At Children 1st our ambition is for every child in Scotland to be safe, loved and well with their family. As a charity we offer emotional, practical, and financial support to help families to put children first and campaign to uphold the rights of every child.

We support the whole family when they need it, for as long as they need it. We offer help to prevent families reaching crisis point, to keep children safe and to support children and families to recover from trauma and harm.

This important and exciting position plays a role in both the day to day running of the Edinburgh office and in cross organisational administration matters, assisting with the management of health and safety and working with service teams in all of Children 1st locations.

This role within the Corporate Services Team will involve:

• managing the efficient running of our current headquarters in Edinburgh as well as leading the administration support team to provide high quality administrative support across Children 1st.

• acting as the main point of contact in the administrative support team

• supporting teams across the country with property and facilities management of service bases

• working with internal teams and external contractors to ensure all legal and statutory requirements are met throughout the property portfolio.

• maintaining organisational and property files, registers and working collaboratively with all members of the Corporate Services Team to maintain high levels of confidentiality and data security

The post holder will be the key point of contact for organisational Health and Safety requirements, will manage the property database, and will maintain office supplies and records, in addition to overseeing contractors and reviewing corporate contracts.

MULTICULTURAL FAMILY BASE is a unique, community based social work centre based in Edinburgh. Approximately 50% of our workforce are from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic background.

The organisation’s key objective is to support Black and Minority Ethnic individuals, children and parents deal with important transition points - this can be the birth of a child, the move into primary school or the move to Edinburgh for families who are new migrants. In addition, we combine our service delivery with student learning by providing high quality and diverse placement opportunities for social work students from academic institutions across Scotland.

We are now seeking qualified, skilled and motivated individuals to join our team.

The Bright Choices Project offers practical and emotional support and advice to women, children and men from Black and Minority Ethnic communities who are experiencing, or at risk of, Honour-Based Violence (HBV), Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and other harmful practices relating to cultural belief systems and pressures.

You will have experience of group and individual work with people affected by HBV who are likely to experience disadvantage or discrimination due to their race, ethnicity or cultural backgrounds.

You will be engaging service users in group work and will have knowledge of the key issues as well as relevant experience of working within a therapeutic, community development role in 1:1 setting.

You will be facilitating Creative Nurture Group in collaboration with an Art Therapist once a week, working with women affected by HBV.

The qualified candidate will have:

1) Diploma in Social Work or another relevant professional qualification;

2) Knowledge of the challenges and needs of children, individuals & families from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds;

3) An understanding of and commitment to equal opportunities, anti-racist and anti-discriminatory practice and user participation. The posts require membership of the PVG Scheme.

We seek someone who has these skills but is also dedicated to the values of MCFB and is willing to work alongside the team to achieve our goals of anti-oppressive

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Children 1st team in Midlothian as a peer support worker. You will provide support to parents impacted by substance use and poor mental health and their families. You will be skilled in “getting alongside” parents with a compassionate approach, using your own lived experience of substance use, poverty and poor mental health amongst other factors, to form trusting relationships, facilitating lasting, meaningful change.

The role will be varied, including 1:1 and group based supports which will see you supporting parents to engage in mutual aid meetings, attend health and wellbeing appointments, be more connected in recovery communities and feel more confident. You will support parents in their understanding of how substance use has impacted on both themselves and their family, and working with colleagues help families to strengthen their relationships with each other.

If you have compassion, are skilled at forming trusting relationships, dedication to making a meaningful difference, are non judgemental and can evidence stability in your lived experience, we would be interested in hearing from you. You will be expected to have an understanding / experience of recovery orientated support and an awareness of the supports available in the Midlothian community.

What kind of person will make a great peer worker for Children 1st?

• is fiercely passionate about supporting parents and their families through recovery
• thinks it’s a privilege to work with and on behalf of parents, children and their families
• is kind and will bring their whole selves to the job: heart and mind
• is committed to being part of a wider team to promote meaningful change for families.
• is flexible and creative in their approach

Further Information

This is a full time position however we are open to accepting applications from people who are interested in working a minimum of 14 hours, up to 35 hours.

About Aberlour Sycamore Children’s Houses

Aberlour Sycamore Services’ vision is to provide warm, loving homes for children where everyone learns, laughs, grows into their future and is treasured always. At any one time, the residential houses within Sycamore require additional support to help to maintain stability and balance within the teams. This can be due to short or long term sick leave, adults on annual leave or maybe to provide additional capacity when a house is under pressure, e.g. when welcoming a new child or young person to come and live with us or we are looking to free up adults to focus on a particular area of work. This role is intended to help provide this additional stability/capacity.

What we are looking for....

We are looking for an individual who can integrate seamlessly into our existing team, working alongside it and relief adults to support excellent service delivery. We are looking for a Residential Worker to work part time (30 hours per week). You will have a knowledge and understanding of the importance of attachment, trauma and how this can impact on an individual’s development. At times our children express their distress through their behaviour and the role can be emotionally and physically challenging; we are therefore looking for someone who is resilient, understands that behaviour is a means of communication and is trauma responsive.

You will be skilled in building therapeutic relationships with the children, young people and young adults to enable them to feel safe, loved and cared for.

You must have the ability to quickly build your relationships with the adults within the house. The nature of the role is such that you could be working to cover a shift or longer periods as required, including days and wakened nightshifts and you may also be supporting young people to attend school or participate in other learning programmes. You must therefore be able to quickly adapt to the working environment within each house.

You will be comfortable with working within Aberlour’s culture embracing respect, integrity, innovation and the ability to challenge. Demonstration of these qualities will be particularly important in this role given that you will be dipping in and out of the different teams. You must be able to be an exceptional role model for other staff and the young person.

Undertaking the role of Residential Worker will afford you the opportunity to develop and build on a range of transferrable skills which are valued in a range of employment: you will be able to demonstrate excellent flexibility and adaptability with exceptional interpersonal skills, ability to work with different teams and different children, young people and young adults living within our Sycamore Houses.

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. At Aberlour we have strong values - Respect, Integrity, Innovation and Challenging - which influence our everyday work. If you choose to apply for this role please tell us about your values in your supporting statement.

For an informal discussion please phone Kerry Watson, House Manager on 07753310967

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.

Aberlour is committed to the safeguarding and welfare of all our service users and uses a thorough and rigorous recruitment and selection process including PVG Scheme checks to ensure this commitment is not compromised.