Jobs in East Lothian

Help Shape the Future for Unpaid Carers in East Lothian.

Are you passionate about supporting unpaid carers and making a lasting difference in your community?

Would you like to use your skills, insight and experience to help a local charity grow, strengthen and thrive?

Carers of East Lothian has been championing unpaid carers since 1996 — and as we celebrate 30 years of making a difference, we’re just getting started.

As a leading third sector organisation, we support, empower and amplify the voices of unpaid carers across East Lothian. With demand for our services growing and an ambitious new 5-year strategy launching, there’s never been a more exciting time to get involved.

Join our Board and help shape the next chapter of our journey — your experience, insight and passion could make a real difference.

Why Join Our Board?

As a Trustee, you’ll play a vital role in shaping the future of our charity. Working collaboratively with fellow Board members, you will provide strategic leadership, governance and oversight to ensure we remain true to our mission and values.

You will:

• Help shape and influence our long-term vision and strategy
• Contribute to meaningful discussions at Board meetings
• Ensure strong governance and compliance with legal responsibilities
• Oversee financial sustainability and organisational resilience
• Support and constructively challenge senior staff and volunteers
• Act as an ambassador, championing our work and building partnerships

This is a rewarding opportunity to make a tangible impact in your community, develop your leadership skills, and gain valuable experience in charity governance. Previous Board experience is not necessary.

Who We are Looking For?

• An individual with commitment to the mission, vision, values and objectives of the charity
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to work effectively as part of a team
• Integrity and sound judgement
• Think and apply knowledge creatively and strategically
• Experience of or an understanding of the demands on unpaid carers

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and experiences. We are especially keen to hear from individuals who can bring diverse perspectives or lived experience connected to unpaid caring.

While we would particularly value skills in finance, law, fundraising, communications, or HR, enthusiasm, commitment and a genuine belief in our mission are just as important.

If you want to help create a stronger future for unpaid carers in East Lothian, we’d love to hear from you.

Carers of East Lothian is a values driven local charity making a real impact in the community supporting adults who care for family and friends. We have an excellent reputation, recently gaining recognition through the Carers Trust ‘Excellence for Carers’ Award and have recently secured the contract to deliver adult carer services across East Lothian for an initial two-year period and a total period of up to six years, to 2031. We are a Carer Positive Exemplary employer, as well as being Disability Confident Committed and a Living Wage employer.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and supervise Carer Support Workers and the Welfare Rights Coordinator.
• Support staff to manage caseloads effectively and provide guidance on complex cases.
• Triage new referrals and prioritise carers most in need.
• Allocate caseloads and monitor workload across the team.
• Support staff development through training, mentoring, and continuous improvement.
• Monitor and audit case files to ensure accuracy, timeliness, and compliance with safeguarding and data protection standards.
• Implement quality assurance processes and address gaps in service delivery.
• Ensure adherence to organisational policies and best practice guidelines.
• Represent carers’ needs in local and national forums.
• Track team performance against KPIs and service targets.
• Produce reports on caseload management, service outcomes, and team effectiveness.
• Identify trends and recommend service improvements.
• Ensure staff follow HR policies and organisational guidelines.
• Build strong relationships with health, social care, and voluntary sector partners.
• Represent the organisation at meetings and advocate for carers.
• Contribute to service improvement projects and strategic planning.
• Work closely with the Innovation & Improvement Manager to promote best practice.
• Ensure accurate and timely recording for monitoring, evaluation and reporting.
• Maintain high standards of confidentiality and data protection.
• Follow CoEL policies including safeguarding and lone working.
• Participate in staff meetings and organisational development activities.

Carers of East Lothian is a values driven local charity making a real impact in the community supporting adults who care for family and friends. We have an excellent reputation, recently gaining recognition through the Carers Trust ‘Excellence for Carers’ Award and have recently secured the contract to deliver adult carer services across East Lothian for an initial two-year period and a total period of up to six years, to 2031. We are a Carer Positive Exemplary employer, as well as being Disability Confident Committed and a Living Wage employer.

Key Responsibilities:

• Welcoming visitors and responding to enquiries by phone, email and in person
• Managing referrals, correspondence, messages and office information
• Maintaining accurate client records and supporting updates to our database
• Booking carer clinic appointments (including Power of Attorney and Legal Advice sessions)
• Producing welcome letters and information packs
• Providing support for events, workshops and the Available Carer Support Worker (ACSW) rota
• Assisting with day to day finance administration and processing approved grants
• Supporting staff, volunteers and the Board when required
• Ensuring compliance with GDPR, data protection and CoEL policies

What We’re Looking For:

• Organised, friendly and proactive administrator who thrives in a varied role.
• Able to adapt and re-prioritise in a busy office environment
• Confident in learning new system and skills within a set timeframe
• Excellent communication, listening and organisational skills.
• Confident working independently and collaboratively
• Commitment to equality, confidentiality and carer empowerment

Join our team this season and inspire a love for Scotland’s marine wildlife!

