Inspiring Young Voices is a SCIO (Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation) which exists to inspire and be inspired by the voices of children and young people in Highland facing challenges in their lives. We seek to ensure that these voices are raised, heard and acted upon. We will advocate for changes in policy and practice across Highland which support and promote the meaningful participation of children and young people at every level of decision making.

The role of the Participation Lead is to enable participation through engagement with children and young people, particularly those with additional support needs/ disabilities, to have their voices heard – where and when they wish, empowering them to influence policy and practice.

The role of the Participation Lead is to enable participation through engagement with children and young people, particularly those with additional support needs & disabilities, to have their voices heard and empower them to influence policy and practice.

The Participation Lead is responsible for leading the development and delivery of our participation work and projects. Including:

• Supporting the members of Inspire Highland, our youth-led collective voice for young people in Highland. Inspire Highland is a creative, dynamic project which aims to promote the rights, participation and inclusion of all young people (up to the age of 25) who are facing challenges in their lives.
• Developing and piloting a place based youth-led participation approach, working with young people with disabilities and additional support needs to develop their learning and understanding of inequality, stigma, discrimination and youth-led participation. From this shared understanding, young people will be supported to identify the barriers and enablers they face to participation and use this to develop youth-led participation projects to bring about transformational change.
• Developing and delivering a program of work supporting ‘New Young Scots’ in Highland to have their voices heard, including young asylum seekers and refugees.

To deliver these projects the Participation Lead will work with and line-manage our Youth Participation Worker.

The Participation Lead also promotes children’s rights, inclusion and participation across services, offering training, advice and/or support.

More widely, Inspiring Young Voices has played a key role in the development and drafting of the Highland Community Planning Partnership’s Integrated Children’s Service Plan (ICSP) 2023-2026. We have also been involved in the development of the Highland Children and Young People’s Participation Strategy 2024-2029.The Integrated Children’s Service Plan “recognises the necessity for greater active participation of children, young people and families in all aspects of planning and service delivery”. Additionally, the implementation of the Highland Children and Young People’s Participation Strategy supports this and outlines a statement of intent to enable “all children and young people from 0-25 years (26 year for care experienced young people) feel that they can meaningfully participate in decision making processes and influence change in their own lives and in wider society.” There is now an exciting opportunity for a new Participation Lead to support the implementation of the Integrated Children’s Service Plan and the Highland Children and Young People’s Participation Strategy through their work with Inspiring Young Voices.

Our approach to our participation work is rights-based and grounded in trauma informed practices and principles to ensure that our charity responds in ways that prevent further harm, support recovery, address inequalities and improve life chances of vulnerable young people in Highland. Our work is grounded in the principles and approaches of youth work and community development, and we adhere to the Community Learning and Development (CLD) Standards Council Code of Ethics.

We are a small charity and teamwork is essential to our effective functioning and success. It will sometimes be necessary and desirable for team members to share responsibility for a range of tasks such as communications, fundraising, monitoring, administration and reporting.

This post will require the postholder to be able to undertake some business travel across Highland.