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

We are pleased to offer an opportunity to join our Edinburgh Carers service as a Service Coordinator.

This is a rewarding role in a supportive, experienced team, where you will make a genuine difference by providing line management to the team and one-to-one independent advocacy to unpaid adult carers. You will support individuals in having their voices heard, helping them express their views, understand their rights, explore their options, and participate in decisions that affect their lives.

The role involves travelling throughout Edinburgh to meet people in a range of community and other settings. Travel expenses are covered, and you will be supported to plan your work in a way that is both effective and sustainable.

Working closely with the Service Manager for Edinburgh & The Lothians, you will help maintain accurate service data and support the development of service reports, helping demonstrate the impact of advocacy.

This is a role that offers a high degree of autonomy, alongside regular support, supervision, and opportunities to connect with colleagues across the organisation.

We warmly encourage applications from people from diverse backgrounds. If your skills and experience align with the job description and person specification, we would be delighted to hear from you.

Please complete the application form, providing examples of how you meet each aspect of the job description and person specification.

Partners in Advocacy is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible working environment.

What the role is really like

• Your work will be team-focussed, in terms of practice and outcomes, though you’ll need to feel comfortable working independently at times, managing your own diary and priorities.
• You will provide one-to-one support and supervision to your team colleagues.
• Your work will support unpaid adult carers in Edinburgh who, in turn, are supporting a family member who may have mental health needs or other additional support requirements.
• Your days will vary from supporting someone in a meeting, to travelling across Edinburgh, to completing case notes at home.
• Some situations can be complex or emotionally demanding, and good professional boundaries are essential.
• You’ll need to be able to understand complex information and processes, translate them in the context of your advocacy partners’ needs, helping them to understand their rights and explore their options.
• You’ll need to be comfortable making decisions and working proactively, while staying connected to your wider team.
• You’ll be speaking to professionals and others in a range of settings, communicating, and amplifying your advocacy partners’ opinions and wishes.
• You’ll record, track, and compile statistical and other information, writing it into tracking spreadsheets, Microsoft Word forms and creating anonymised case studies.

You’ll be a good fit if you:

• Are comfortable working autonomously and managing your own workload whilst recognising and reacting to the needs and development of your team colleagues
• Have recent line management experience and value high-quality, person-centred people management
• Can recognise the right times to check in with your line manager
• Have good planning skills and are punctual
• Can build trust with people and communicate clearly in a range of situations
• Are organised and able to balance direct work and administrative responsibilities
• Have good writing and IT skills
• Are confident travelling independently across Edinburgh
• Value equality, diversity, human-rights, and person-led support
• Can research, read, and understand complex information, then translate it and explain it in clear terms

Change starts with water. Change starts with you.

Every day, millions of people live without clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene. WaterAid exists to change that – for everyone, everywhere. Join us, and your energy will help unlock people’s potential and create a fairer future.

About WaterAid

We’re a global federation driven by one vision: a world where everyone, everywhere has clean water, sanitation and hygiene by 2030. Powered by our values of Respect, Accountability, Courage, Collaboration, Integrity and Innovation, we work alongside communities, partners and supporters to make change happen.

About the team

The Water Industry Partnerships Team develops and supports WaterAid’s relationships with water companies and the wider water industry in the UK. We inspire and manage volunteers, steering the development of high-income corporate events, and build opportunities for water company employees and customers to connect with our work.

About the role

As our Senior Water Industry Partnerships Officer, you will develop and implement the partner strategy for Northern Ireland Water and manage the Scottish Water partnership on a day-to-day basis.

In this role, you will:

• Manage existing Water Company partners within Scotland (at committee level) and Northern Ireland (at a strategic and committee level)
• Lead on the setup and delivery of all mass participation events across water industry partners in the UK
• Lead on event management of high-value events with Water Company partner organisations
• Support the Senior Partnerships Manager to steer, provide coaching and support work plans for the WIP Team Assistant
• Lead on systems / fundraising / events compliance processes across the UK team to ensure that all partner activity is compliant with fundraising, gambling and data protection laws to protect the reputation of the partners and WaterAid.
• Own account and partnership development plans, delivering on commitments and personalised stewardship to hit KPIs
• Champion WaterAid’s commitment to equity, inclusion and safeguarding.