Are you passionate about delivering outstanding customer experiences and sharing the wonders of Scotland’s marine and coastal environment? As a Visitor Experience Assistant, you’ll be the friendly face of the Scottish Seabird Centre, welcoming visitors and ensuring their time with us is unforgettable – and inspiring a love for seabirds, wildlife and our seas.

This dynamic role offers the chance to engage with people across our welcome desk, retail shop, Discovery Experience, and boat trips, while also supporting our café during busy periods. No two days will be the same as you help visitors connect with our mission and create lasting memories.

You’ll play a vital role in bringing our charitable work to life—whether by guiding visitors through our interactive exhibits and live camera feeds, recruiting new members for our charity, or sharing fascinating insights about Scotland’s wildlife. This is a fantastic opportunity to develop your skills in customer service and environmental education - all while working in a stunning coastal setting.

The Scottish Seabird Centre

The Scottish Seabird Centre (SSC) works to ensure that Scotland’s seas and coasts are alive with wildlife, celebrated and protected by all. We act to save seabirds and restore Scotland’s marine environment through conservation, learning, and unforgettable wildlife experiences:

Conservation– We manage internationally important seabird islands, including Bass Rock, which is home to one of the largest gannet colonies in the world, and Craigleith, where our community conservation project, SOS Puffin, has quadrupled the population of breeding puffins.

Learning – We seek to build an understanding of and a passion for the marine environment. Over 60,000 children and young people have engaged with our education programme.

Experience – We operate one of the leading nature visitor centres in the UK, welcoming over 170,000 visitors a year, and were awarded the Gold Green Tourism Award in April 2025.

Physical Requirements:

This role involves active, hands-on work, including standing and moving for extended periods. We welcome applications from all candidates and will consider reasonable adjustments to enable applicants with disabilities to perform the role.

Key Responsibilities

Welcome and Inspire Visitors

Greet visitors with enthusiasm, providing information about our exhibits, activities, and charitable work.

Help visitors make the most of their visit, from booking boat trips and Discovery Experience sessions to processing admissions and memberships.

Promote donations and memberships, sharing and helping grow the impact of our conservation efforts.

Deliver Engaging Experiences

Bring our Discovery Experience to life by engaging visitors, supporting them to explore our interactive exhibits and live camera feeds.

Work closely with our volunteers, who work with the staff team to engage visitors and ensure all activities run smoothly.

When required, deliver presentations and other activities to engage and educate our visitors about the incredible seabirds and marine wildlife in the area (training provided).

Retail and Customer Service

Staff our Information and Retail counter, greeting visitors, dealing with enquiries and encouraging them to visit the Discovery Experience and take part in other activities.

Process retail sales, ensure displays are inviting and stock is well-managed.

Provide excellent service at the till and online, helping customers find the perfect sustainable souvenirs!

Boat Trips (Seasonal, March–October)

Process bookings, share exciting details about what visitors might see, and respond to any enquiries they might have.

Manage cancellations or refunds.

Join our passionate team and play a key role in delivering exceptional visitor experiences at the Scottish Seabird Centre!

In this role, you’ll be the friendly face of our retail and information desk, helping visitors discover our unique range of local, nature positive and sustainable products while ensuring every interaction is warm, informative, and memorable. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone with an interest in cause-based retail who loves connecting with people, thrives in a dynamic environment, and wants to contribute to our mission - saving seabirds, restoring seas and inspiring change.

Our retail and visitor centre operation plays a vital role in connecting people to nature and raising funds for our conservation and education programmes. If you want to help us do more for nature, and you’re a proactive team player with a knack for customer service and a keen eye for detail, we’d love for you to be part of our story.

The Scottish Seabird Centre

The Scottish Seabird Centre (SSC) works to ensure that Scotland’s seas and coasts are alive with wildlife, celebrated and protected by all. We act to save seabirds and restore Scotland’s marine environment through conservation, learning, and unforgettable wildlife experiences:

Conservation – We manage internationally important seabird islands, including Bass Rock, which is home to one of the largest gannet colonies in the world, and Craigleith, where our community conservation project, SOS Puffin, has quadrupled the population of breeding puffins.

Learning – We seek to build an understanding of and a passion for the marine environment. Over 60,000 children and young people have engaged with our education programme.

Experience – We operate one of the leading nature visitor centres in the UK, welcoming over 170,000 visitors a year, and were awarded the Gold Green Tourism Award in April 2025.

