We are Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale solutions to society’s biggest problems. Our three missions are to give every child a fair start, help people live healthy lives, and create a sustainable future where the economy works for both people and the planet.
For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation. We work in three roles: as an innovation partner working with frontline organisations to design and test new solutions, as a venture builder supporting new and early stage businesses, and as a system shaper creating the conditions for innovation.
Harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design, we work relentlessly to change millions of lives for the better. Find out more at nesta.org.uk
Our Sustainable Future Mission
Our mission is to accelerate the decarbonisation of household activities in Scotland and across the UK and improve levels of productivity.
In Scotland, 78% of homes use mains gas to heat their homes. To meet the Scottish Government's 2030 and 2045 carbon emissions reduction targets, heat pump installations need to double every year from now until 2030. Our mission to help decarbonise how we heat our homes in Scotland offers unique opportunities; a more favourable policy environment and a larger social housing stock mean that we can potentially work more closely with the Scottish Government, national agencies and housing providers to test and scale innovative approaches to make change happen. Our impact plan for Scotland has a particular focus on exploring how we can harness social innovation methods to help evidence and scale skills and training opportunities for the provision of low carbon heating in Scotland.
Our goal is that by 2030 the UK will have reduced household emissions by 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
The role
This role leads on the scoping, design and delivery of Nesta’s work in Scotland on our Sustainable Future mission. You will work proactively to deliver active projects as well as develop a pipeline of partnerships, collaborations and business development opportunities in support of our Sustainable Future mission in Scotland.
You'll take what you know from your existing experience of social innovation and/or low carbon heating to scope innovative projects to help achieve our mission goals. You'll lead on recruiting Scottish partners to work with to test those ideas, drawing from your existing networks in the field.
You will work with our Head of Nesta Scotland (based in Edinburgh) and Mission Director (based in London) as well as colleagues across Nesta’s innovation practices - such as data science, design and behavioural science) to pull together multi-disciplinary teams to help improve local outcomes in our mission area and deliver demonstrable impact.
As the point person for this mission in Scotland, this is definitely a role for someone who likes getting their hands dirty and can proactively combine scoping, researching and doing.
As a bridge between Nesta in Scotland and the central Sustainable Future mission team, this position will play a critical role in establishing effective ways of working between Nesta’s missions and the team in Scotland, working with the rest of the mission team to ensure the ASF mission has a strong presence in Scotland and that learning from projects in the rest of the UK informs our work in Scotland, and vice versa.
Alongside these core duties you will have the opportunity to support the mission more broadly, either through delivery of projects across the UK and/or through working as a mission representative for critical organisational priorities such as Nesta’s commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
This role will be expected to:
Minimum qualifications
Preferred qualifications
What we offer
Salary: £50k-£62k plus array of benefits, including health cash plans, dental insurance, the ability to buy and sell annual leave, eyecare vouchers and more
Location: This role is based in Scotland, Edinburgh - hybrid working arrangement. This role is based out of Nesta’s Edinburgh office. We offer flexible working to fit around your personal commitments or lifestyle (including part time hours, compressed hours and early start/early finish days etc) as well as remote working for part of the week (full time until the pandemic ends), so you could be based anywhere but we would likely expect you to work at least 2 days a week in our Edinburgh office, and up to 2 days a month in our London HQ.
Hours:This is a full-time role but we offer a range of flexible working arrangements and encourage our people to take advantage of them. Many do.
Reports to:Head of Nesta Scotland
We are recruiting for a Head of Nesta Scotland
We are a UK-wide charity with dedicated offices in Edinburgh, Cardiff and London. Nesta Scotland is integral to delivering impact at scale through our strategy.
About Nesta
We are Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale solutions to society’s biggest problems. Our three missions are to give every child a fair start, help people live healthy lives, and create a sustainable future where the economy works for both people and the planet.
For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation. We work in three roles: as an innovation partner working with frontline organisations to design and test new solutions, as a venture builder supporting new and early stage businesses, and as a system shaper creating the conditions for innovation.
Harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design, we work relentlessly to change millions of lives for the better. Find out more at nesta.org.uk.
Our Scotland team operates alongside our central mission teams to deliver Nesta’s strategic aims in Scotland.
The Head of Nesta Scotland will work closely with Mission Directors and a dedicated Mission Manager for each mission based in Scotland.
About the role
The Head of Nesta Scotland role has several areas of responsibility:
Scotland lead: Being the “face of” Nesta in Scotland, supporting the development of impactful partnerships alongside other teams at Nesta, and acting as the expert on the policy, innovation and operating environment in Scotland.