Requirements

To be successful, you will need:

• Experience in, and understanding of, fundraising compliance
• Experience in organising mass participation events
• Proven ability to manage a busy workload and deliver across multiple projects/teams
• Confident external engagement: written, verbal, presentation, and face-to-face.

Although not essential, we’d prefer you to have:

• Experience working or volunteering in the voluntary sector
• Familiarity with the UK water industry
• Experience managing high-value events

Benefits

• 36 days’ holiday (including 8 Bank Holidays)
• Option to buy an extra 5 days’ annual leave
• Employer pension contribution up to 10 %
• Flexible and hybrid working arrangements
• Season ticket loan
• Free annual eye tests
• ‘Give as you Earn’ charitable giving scheme
• Enhanced parental leave (maternity, adoption/surrogacy, shared parental and paternity)
• Sabbaticals
• One paid volunteer day each year

As part of our annual leave policy, all employees receive three additional days of annual leave on top of their standard allocation of 25 days. These days are designated to cover the period when our UK office closes between Christmas and New Year, allowing all UK WaterAiders to take a well-deserved break.

These days are automatically scheduled and cannot be changed or moved. Annual leave is accrued based on your start date. If sufficient leave has not been accrued by the time of the closure, the 3 days will be taken as unpaid leave or pro-rated, depending on your circumstances.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a motivated and positive individual to help people using our foodbank to access our emergency food provision. The Service Co-ordinator is at the frontline of our crisis service. As the first point of contact for our service users and referral partners you must be a confident communicator who can work well managing multiple tasks in an extremely busy environment.

Duties will include processing requests for emergency food support received via phone, email and online. You will be taking care of day-to-day contacts and building relationships with partners, service users with regards to our crisis service.

Key responsibilities:

The Service Co-ordinator will:

• Manage referrals for all food bank parcels from agencies and partners via telephone and email
• Act as the main point of contact for service users. Gather any special requests, or information relating to specific needs so volunteers can tailor parcels accordingly
• Signpost service users to other support services, as appropriate
• Plan and co-ordinate daily deliveries including organising drivers, notifying service users and scheduling routes
• Collate all referral paperwork so data can be logged efficiently and in compliance with Trussell guidelines
• Liaise with referral agencies to help resolve any issues as they arise
• Onboard new referral partners
• Maintain and create records on our data collection system relating to referrals
• Collate articles and issue a regular newsletter for our referral partners
• Ensure referral partner contact information and user data is reviewed and updated regularly (usually on a quarterly basis)
• Bringing to the attention of your line manager any safeguarding concerns regarding the day-to-day referrals
• Undertake any other duties that may be reasonably expected to fulfil the role

About you

To succeed in this role, you must have the following skills and experience:

• Experience of engaging with and supporting partnership work with other organisations
• Ability to work as part of a team and on own initiative
• Excellent communication skills
• Experience in handling difficult conversations
• A willingness to work flexible hours
• Understanding of confidentiality practices and GDPR guidelines
• Ability to work to tight timescales under pressure
• Ability to multitask
• Demonstrable professionalism
• A positive and proactive team-player actively contributing to a strong and committed staff and volunteer team
• Demonstratable empathy, non-judgemental, and committed to always preserving the dignity of clients and in every interaction
• As an emergency food service, you may be dealing with people who are often in distress so the ability to deal with people sensitively and with compassion is required

Key Competencies

• Highly organised and self-motivated
• Adaptable and proactive
• Good IT skills – including google suite and office packages/excel
• Committed to the values and mission of East Lothian Foodbank

Reporting to: Operations Manager.

Benefits

• Accredited real Living Wage Employer offering competitive salary
• Annual leave: 32 days including 9 bank holidays (pro rata)
• Pension: ELFB is a member of the NEST Pension Scheme. The successful candidate would be enrolled within the pension scheme 3 months from the joining date. Further information about Employer Pension obligations can be found at nestpensions.org.uk/schemeweb/nest/aboutnest/pensions-are-changing/auto-enrolment.html
• Employee assistance programme - the successful candidate will be enrolled into our assistance programme provided by Hospital Saturday Fund on completion of probation. This gives access to a range of employee welfare, mental health and financial support. Including money towards specific private health treatments and access to a range of discounts through Perk Box.
• Business travel: 45p per mile paid for business travel
• Financial contribution to activities that support your health and wellbeing