Physical Requirements:

This role involves active, hands-on work, including standing and moving for extended periods. We welcome applications from all candidates and will consider reasonable adjustments to enable applicants with disabilities to perform the role.

Key Responsibilities

• Welcome and assist visitors: Be the first point of contact at our information and retail desk, providing friendly, knowledgeable support to visitors, inspiring them to join our charity and visit the Discovery Experience

• Curate and promote our gift shop:Help shape and showcase a thoughtful selection of local, nature positive and sustainable products, creating an inviting shopping experience that reflects our values and delights our customers.

• Maintain a vibrant retail space:Use your creativity to merchandise our shop beautifully, manage stock efficiently, and keep displays fresh and engaging for all who visit.

• Support shop operations: Assist with stock handling, deliveries, and inventory management, ensuring our shop runs smoothly and is always well-stocked with exciting products.

• Grow and help administer online shop: Contribute to the growth of our online shop by helping with content creation, promotion and order fulfilment.

• Work as part of a dynamic team: Bring your adaptability, initiative, and problem-solving skills to a varied and rewarding role, where no two days are the same.

Are you a finance professional who thrives on purpose as much as performance? Do you want your financial expertise to make a real difference in people’s lives – not just the bottom line?

Established in 2016, The Ridge Dunbar is a medium-sized charity incorporating income-generating social enterprises. We are a vibrant and inclusive community working together to overcome wide-ranging societal challenges and support positive change in one another’s lives.

We are seeking a committed and skilled Finance Manager to lead our finance function with integrity, clarity and vision. This is a unique opportunity to apply your professional expertise within an organisation that genuinely transforms lives every single day.

Reporting to the Operations Group Head and working closely with the Senior Management Team and Board of Trustees, you will oversee and manage the finances across both our charitable activities and social enterprises. You will ensure robust financial controls and reporting, support strategic decisions with sound financial insight, and champion best practice in governance and financial administration. Your leadership will play a central role in safeguarding our sustainability, impact and future growth.

Key Responsibilities

You will:

• Lead budgeting, forecasting, reporting and year-end accounts
• Oversee financial management across our charitable and income generating activities
• Provide clear, accurate and timely financial reports to the Operations Group Head, The Board and the Finance sub-group
• Ensure compliance with charity finance regulations, including SORP and OSCR requirements
• Support strategic and operational planning through insightful financial modelling
• Manage and continually improve financial systems, processes and controls

The Finance Manager role is critical to our ongoing success. Your skills and experience will strengthen our financial governance, due diligence and long-term planning, enabling us to continue delivering meaningful support within our community.

Above all, your work will help ensure that The Ridge can continue to transform the lives of many of our town’s most vulnerable residents.

Position

• Part-Time – 21 hours per week
• Salary: £47,500 (Pro-rata £27,420)

Benefits

• Employee Assistance Program
• NEST Pension
• 7.2 weeks annual leave including 8 days public holidays (pro-rata)

Changes East Lothian is looking for new Board members!

Are you interested in taking on a new challenge and helping those experiencing mental health issues in East Lothian?

In response to expanding the capacity of the Board and succession planning, Changes East Lothian is seeking up to five new trustees.

We anticipate that you can provide evidence of transferable skills, or experience of operating as a trustee or non-executive director.

Applications of those with experience of the following areas will be prioritised:

• Leadership in a relevant position
• Involvement in mental health, social care or the third sector
• People, HR, employment law and organisational culture;
• Business, finance or operations at an executive level.
• IT, digital, marketing, digital and comms

About Changes East Lothian

Changes was established in 1996 as a community health project and since then we have evolved and grown to the medium sized charity we are today. As we celebrate turning 30 this year, we have the opportunity to launch our new 5-year strategic plan 2026-2031and with it, reinvigorate our Board with new membership.

It has been an exciting time of change and progression for us over the last few years and we are ready to develop our systems and processes with further development opportunities and creative thinking in facing the challenges of succeeding in the third sector. Our Changes East Lothian mission is to provide everyone in East Lothian the opportunity to access a choice of activities, therapy, information, training and support that help enable positive mental health and wellbeing through individual autonomy, learning, reflection, empowerment, and connection.

We are a community at Changes, and our values include compassion, responsiveness, and life-long learning for all. As you can imagine, it is challenging working in this arena but also extremely rewarding.

Who we are looking for:

We would like applicants to:

• Empathise with our vision, mission and values;
• Demonstrate a willingness and ability to devote the necessary time and effort;
• Exercise sound and independent judgement;
• Think and apply knowledge creatively and strategically;
• Get to know our team of staff and volunteers;
• Keep themselves and the charity mission-focused;
• Analyse and evaluate information and other evidence in the execution of their duties.