· Responsible for being the senior point of contact for the Nesta team in Scotland and the public face of Nesta to media and high level stakeholders (eg: government, industry, academia and potential partner organisations);
· Write, edit and/or review thought leadership and policy content for a range of audiences, working with the Communications team as part of a broader communications strategy for Scotland
· Proactively championing Nesta, our missions and issues to wider audiences through media and stakeholder engagement;
· Proactively identifying and reactively responding to mission-aligned opportunities with key partners in Scotland to amplify our impact.
· Working closely with other leaders at Nesta and representing the interests of the Scotland team in leadership decisions to deliver against our strategic goals.
Driving impact at scale: Understanding how impact gets delivered at scale in relation to each of our missions in Scotland, building strong routes to working with the Scottish Government and other key partners.
· Develop and deliver on a strategy to drive impact on our missions in Scotland, including through close work with the Scottish Government;
· Work with Mission Directors and other teams at Nesta to identify opportunities to deliver on our strategies in Scotland;
· Work with mission teams to help develop robust evidence-based policy recommendations for Scotland and to effectively communicate those with government partners;
· Work with Mission Managers to build scaling into their projects from the outset and help them to dock into the right people, processes, and networks to stand the best chance of this being a success.
Office manager: Being responsible for making sure Nesta staff based in Scotland have a great home office, a safe and enjoyable working environment, and ample pastoral support at work. Oversight and responsibility for the Scottish operating budget.
· Make sure we are compliant with the terms of our lease;
· Make sure the office environment enables people to do their work;
· Make sure people feel safe and valued in the office;
· Resolve any disputes or issues (with appropriate help) that arise in relation to the office or staff;
· Ensure the team has and uses its social budget.
Team lead: Making sure Nesta staff in Scotland feel connected to colleagues across Nesta, are up-to-speed on matters that affect them at Nesta, develop professionally within their roles and are able to do their jobs well.
· Support staff in the delivery of their work, helping them to navigate uncertainty and find productive ways forward;
· Facilitate relationships between mission team colleagues and influential stakeholders. For example, by asking higher-level government contacts for an introduction to those at working level in a Department;
· Support colleagues to develop professionally, particularly in your areas of expertise.
The person
Preferred qualification and experience:
· Experience working in or with the Scottish Government and/or other key decision makers in Scotland and navigating the Scottish operating environment;
· Strong understanding of how the Scottish Government works and ways to influence it;
· Experience of communicating to a wider audience via media or other routes;
· Excellent management of high-level stakeholder relationships and networking skills;
· Ability to set out a clear strategy and convince others of a recommended strategic direction;
· Experience of how to navigate internal relationships and work effectively with a wider variety of teams to get work done;
· Excellent team management and resource management skills;
· Ability to interpret evidence, draw conclusions and recommendations and communicate these effectively internally and externally;
· (Not essential) Expertise in at least one of Nesta’s mission areas.
· Strong ability to manage and develop yourself at work. You demonstrate high levels of initiative and willingness to take responsibility for your own workload and professional development.
What we offer
Salary: £68k-£77k plus array of benefits, including private medical insurance, dental insurance, the ability to buy and sell annual leave, eyecare vouchers and more
Location: This role is based in Edinburgh. We offer flexibility for our people to work remotely, but expect everyone to work from a Nesta office two days per week and be available for key internal and external meetings.
Term: Permanent
Hours: This is a full-time role but we offer a range of flexible working arrangements and encourage our people to take advantage of them. Many do.
Reports to: Deputy Chief Programmes Officer, Nesta
This is a rare and exciting opportunity to build and lead a fresh, vibrant organisation to support and represent the Scottish Borders third sector.
The Scottish Borders TSI is transitioning into an independent charity and we are looking for a dynamic and passionate Chief Executive Officer to lead us into the next phase of our development.
You will take the lead in setting out an ambitious strategy; developing and managing the operational plans and the resources to deliver them.
You’ll provide leadership, management and motivation in a positive and collaborative culture that develops and supports staff.
Crucially, you will work to maximise the capability of the sector and ensure it has a voice in local and national policy and planning.
We need someone who is creative and motivated, and a skilled communicator able to confidently act as an ambassador and the public face of Borders TSI. You’ll be committed to bringing positive change and improving the lives of the people of the Scottish Borders.
An inflation related pay offer has been agreed and with effect from 01 April 2023 the salary scale for this post will be £26,211 to £28,759 (Dependent on skills and experience)
Are you passionate about helping people to live a better life?
