What is planet youth?
Planet Youth is based on an approach first trialled in Iceland, where they saw spectacular results leading to
Icelandic teens being labelled ‘The cleanest living teens in Europe’. It involves using surveys to take a
snapshot of teenage life in a local area, and then working with the community to address the needs and issues
raised in the surveys.
In 2021 we surveyed teens across 13 Scottish high schools and this year will be reaching 24 schools across 6 areas,
with enhanced and strengthened local coalitions groups created to drive change.
Visit winningscotland.org/planetyouth and planetyouth.scot for more.
Overview
Following the award of significant funding by the Scottish Government, Planet Youth is being accelerated in Scotland,
through a two-year pilot phase led by Winning Scotland. We are looking to take on a Strategic Delivery Manager
to grow the model in Scotland by strengthening its reach in local areas and increasing its profile across the
country.
Over the next 18 months, we want to support existing partners who work with the model to ensure that it is as
effective as possible, and that learning about the model is spread widely.
This is an exciting role, joining at a pivotal time for the Planet Youth programme. You will be expected to manage a
range of complex and sensitive relationships as well as contributing to the development and delivery of a
programme of work spanning diverse local and national partners. You will bring clear leadership to this work,
working closely with other Winning Scotland colleagues and reporting to the Youth Programme Director.
Supported by our Planet Youth Programme Director, you will take responsibility for the Planet Youth network
management and development whilst leading programme monitoring to support reporting through the governance
framework and evaluation work.
The Role
This is a unique and exciting opportunity for the right person to play a leading role in the implementation and
success of Planet Youth in Scotland, an evidence-based model creating a positive change in the lives and
decisions of our teenagers and young people.
We are looking for someone who is inspiring and proactive, with strong experience of working on projects and
programmes delivering real change. This role calls for a self-starter and someone who can work under their own
initiative to drive strong collaborative endeavour, making the most of all the skills, knowledge and experience
that is available internally and externally to the programme.
To succeed, you will need to be highly collaborative, well organised and someone who can establish and build strong
relationships, and team spirit, within both the immediate team in Winning Scotland and also the wider Planet
Youth family. You will also be adept at problem solving, finding appropriate solutions to issues that might
arise, swiftly and creatively.
You will have significant experience operating in a comparable role, with strong project management competencies and
analytical aptitude. The role offers an opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of other people,
providing stimulating professional interest and challenge.
You will be an ambassador for Planet Youth, and Winning Scotland, so strong influencing and negotiating skills will
be essential as well as high levels of integrity. The role is not have currently anticipated to have direct line
management responsibilities; however, people management competencies will be important given that the
post-holder will need to develop and maintain close productive working relationships with the local leads.
Responsibilities
- Strategic responsibility for partner delivery coordination, ensuring effective operational planning and
implementation of all activities required by the model, working closely with local partners across the pilot
areas
- Ensure effective and efficient strategy development and implementation for local partner
engagement, providing the support and challenge required to optimise the value derived from the grant funding,
whilst capturing learning and driving improvement as appropriate
- Create and drive networks and knowledge
exchange opportunities between all of the Planet Youth Scotland local areas, bringing in external expertise as
required
- Represent the organisation at events, conferences and in the print and social media in respect
of the programme.
- Plan and execute data gathering from partners on a regular basis, and driving the
strategic usage of this data, processing and analysing it for progress monitoring and reporting
purposes
- Provide proactive support for programme evaluation work and scoping forward developments,
working with colleagues across the wider Winning Scotland team
Experience required
Essential criteria
- Excellent project planning and management competencies, adept at designing and implementing supporting processes
and competent with standard business tools / software to enable efficient collaborative working and programme
delivery
- Operational stakeholder engagement, building rapport and providing an effective support and
challenge function
- Strategic thinking: horizon scanning and forward planning
- Analytical aptitude
for data and information gathering followed by digestion into reporting outputs for a range of audiences,
ensuring clarity and high attention to detail
- Excellent written and verbal
communication
- Proactive and able to work at pace under own initiative with minimal steer, manage
competing priorities in a complex landscape and deliver milestones to high standards
Desirable Criteria
- Knowledge of the Scottish delivery landscape supporting work for children and young people, and current national
and local government policies that are relevant to Planet Youth (across, e.g., education, community, health,
prevention)
- Understanding of relevant local and national government structures and approaches to
decision making
- Data management and analytical skills
Location:Hybrid working includes 1-2 days in the Edinburgh office each week, including every
Thursday