Citizens Advice Edinburgh (CAE) is part of an exciting collaborative project – The Family Hub - funded via the Scottish Government’s Whole Family Wellbeing Fund (WFWF).

The collaborative comprises the Third Sector organisations Circle, Stepping Stones North Edinburgh, Home-Start Edinburgh and Home Link Family Support, alongside NHS Lothian’s Parent & Infant Relationship Service and the City of Edinburgh Council’s Early Learning & Childcare Service.

The project delivers bespoke whole-family supports throughout the early years. CAE provides the welfare rights advice element of this service. The collaborative ensures that universal and enhanced support is available at the earliest stage possible for all families with a child not yet in an ELC or a pre-school age setting. This has been achieved by developing a cohesive pathway and a menu of supports alongside families.

The project is underpinned by early intervention and support. In providing holistic support to parents, we aim to improve the caregiving experience and infant mental health. Targeting secure attachment increases the likelihood of children remaining within the family home.

The project aims to:

• Improve family wellbeing
• Reduce inequalities in family wellbeing
• Reduce the need for families requiring crisis intervention
• Reduce the number of children living away from their families
• Increase the number of families taking up wider support

The multi-disciplinary service is delivered via physical Hubs in each locality, Pop-ups and Home Visits to families, to ensure city-wide, equal and convenient access.

Your Role

As the project’s Income Maximisation Adviser, you will principally advise parents about welfare entitlement, grants, and tariffs; budgeting; reducing household costs; and managing debt. Alongside financial topics, you will also offer assistance with housing, employment, and other related areas of advice. The central aim of the role is to reduce the number of families and children living in relative poverty.

The successful candidate must be experienced in giving advice, particularly in relation to benefits. Evidence of training and experience within another advice role is expected, but opportunities to develop your knowledge would be available via access to Citizens Advice’s comprehensive training platform. Provision of advice would be supported by the Citizens Advice information database and access to Citizens Advice Edinburgh’s network of specialists.

It is not essential to have experience of working within the sphere of Early Years or family support, but the candidate must be motivated to work collaboratively as part of a multi-disciplinary team and to display awareness and understanding of the complex support needs and vulnerabilities that families may present with to the service.

Due to the citywide coverage of the service, candidates must commit to regular travel between different Edinburgh locations and be confident working independently at times. The post holder will also be required to assertively develop and maintain links with relevant partner agencies in the wider community, to ensure that families receive holistic support.