Do you want to work for a charity where your health and wellbeing matter just as much as the people you support?
Do you want to be part of a trauma-informed team where you will be supported to develop creative and flexible ways of working?
At LinkLiving, our values and people are at the heart of everything we do including how we recruit our staff. It is important for us to find people who share our values, which are:
LinkLiving is a Scottish health and wellbeing charity that supports people to manage or overcome the effects of negative life experiences (including trauma, mental health challenges, poverty and inequality) so that they can build on their strengths and aspirations in order to live their best possible lives. We support people through a range of models including:
The Service
The Link Academy team works primarily with people with complex and chaotic backgrounds. The service works hard and creatively to maintain the early engagement of participants. We support people by offering mental health and wellbeing programmes, independent living skills and a wide range of qualifications to support their progression including employability, tenancy, personal development and leadership award qualifications.
The Job
The purpose of the job is to support people to achieve their goals and aspirations through group work by providing opportunities to enhance their knowledge and skills. You will be responsible for recruiting, training and supporting the programme participants. You will support the achievement of high standards and provide monitoring information in relation to the project’s outcomes.
You will ensure that opportunities are provided to people equipping them with the skills to make a valuable contribution to the service and their wider community. You will support people into a positive destination whether that be re-engagement with education, training or employment. In the role you will provide support and offer guidance to programme participants, develop relationships with other agencies and services and actively promote LinkLiving’s programmes and services.
About You
in order to be considered for this role it is essential that you can demonstrate a good standard of education, e.g. standard grade passes (or equivalent) in core subjects such as English and Maths and also hold an SQA Assessor qualification or be willing to work towards it.
As you will be working with people with complex needs/backgrounds you must have previous experience in this field combined with experience of co-ordinating, developing and delivering training programmes.
Additionally, you must have the ability to drive and be able to travel between services, as required.
For a comprehensive list of the essential and desirable criteria required for this post, please refer to the Job Specification in the Job information Pack above.
What’s in it for you?
The benefits of being a LinkLiving employee (subject to the policies and benefit terms and conditions) include:
This post is subject to Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme registration. Link will meet the cost of any new PVG scheme membership or scheme record update.
Are you enthusiastic about making a difference in young people’s lives?
Helm’s long-term vision is a Scotland where all young people dare to dream and can make those dreams a reality. Our more immediate mission is to ensure that young people in Scotland have access to the education and training that supports them to learn. Our strategy for achieving this focuses on three key activities, which we believe, will make education, training and employment accessible and achievable for all:
We have an exciting opportunity for a dynamic individual to support young people in Dundee to gain qualifications and move into employment. The successful candidate will have the experience in supporting young people in groups and through one to ones.
Key responsibilities in the role include:
What do we give you in return? We provide you with a competitive salary, 35 days annual leave, health benefits, a pension plan, a generous range of benefits and job satisfaction with a real opportunity to make a difference every day.
We are committed to the safeguarding and welfare of all young people and use a thorough and rigorous recruitment and selection process including PVG Scheme checks to ensure this commitment is not compromised.
We are currently seeking a well organised and supportive Business Administrator who will be responsible for the financial and administrative aspects of the charity in association with the three other members of staff plus a voluntary board of directors.
The Wildlife Information Centre (TWIC) is an environmental charity with an established reputation for excellence in the provision of biodiversity data within south-east and part of central Scotland. TWIC currently holds over 3.6 million species records as well as extensive habitats and designated sites information. Our programme of events supports new and existing recorders and stimulates interest in biological recording amongst the wider public.
Key responsibilities:
Download the application form, full job description and person specification below.
Are you passionate about supporting services to help people live a better life?
Do you want to work for a charity where your health and wellbeing matter just as much as the people you support?
Do you want to be part of a trauma-informed team where you will be supported to develop creative and flexible ways of working?
Do you want a job where no two days are the same, working in a dynamic environment where you will be supported to develop new skills?
At LinkLiving, our values and people are at the heart of everything we do including how we recruit our staff. It is important for us to find people who share our values, which are:
LinkLiving is a Scottish health and wellbeing charity that supports people to manage or overcome the effects of negative life experiences (including trauma, mental health challenges, poverty and inequality) so that they can build on their strengths and aspirations in order to live their best possible lives. We support people through a range of models including:
The Business Administration and Finance Officer will provide a customer-focused and comprehensive administrative support to the LinkLiving Edinburgh services. This post involves interacting with members of the management team, staff, partner agencies and the people we support.
