A fantastic opportunity to come and join the Children First team

Children First’s ambition is for every child in Scotland to be safe, loved and well with their family. As a charity we offer emotional, practical, and financial support to help families to put children first and campaign to uphold the rights of every child.

Family Group Decision Making is working with family groups in a strengths-based way to support them to create Family Plans, keeping children safe and at home within their family networks.

This is an exciting opportunity to join our team as a Family Group Decision Making coordinator. We have funding for a 12-month fixed term post to work alongside the Whole Family Wellbeing Team within Scottish Borders Council supporting families at an earlier stage of intervention.

We’d love to hear from anyone interested in Family Group Decision Making, or strengths-based approaches to working with families, and would like to extend their skill set.

What kind of people are we looking for?

• have experience of keeping children safe in their own families
• are fiercely passionate about children’s rights
• thinks it’s a privilege to work with and on behalf of children and families and,
• are kind and will bring their whole selves to the job: heart and mind

What kind of team member will you be?

Knowing our ambition for children, you will be someone who is:

• resilient, skilled and knowledgeable who wants to transform children’s lives
• determined to support children to stay safely with their own family
• big hearted and courageous
• able to build strong relationships and to manage the tricky conversations
• is compassionate and understanding of trauma
• a cool head and clear minded at times of pressure
• inspiring colleagues and teams to be even better
• an amazing ambassador for children and Children First
• Above all else, the most important thing to us is that you are someone who will do the right thing for children and their families at every turn.

At Children First, we are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team that reflects communities across Scotland. Guided by our values, With Love, With Purpose, With Strength, we strive to create a culture where everyone feels valued, respected, and supported to thrive. We actively work to remove barriers to inclusion and promote equity in all aspects of our work. We warmly welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, especially those from marginalised communities, and are dedicated to ensuring a fair and supportive recruitment process.

Base

You will be based in Selkirk with travel across the Scottish Borders.

Salary, Conditions, Pension

We will offer you a competitive salary, generous annual leave entitlement (40 days inclusive of 9 public holidays). ​Additional benefits include cash back health plan, cycle to work scheme, and option to join a ​Credit Union.

About Aberlour Children’s Charity

Aberlour is one of the largest Scottish children’s charities, celebrating 150 years helping to improve the lives of Scotland’s disadvantaged children and young people. At Aberlour we know that not all children are born with an equal chance so we work to support children, young people and families overcome poverty, disadvantage and discrimination.

Our staff teams are critical in delivering this support and therefore need exceptional training. Many of our services are registered with the Care Inspectorate and staff have to be registered with the Scottish Social Services Council. This registration includes a requirement to meet a minimum level of qualification.

What we are looking for....

We are looking for a qualified assessor to support SVQ assessment across the organisation.

We are approved by the SQA to deliver SVQs in Social Services (Children & Young People). To enable assessment in this award you should have a relevant professional qualification at SCQF level 7 or above along with your assessor award.

Your experience should include working in a relevant care setting, assessment of at least 4 candidates through to completion of their SVQ’s. You must be able to demonstrate that you have experience of planning, preparation, delivery and evaluation of learning activities in a social care setting.

The post is 37.5hrs per week and will require travel across Scotland. Your work base can be flexible, we are able to support a mix of office and home working as required.

What we offer...

As well as a supportive team, we want all our employees to feel valued and rewarded for the vital work they do. When you work with us, we'll recognise your efforts with generous annual leave, an excellent employer pension scheme and a range of deals and discounts across various retailers. Find out more about our Employee Benefits and our commitment to Equality and Diversity here.

At Aberlour we strive to make sure every child and young person has the love, support, and opportunity they need to reach their potential. If you share the same vision, we want you to join our team. To have a look at our values to understand more about what we are looking for from our employees click here.

Are you passionate about making a difference for young people? Do you thrive on building relationships and creating opportunities? If so, this role is for you!

As an Employer Liaison Officer, you'll be the vital link between Barnardo's Works Highland and local employers, helping young people aged 14–24 take their first steps into the world of work. This is more than a desk job – it's about being out in the community, opening doors, and changing lives.

What You'll Do

• Connect & Collaborate: Build strong partnerships with employers and turn them into real opportunities.
• Know Your Market: Understand the local job landscape and spot chances for growth.
• Champion Young People: Support them into work placements, jobs, and apprenticeships that last.
• Make Things Happen: Organise networking events, job clubs, and employer engagement activities.

What We're Looking For

• Excellent communication and networking skills.
• A proactive, people-focused approach.
• Experience in employability or youth work is great – but passion and drive matter most!

Why Barnardo's Works?

Join a small, dedicated team making a big impact. Every day is different, and every success story starts with you.

Interested?

Find out more at barnardos-ets.org.uk or check out our Facebook page: Barnardo's Works Highland.

For questions, contact Barbara Brown at barbara.brown@barnardos.org.uk or call 07738 262843.

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

Pay & Reward Framework

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.

Benefits

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

About Barnardos

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

Our basis and values