Partners in Advocacy has been delivering independent advocacy services since 1998 and is recognised as an established provider across Scotland.

We are pleased to offer an opportunity to join our East Lothian service as an Independent Advocacy Worker. In this role, you will provide one-to-one independent advocacy to individuals aged 16 and over with learning disabilities and/or autism. You will also contribute to existing collective advocacy projects within East Lothian and support the development of new groups where need is identified.

As an Independent Advocacy Worker, you will support individuals to express their views, understand their rights, explore options and participate in decisions that affect their lives. The role includes working closely with the Service Coordinator to maintain accurate quarterly statistics and contribute to the production of service reports.

We strongly encourage individuals from diverse backgrounds to apply. If you believe your skills, experience, and expertise align with the criteria outlined in the person specification, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please complete the application form, ensuring that you provide examples of how your knowledge and experience fulfil each aspect of the person specification.

Partners in Advocacy takes pride in being a Disability Confident Employer, fully committed to creating an inclusive and accessible work environment.

Partners in Advocacy has an exciting opportunity for a new board member with an interest in independent advocacy.

We are seeking a Trustee who will have good interpersonal and communication skills, a commitment to working as a team, an understanding of and commitment to our charity’s work, a broader knowledge of trends across the third-sector and the application of those to strategic work.

Partners in Advocacy welcomes applications from people with a disability, those with a minority ethnic background, and the LGBTQ+ community.

Partners in Advocacy are looking for an enthusiastic, dynamic individual to help us support the growth and sustainability of our organisation through community fundraising.

This is a new and exciting opportunity for a motivated and organised fundraiser to make a real difference by generating the vital funds needed to expand our work.

The post-holder will lead on planning, delivering, and evaluating a programme of community events, working creatively to engage individuals, volunteers, groups, and local businesses, as well as exploring opportunities to develop other areas, such as corporate fundraising and sponsorship, as part of our new strategy.

We strongly encourage individuals from diverse backgrounds to apply. If you believe your skills, experience, and expertise align with the criteria outlined in the person specification, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please complete the application form, ensuring that you provide examples of how your knowledge and experience fulfil each aspect of the person specification.

Partners in Advocacy takes pride in being a Disability Confident Employer, fully committed to creating an inclusive and accessible work environment.

Ark is a major provider of Housing, Care and Support to people with long term and enduring conditions such as learning disabilities, mental health issues, dementia and autism.

Ark supports people to live independently in their own homes providing everything from a few hours a week social and life admin support to 24/7 care supporting with personal care, medication, household tasks, attending appointments and leisure activities.

We have lots of opportunities across Scotland for our Support Worker roles. As we provide full training no previous is experience is required.

If you are enthusiastic about supporting people to live their best lives, then apply now to join our team!

Your main duties will include but not be limited to:

• Working with colleagues as part of an effective and efficient team to support vulnerable people.
• Communicate and work well with our supported people to provide individual care and maintain appropriate relationships.
• Being responsible in supporting individuals throughout the activities, giving positive feedback and encouragement.
• Updating and maintaining accurate records using a tablet on Arks Information Management system.

Previous experience of the following is an advantage but not essential as Ark will provide full training: Care Worker, Social worker, Home Carer, Case Worker, Care Assistant, Autism Support Worker, Personal Care Assistant , Social Care Worker.

View our job outline, find out what you working week could look like and hear from our current Support Workers on Arks website arkha.org.uk/work-with-us

Why Ark?

• No Previous Experience Required - Ark provide full training so no previous experience is required making our Support Worker roles the perfect place to start your career in Adult Social Care.
• Get a qualification while you work - Ark fully fund your SVQ2 in Health & Social Care which you complete with the support of our in house SVQ team.
• Employee Discounts - Employee Discounts Portal with 1000s of discounts on your favourite brands including Supermarkets, Cinema Tickets, Gym Membership and Holidays.
• Career Progression -Over 75% of all Managers within Care & Support have been promoted internally.
• Employee Assistance Program - Arks Employee Assistance program (EAP) gives all employees access to counselling sessions. There is also support available through weekly webinars and the EAP Website & App.
• Contracted hours to suit you-We have Full-time, Part-time and Relief Support Worker roles available at our services throughout Scotland.

In return for your valuable contribution, Ark will also offer you:

• Up to 36 days paid holiday per year pro rata
• 4% Contributory pension scheme
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Fully funded PVG & 1st year SSSC registration paid by Ark

Our employees told us in a recent survey that they stay with Ark because they believe in our values, we have supportive managers who continually appreciate their staff and they love making a positive difference in our supported peoples lives, helping them to achieve their dreams.

Ark would love to hear from you whether you are an experienced Support Worker or new to Social Care.