need a leader who can enthuse, motivate and inspire, who genuinely cares about children who are in conflict with the law, is strategic in their thinking, who is determined and resilient, and can work with children and young people, families, practitioners, policy makers and researchers to change things.

The Organisation

The Royal Lyceum Theatre Company is Scotland’s leading producing theatre. With a strong reputation for excellence in both classical and contemporary work it is committed to developing Scotland’s considerable indigenous talents while presenting the best of international drama.

Whilst Covid may have changed the landscape it certainly has not reduced the company’s ambition as it continues to play a vital role in the artistic life of Edinburgh and develop its reputation as a leading theatre company.

The Role

To support the company’s ambitious vision, they are looking to recruit into the newly created role of Director of Finance and Administration. Tasked with overseeing the delivery of all aspects of the company’s corporate activity including Finance, Management Reporting, Human Resources, IT services, risk management, governance and compliance, key priorities of the role include:

• Ensuring the company has sound financial management and planning enabling it to operate sustainably and efficiently meeting key artistic and business objectives

• Developing new and improved financial and management reporting enabling more informed and improved strategic decision making

• Working with senior management colleagues to create and embed a culture of sound financial management, including increased ownership and accountability, to ensure the efficient delivery of all aspects of the Company’s operations

• Ensuring the development and delivery of forward-looking Management Information System Strategy to meet the company’s business needs for the next 5 to 10 years, including the implementation of new finance system

• The development and maintenance of effective and efficient systems and procedures, utilising digital technology where appropriate, to drive excellence, efficiency and effectiveness across all operational activities

• Leading and co-ordinating the use, review and development of the organisation’s risk register to ensure an active process of risk management at governance, strategic and operational levels

As a member of the Senior Management Team, you will help support the organisation’s future ambitions, manage the delivery of their artistic programme and act as the Company Secretary for The Royal Lyceum Theatre Company Limited and its commercial subsidiaries.

Your experience

You will be a fully qualified accountant with a proven track record of robust financial management with some experience gained within the charitable or culture sectors. With direct involvement in providing financial information and analysis to allow informed decision making, you will also be an accomplished communicator able to build and maintain strong working relationships with a range of stakeholders. The successful candidate will also be able to demonstrate:

• An excellence understanding of financial governance and risk

• Highly analytical skills coupled with the ability to get “behind the numbers” to allow well informed decisions

• Direct experience of presenting financial information to both financial and non- financial audiences coupled with the ability to ‘talk finance’ in a language that the business understands

• Previous experience of continuous improvement, developing robust financial controls, systems and procedures and embedding best practice as appropriate

• Strong IT skills with experience of utilising IT to deliver operational efficiencies and ideally direct involvement in implementing a new finance system

• Knowledge of HR best practice

Who Cares? Scotland is the country’s only national independent, representative membership organisation for Care Experienced people. Our vision is of a Lifetime of Equality, Respect and Love for Care Experienced people. If you have relevant experience and share this vision, this could be the role for you!

The post is a key position within Who Cares? Scotland and will support the Chief Executive in successfully implementing our current strategic plan (2018-2022).

In this role you will have strategic responsibility for overseeing a team of diverse specialisms in the areas of Governance, Human Resources, Workforce Development, Fundraising, Business Support, Communications and our Helpline and employability activity. You will lead on strategic management of stakeholder communications and on Who Cares? Scotland’s brand and organisational identity. You will have an oversight of Who Cares? Scotland Board and Committee liaisons, governance processes and charity regulators in partnership with the Chief Executive. You will direct and hold responsibility for the success of the fundraising strategy and associated pipeline for 2021 and beyond, working in partnership with the Chief Executive and Senior Management peers to achieve this. With a lead on the organisation’s Business Support and Communications function, you will ensure that the tools and resources available are supporting the workforce across Scotland and are adequately enabling our programmes to be implemented safely, communicated confidently and with success.

You will have experience of working at a senior level in an organisation or service in the voluntary sector with experience of developing and implementing Fundraising strategies and meeting financial targets in excess of £500k per annum, managing and reporting on multiple budgets with a combined minimum value of £5million. You will also be able to demonstrate success as a lead in the tendering process in relation to Local Authority, Central Government, and private sector funding streams and contracts, and of being accountable to funders, boards and other stakeholders for the delivery of complex pieces of work including reporting on progress, performance monitoring and evaluation.

If this sounds like you, and you want to be part of delivering change for Care Experienced people across Scotland, we’d love to hear from you. For an informal conversation about this opportunity please call Marie-Claire Jones, Director of Corporate Services on 07715 312015.