About Options Dundee

Our Options Dundee service works in partnership with families offering tailored packages of support to help families stay together. Based on the needs of the family, this includes supporting morning and bedtime routines in the family’s home and offering a variety of sessions and groups for children and young people which also help them to access activities in the community.

This specialised service enables the children and young people to grow and develop – access their local area, broaden their experiences and provide new opportunities which not only meet their needs but encourage them to flourish in a safe nurturing way.

The difference we make to families:

Families we work with find our support invaluable “I don’t know what I’d do without them. I trust them, my child trusts them – we both feel safe when they’re in the house…..They’ve changed me and my child’s life.”

What we are looking for....

We know how difficult it can be managing your work/life balance, and so we are offering flexible hours to work at weekends either on a Saturday or a on a Sunday or working on both days at the weekend. Work hours would range from 5 hours to 15 hours.

As part of a small team, you will ensure that the highest level of physical and emotional care is provided to the children and young people. Experience in this type of work is preferred however we will consider all applications. Full details of rota requirements will be discussed at interview. Please specify in your supporting statement the work pattern and hours you are looking for.

At Aberlour we want to make sure every child and young person has the love, support and opportunity they need to reach their potential. If you share the same vision, we want you to join our team.

What we offer...

As well as a supportive team and excellent training opportunities, we want all our employees to feel valued and rewarded for the vital work they do. When you work with us, we'll recognise your efforts with generous annual leave, an excellent employer pension scheme and a range of deals and discounts across various retailers.

The Post

This is an excellent and rare opportunity for an experienced manager and qualified worker to join The Lilias Grahm Trust. The post involves supporting practitioners and families whilst developing parenting capacity assessment and the delivery of service. The post holder will contribute to the unique culture and ethos of LGT.

Key Responsibilities:

The successful candidate will:

• Work proactively to achieving positive, engaging, relationships with families, all other services, and stakeholders.
• Lead their team and delegate effectively.
• Motivate families, individuals, and the team with excellent communication, listening and interpersonal skills.
• Undertake high quality written assessments whilst demonstrating critical thinking and warmth in their assessments.
• Continually work to develop the team and service delivery to ultimately benefit the families we serve.
• Contribute and participate in the development, and delivery of the day to day running of the service to promote of the welfare of staff and families.
• Monitor the efficiency and quality of policies, procedures, and current documents, actively promoting a culture of continuous improvement.
• Provide supervision, coaching, mentoring, training and induction to staff and volunteers.
• Be committed and willing to meet the needs of the service, working 9am-5pm, five days a week and additional shift, evening and weekends as required.
• Participate in the on-call system which includes public holidays, evenings, and weekends.

Essential skills and Experience Required

The successful applicant will:

• Hold a degree in Social Work or another relevant degree eg psychology as a minimum qualification with ongoing personal development for continued practice.
• Be trauma informed with a working knowledge of the significant impact that poverty and systems have on children and families.
• Have a keen interest in attachment theory, child development and understanding of an approach of therapeutic parenting.
• Have a current working knowledge of child development, and attachment and trauma informed theory which will underpin practice.
• Be registered with the Scottish Social Services Council and adhere to standards in line with their requirements.
• Have the creativity, compassion, and skill base to deliver robust and focused parenting capacity assessments.
• Have a keen interest in the delivery of The Promise Scotland and the supports required to scaffold families in the community.
• Have Line Management experience (essential) of multi-disciplinary agencies, in children and families.
• Be proficient in the use of Microsoft office programmes, including Excel and PowerPoint.
• Hold a full driving licence and have use of their own vehicle (mileage paid).
• Provide two references and join the PVG Scheme.

Who are we?

The LGT is a registered Scottish Charity which offers independent parenting capacity assessments within a rural residential setting near the village of Thornhill, 10 miles from Stirling town centre. We provided residential placements to parents and their child/children in cases where a Local Authority has concerns about the parent’s ability to meet the children’s needs. By working with the families, we are able to provide evidence -based information about whether the child can remain safely within the family, and if so, what support is required. The LGT’s practice is based on Kate Cairns ‘Five to Thrive working model’ and, via a 12-week parenting capacity assessment we assess, support, and develop parent’s confidence, skills, and insight to promote healthy attachments. The LGT staff team work closely in partnership with independent consultants in Social Work, Psychiatry, Counselling, Health, Play, Music, and Art Therapy to provide a holistic and organic assessment.

The LGT has a committed and motivated staff team whose focus is to strengthen parent and child relationships to provide a better future for families. We are committed to providing high quality support designed around families’ abilities, needs and choices and we do this by providing high quality services that will build parent’s and children’s capacity to overcome stress and alienation arising from poverty and social exclusion.

Values

At the Lilias Graham Trust, we know that there is no prescription or rulebook for every situation. We have therefore developed a statement of values that will underpin and guide all our work. The successful candidate will have the key qualities and share these common values.