The post will provide administrative support to three functional teams, offering different services to frontline staff, management and the people we support. The position will involve collaborating across multi-disciplinary teams, with a number of external agencies, financial invoicing, pre-paid credit cards and record-keeping, facilities management and general reception duties at the LinkLiving hub.
Join us as our new Quality and Qualifications Manager and be part of our Global Learning Lab, which catalyses innovative, high quality, accredited programmes through our global community of associate facilitators, staff and partners.
The Social Enterprise Academy helps thousands of people to develop themselves and their organisations so that they can change the world for the better.
Through dynamic learning and development programmes, facilitated by our network of skilled learning facilitators, we help entrepreneurship and leadership to flourish in organisations, networks, schools and colleges. We work with social entrepreneurs, chief executives, frontline teams, young people in and out of education and many others to support anyone contributing to social change.
Many of our programmes are accredited, ensuring learners can gain formal qualifications as recognition for their learning. Assessments focus on learning from work-based situations, helping learners to apply what they learn during their programme and beyond.
The Quality and Qualifications Manager role is crucial to the Global Learning Lab, ensuring we maintain our quality assurance standards, manage relationships with our awarding bodies and continue to expand the Academy’s offering of credit rated programmes.
Having the right mind-set, attitude and approach is as important for us as having the right experience and skills. We appreciate that the best person might not have all the listed criteria yet so if you feel your experience and skills will help you to make a great contribution in this role and you have the right mind-set, we would welcome an application from you.
Job Purpose
To lead, drive and have organisation-wide accountability for the maintenance of our learning programme quality standards and for the initial and ongoing achievement of qualification awarding partner accreditation requirements.
The post holder supports the Academy’s sales and growth objectives by overseeing the establishment of robust quality processes and associated evidence.
Key Responsibilities
To see the full job description and set of criteria along with information on how to apply please download the recruitment pack from our website.
Organisation profile:
At the Social Enterprise Academy, we believe in the power of learning and development to transform people of all ages to be agents of change.
Since 2004, we have facilitated over 78,000 social entrepreneurs globally to help create fairer communities where people have equitable access to opportunities.
Through our social franchising model we have been scaling our impact and we want to increase this number to 10 million social entrepreneurs globally by 2030. Through our International Accelerator Fund we will build a financially sustainable hub network to increase the ripples of change taking place in communities around the world.
By providing them with the real life experience of running their own social enterprise, we are also empowering young people to become the future makers and job creators of their countries through our Social Enterprise Schools programme. Young people around the world are developing key future skills such as creativity, social entrepreneurship and financial literacy to ensure maximum sustainability and impact in their schools, communities and beyond.
LifeMosaic supports communities and movements to protect their rights, territories and cultures and to vision and determine their own futures. We work with indigenous communities in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America who are being marginalised and whose natural resources and cultures are under threat. We also work with visionary communities who are championing community-led approaches to self-determined development and those defending their territories and cultures.
Come join our friendly dynamic team!
Organisation: LifeMosaic (lifemosaic.net)
We are seeking a Finance Coordinator to provide us with the capacity to accelerate organisational growth to broaden our reach and deepen our impact. This is an exciting, interesting and varied role with opportunity for development. This post aims to unlock organisational growth further, particularly to help to expand the organisation in a sustainable way to meet the increasing demand that we are experiencing from indigenous partners and movements.
The successful applicant will be working closely with the Executive Director and the Board of Trustees, as well as with funders, staff, and partner organisations.
A full job description is attached below.
Are you a great communicator with a passion for inclusive communities and social enterprise?
We’re looking for a part-time Fundraiser, 2 days per week, to complete grant applications and undertake fundraising activities to help the Grassmarket Community Project (GCP) flourish.
The GCP is based at the Grassmarket Centre on Candlemaker Row in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town. The role is flexible and can be mostly carried out from home and tailored to you current life or work commitments. Ideally you will be able to visit to learn about and enjoy the community’s wide range of activities, events and support. An appropriate working pattern can be agreed.
We are looking for someone with excellent written and verbal communication skills to best present our community to prospective and existing funders, donors and friends. Reporting to the CEO, you will be responsible for applying and reporting on grant funding and managing existing and prospective funder and donor relations. As part of the team, the role may also involve community fundraising initiatives, partnerships (e.g. groups undertaking sponsored events, or corporate firms), and delivering talks to visiting groups and supporters involving a wide variety of different needs and abilities. You will be able to work on your own initiative, manage deadlines and prioritise your workload to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.