Scottish Cot Death Trust is Scotland’s only charity dedicated to the issue of the sudden and unexpected death of babies and young children. A key part of our work is providing a range of support for families and we’re looking for an experienced and compassionate Bereavement Support Manager to join our team. This is a new role and will be central to our commitment to working with and supporting families.

Our Bereavement Support Manager will oversee our bereavement services, directly support families, and further develop provision, including volunteering programmes. This is an exciting time to join Scottish Cot Death Trust and a unique opportunity to deliver and influence the development of services. If you have experience of working with bereaved parents and families, and are passionate about high quality bereavement care and support, we’re keen to hear from you.

If you’d like to find out more, or for an informal chat about the role, please contact Lynsey Kidd at lynseykidd@scottishcotdeathtrust.org

Are you someone who cares passionately about children and their rights being respected? Are you friendly and can communicate with children? You may be interested in becoming a Safeguarder.

Children and young people are clear that Safeguarders should be friendly, care about them, and see them as unique individuals.

Safeguarders are appointed by Ministers and have a unique and important role in children’s hearings and related court proceedings, supporting the process to focus on the child’s best interests. When a child or young person is involved in a children’s hearing or court case, it can feel really scary, and difficult and life-changing decisions will often need to be made about their future.

“It makes you feel like you can trust them (the Safeguarder) if they’re friendly. You can kind of automatically tell if someone is kind and if you can trust them.” (Young Person)

While skills and knowledge are important in this role, these professional qualifications are secondary to the core values of the person to children and young people. They want warmth and genuineness, and someone who can see them for all that they are without judgement. This is the kind of person that we are looking for.

A Safeguarder ensures that the best interests of a child or young person are taken into account, that their views are considered, and that their human rights are protected. Recommendations made by a Safeguarder can inform and influence hearing’s decisions.

“A Safeguarder should be hopeful that the Panel or Sheriff will make the right decision for the child.” (Young Person)

Children 1st is contracted by the Scottish Government to manage the national Safeguarders Panel. On behalf of Scotland’s children and young people we are looking for individuals who can:

• Maintain an unwavering focus on the child or young person’s best interests in children’s hearings and related court proceedings

• Communicate with and be attuned to the child or young person in the assimilation and analysis of information to make clear, reasoned and justifiable recommendations

• Work effectively as an individual and alongside others connected to the role

• Have the values, skills and experience to uphold the vision of the national Safeguarders Panel to be excellent, transparent, consistent and respectful for children and young people and their human rights

“Come in as a human, not as a professional.” (Young Person)

Applications are now invited from individuals motivated to undertake this key role.

We would particularly welcome applications from individuals who are willing to travel to Safeguarder appointments in the areas of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Dundee, East Ayrshire, Falkirk, Fife, Highlands, Moray, and North Ayrshire.

We’re looking for an enthusiastic fundraising and communications professional to join our team. If you’re proactive, creative, and able to inspire and build positive relationships we’d love to hear from you.

Scottish Cot Death Trust is Scotland’s only charity dedicated to the issue of the sudden and unexpected death of babies and young children. Our key strands of work include support for families, a diverse training programme for professionals across a range of sectors, and research into sudden infant death.

To support our work we are looking for a Fundraising and Communications Officer with a strong track record in income generation and effective communications. Ideally, we’re looking for someone with experience of community fundraising, corporate fundraising such as ‘charity of the year’ partnerships, and digital appeals. However, we’re open to applications from anyone with different experience but with the transferrable skills, energy and attitude to be an exceptional fundraising and communications colleague.

We’re open to applications on a job share basis for either of the distinct parts of the role, with the fundraising element at 21 hours/wk and the communications (including digital appeals) at 14 hours/wk. If you’d like to find out more, or for an informal chat about the role, please contact Lynsey Kidd at lynseykidd@scottishcotdeathtrust.org