The role holder will maintain and develop a culture of:

• Compassion: We will treat every parent, child, family and colleague with kindness, compassion, and warmth.
• Respect: We will treat every parent, child, family, and colleague with respect for our shared humanity as well as for our individual uniqueness. Although we will make assessments, we will not jump to judgemental conclusions and will work in a transparent, honest, and equalising way. Human beings are fallible, and we can all make mistakes. This shared aspect of being human is something we understand.
• Hope: We will create the conditions within which hope can blossom, by believing in the potential of families and understanding how difficult things have been in the past.
• Trust: We will seek to earn the trust of the families we work with. Through transparency, honesty, and solidarity we will aspire to be trustworthy in everything we do, even when outcomes may not be what everyone would hope for.
• Care: All our work will be underpinned by taking time to build authentic, warm, and caring relationships with parents and children. Through proper listening and empathy, we will seek to understand families, their situations, and future hopes.

At LGT families are provided with an opportunity to achieve their potential. As a practice manger you will look for these glimmers of potential and guide the team through evidence-based practice.

Outline of Terms of Employment:

Salary: £38,500pa

Contract: Permanent

Leave entitlement: 20 Annual leave days & 10 Public Holidays

Hours of Duty: 40 hours per week

Pension: Workplace pension scheme

Shift work: Shift and weekend work may be required.

On Call: The post holder will participate in the on-call system,

About Options Dundee

Our Options Dundee service works in partnership with families offering tailored packages of support to help families stay together. Based on the needs of the family, this includes supporting morning and bedtime routines in the family’s home and offering a variety of sessions and groups for children and young people which also help them to access activities in the community.

This specialised service enables the children and young people to grow and develop – access their local area, broaden their experiences and provide new opportunities which not only meet their needs but encourage them to flourish in a safe nurturing way.

The difference we make to families:

Families we work with find our support invaluable “I don’t know what I’d do without them. I trust them, my child trusts them – we both feel safe when they’re in the house…..They’ve changed me and my child’s life.”

What we are looking for....

We are looking for a new member of the team to work 22.5 hours per week. These will be variable working hours, including evenings and weekends, over a 7 day period.

As part of a small team, you will ensure that the highest level of physical and emotional care is provided to the children and young people. Experience in this type of work is preferred however we will consider all applications. Full details of rota requirements will be discussed at interview.

At Aberlour we want to make sure every child and young person has the love, support and opportunity they need to reach their potential. If you share the same vision, we want you to join our team.

What we offer...

As well as a supportive team and excellent training opportunities, we want all our employees to feel valued and rewarded for the vital work they do. When you work with us, we'll recognise your efforts with generous annual leave, an excellent employer pension scheme and a range of deals and discounts across various retailers.

Who Cares? Scotland is Scotland’s only national independent membership organisation for Care Experienced people. Our strategic vision is to secure a lifetime of equality, respect, and love for Care Experienced people in Scotland.

At the heart of Who Cares? Scotland’s work are the rights of Care Experienced people, and the power of their voices to bring about positive change. We provide individual lifelong relationship-based independent advocacy and a broad range of imaginative participatory and engagement opportunities for Care Experienced people across Scotland. We work alongside Corporate Parents and communities to broaden understanding and create change. We work with policy makers, leaders, and elected representatives locally and nationally to shape law, policy, and practice, working together to build on the aspirations of The Promise and secure positive change.

We are seeking a passionate and strategic leader to join our team as the Business Development Director. You will play a vital role in driving forwards Who Cares? Scotland’s vision by leading the development of strategic partnerships and securing key funding opportunities. As manager for the Fundraising and Partnerships Team, you will oversee grants, trusts, community fundraising, public tenders, and the setting of income targets. By forging strong relationships with corporate and external stakeholders, as well as overseeing our strategic affiliation with the John Lewis Partnership, your role will expand our public education, income generation, and business development aims. To interweave the organisation’s development of public education training programmes with our core fundraising mission, you will also manage our Creating Communities that Care team, who play a vital role in developing our external training offerings.

As an individual with a background of 5+ years in senior management, preferably in the non-profit sector, you have demonstrable experience in business development, fundraising, and grant writing. You possess a proven track record of successfully securing high-value grants and partnerships from diverse funding sources, leading on the development of strategic plans, and reaching key performance targets with accountability to diverse stakeholders. As a seasoned manager and mentor, you can also collaborate across organisations, fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement amongst your colleagues, our volunteers, and our partner organisations. The right candidate for this post will not only bear responsibility for leading core funding strategy, but also serve as a spokesperson for the organisation, representing its mission, values, and impact to external stakeholders. You are, therefore, committed to child rights and human rights, the successful implementation of The Promise, and the belief that young people can make transformative change happen in their lives if given the opportunity.

We have office locations in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Paisley, Bellshill, Kilmarnock, and Dundee. There is an expectation that the post holder will also have a regular presence within the National Office in Glasgow, but home working is offered as part of our commitment to flexible working. Given the remit of the role, some evening and weekend work will be necessary, to attend fundraising and member events, as well as Board Meetings.

The successful candidate will be joining Who Cares? Scotland at an exciting time, when the voices of those who are in or have experienced care are growing in power, individually and collectively - bringing with them insight, challenge, hope and change. While we would welcome the knowledge gathered through relevant qualifications, we are just as interested in relevant work experience. We welcome and encourage applications from those with experience of care.