So why are we looking for a new Service Manager

Our ambition is for every child in Scotland to be safe, loved and well, together with their family. Children 1st is committed to protecting children by preventing harm through abuse and neglect. We will promote their wellbeing by respecting, protecting, and fulfilling children’s human rights.

We have a long history of working with children and families and partners in Moray. Children 1st along with our partners share a determination to act upon the recommendations from The Independent Care Review and deliver The Promise to children and young people. We are also determined that the full incorporation of the UNCRC means that children will have their rights respected in all areas of their lives and will have a real say in the way they are supported.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Manager to lead a large, creative and vibrant team. Our Service delivers a number of diverse supports alongside children and families. Our activities include Whole Family Support alongside our Social Work Colleagues creating alternative plans to support children growing up where they are safe and loved, and Perinatal Mental Health Support for new parents across Moray. Our activity includes both early help and more intensive supports, all based on quality relationships with children and families.

We are looking for a resilient Service Manager who can be a strong leader across the service and organisation. Someone who thinks operationally but understands the big picture too. We need a leader who is in touch with the needs of children, young people and their families who require support and passionate about their rights. We seek a dynamic manager who can build on the service strengths and create the agile and flexible service children and families need.

What kind of person will make a great Service Manager for Children 1st?

• Has experience of keeping children safe in their own families.
• Someone who can ensure that the child and family rights to have their voices heard and considered in decision making.
• Can work autonomously and develop quality relationships with colleagues from a wide range of partner agencies.
• Can help assess children’s and families’ situations and is systemic and reflective.
• Someone who is calm and cool headed in decision making.
• Someone open to always listening to improve and put quality at the centre of everything we do.
• Shares the Children 1st vision for holistic, rights based, trauma informed, whole family support that is developed and enhanced by children and family’s participation and influence.

What kind of leader will you be?

Knowing our ambition for children, you will be someone who is:

• Resilient, skilled and knowledgeable who wants to transform systems as well as children’s lives.
• Able to build great partnerships and to manage and contribute to courageous conversations.
• Able to understand, predict and adapt to the changing children’s service landscape.
• Bringing considerable operational service experience.
• A cool head and clear minded at times of pressure.
• Strategic in decisions and planning and can manage complexity.
• Inspiring colleagues and teams to be even better.
• An amazing ambassador for children and Children 1st.

Above all else, the most important thing to us is that you are someone who will do the right thing for children and their families at every turn.

Base

You will be based in our Elgin service.

Salary, Conditions, Pension, Value

We will offer you a competitive salary, generous annual leave entitlement (40 days inclusive of 9 public holidays), flexible working opportunities and a contributory pension scheme and a place where you will be supported and valued and work with excellent and kind colleagues.

Additionally, Children 1st offers further staff benefits including a cash-back healthcare plan, membership of a Credit Union and access to a cycle to work scheme.

Further Information

This is a permanent, full-time post of 35 hours per week, with flexibility for travel.

Do you believe in the power of data to improve people’s lives and know that working with the public is vital to our mission? Research Data Scotland needs you!

We have an exciting opportunity to work in a multifaceted Business Management role to support the delivery of exemplary governance and operational excellence. This role works with stakeholders at every level in our organisation and as such we are looking to appoint a highly motivated and conscientious individual.

About us

Research Data Scotland (RDS) is a charity set up by the Scottish public sector and leading universities. We help researchers find and make use of data that can improve the lives of people in Scotland. Working in partnership, we do this by widening the range of data available, creating new data assets and providing a single point of contact for safe, secure and effective access to public data in a trustworthy manner.

Data is often locked away in lots of individual systems, across many different organisations, and isn’t in a format that makes access or integration easy. We can help researchers to unlock the potential of this data by giving them information and advice that speeds up and simplifies their work.

RDS aims to provide a step change in the service to researchers, whilst maintaining the high standards of information governance and data security already in place. We aim to work as openly as possible, maintaining standards in transparency and ethics. Our focus is on providing a streamlined service for researchers, as well as extending the range of data available through the service, particularly in the areas of Covid-19, NHS imaging, geospatial data, children and justice services.

Our partners include: Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland, National Records of Scotland (NRS), and the Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. We work closely with the national and regional safe havens. And we are in contact with other organisations in Scotland and across the UK in the data research sector, including public sector, research and commercial bodies.

About the job

The Business Manager will work closely with the Chair, CEO and Operations Director to manage, coordinate and schedule the regular cycle of our governance and business activities. This will include coordinating board meetings as well as maintaining our internal registers and ensuring our reporting mechanisms are top-notch! This post will be highly varied and vital to the successful delivery of our Business and Delivery plans.

There is a strong focus on developmental projects, operational risk, records management, governance, improving our performance and delivering our day-to-day charity operations. You’ll be an important member of our Operations Team, sharing your expertise with colleagues and board members, as well as independently leading on activities.

Reports to Operations Director

About you

You are a self-starter, with experience of working with stakeholders at every level. You’ll understand the importance of engaging well with board members, senior leaders and your colleagues to get their input into your work and support great governance. You are highly organised and thrive on managing multiple projects with different deadlines. You are keen to deliver, with an eye for detail and the pragmatism to understand our context and environment.

Life at RDS

We are a small friendly and highly engaged team of people. We promote continuous learning and work hard to build an inclusive and supportive workplace culture. We live our values of; integrity, transparency, courage, collaboration and humility.

Our people typically work a 35-hour week, with hybrid working on offer from day one. You can choose to work flexibly from home or use one of our desks in the Bayes Centre in central Edinburgh. The whole RDS team meets one day per month in-person in Edinburgh or at an off-site away day in the Central Belt. Individual teams organise their own in-person days to collaborate, develop and socialise together.

We offer 33 days’ annual leave (including public holidays) and have no set closure days. We have a generous pension and enhanced pay for parental/adoption leave. This list of benefits is being added to as the organisation develops, and you can help shape it as part of the team. Our Culture Group helps us seek feedback from colleagues across the organisation to make RDS an even better place to work.