Policy Officer (1x Financial Health & 1x Strong Communities)
- Full time
- £25,338 – £30,969
- Edinburgh office based with options for hybrid working*
- Closing 2nd December 2022
- Advertised from 18th November 2022
- Salary commensurate with experience. 35 hours per week. Permanent.
Role
We are looking for two Policy Officers to join our Impact Directorate at Citizens Advice Scotland – one in our Financial Health team and one in our Strong Communities team.
Please indicate your role preference both in your application and in the email.
Policy Officer (Financial Health)
At a time of massive financial pressure on individuals and families across Scotland, this is your chance to make a real difference in helping ease that pressure by joining the Financial Health Team at Citizens Advice Scotland as our Policy Officer. The Financial Heath Team is focused on helping our citizens get through the current cost of living crisis as well as people’s wider financial wellbeing.
In this role, you will work closely with the Policy Manager across a range of issues but with a focus on our mental health and money work, where we seek to make improvements in the external environment so those with money and mental health issues can achieve better support and outcomes. We also improve people’s financial lives through our policy and public affairs activity on issues such council tax debt, access to cash, consumer credit and borrowing, scams, and raising awareness of ways by which households can boost incomes and cut costs.
Policy Officer (Strong Communities)
We also have an opportunity available to join our Strong Communities Team at Citizens Advice Scotland as our Policy Officer. The Strong Communities team currently has a focus on access to justice and telecommunications and advocates for change on behalf of citizens and consumers in order to prevent detriment. This is a great opportunity to play a role in helping to make society fairer, and in supporting our network of Citizens Advice Bureaux across Scotland. While not an essential criteria understanding of the Scottish legal system or legal qualifications, and/or knowledge of current issues and developments related to access to justice in Scotland may be beneficial to this role.
As a Policy Officer based in either our Financial Health or Strong Communities team you will play a key role in helping influence political and policy changes through public affairs activity that will lead to better outcomes for the people of Scotland. These roles are superb opportunities not only to make a difference for citizens but to also learn and grow your policy and public affairs skills from extremely experienced colleagues in the Financial Health and Strong Communities Teams.
Using our wealth of data generated by our bureaux, we develop evidence-based policy which is grounded in the experience of our clients. Using our knowledge of national policy, we engage policymakers across Parliament, Government (both central and local) and stakeholder organisations to influence change in policy, law and practice as well as to empower individuals and communities.
Your focus will be to collaborate with external stakeholders and advocate for change at a national level. This will involve using your policy skills to represent CAS on relevant Government groups and develop excellent relationships within the CAB network, engaging with them in your work and utilising their experience to better inform policy to make a difference to people’s lives across Scotland.
The Citizens Advice Network in Scotland
The Citizens Advice network in Scotland is the largest independent advice service in the country. Citizens Advice Scotland is a charity within this network – we act as a national organisation supporting and representing the service as a whole and the interests of citizens. At the heart of the network there are 59 individual citizens advice bureau across Scotland, all operating as independent charities in their own right, which focus on providing support and advice directly to clients. Each of these organisations is a member of Citizens Advice Scotland. We believe that every citizen should have access to free, impartial and confidential advice that helps them make informed decisions, whenever they need it and however, they choose to access it.
Our vision is for a Fairer Scotland where everyone has the advice and information they need to realise their rights, and that the barriers to accessing those rights are effectively challenged.
Employee benefits
Citizens Advice Scotland offers excellent terms and conditions. We want our people to have a great work life balance and we have designed our working practices and benefits to support this. Here are some of things our employees benefit from: a 35-hour full time working week, 40 days annual leave, genuine flexibility in working hours with a flexi-time system, and blended/hybrid working opportunities for every role.
Citizens Advice Scotland is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion. We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies and flexible working arrangements to support all our staff. We are also committed to equality of opportunity for all and applications from individuals are encouraged regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships.
CAS provides options for blended working to allow employees to balance their time attending the office with time working from home. The number of days you will be able to work from home each week will be dependent on your job role and can be discussed as part of the recruitment process.
Application notes
Closing date: Friday 2nd December 2022
Interviews: Wednesday 14th December 2022
To apply for this role, please send completed copies of the Personal Details Form, along with your current CV to: recruitment@cas.org.uk
In addition, we ask you to provide a short written statement (maximum of 2 pages) with examples which demonstrate how you meet the requirements of the post, as set out in the job description and person specification. Given there are 2 positions available we invite applicants to indicate if they have a preference for either role within their statement, and to tailor their statement to either role if this would be helpful. However, applicants are not obliged to complete their application this way if it is not suitable as we will also consider applications that do not specify a preference.
You can find all necessary forms below or on our website: cas.org.uk/vacancies/policy-officer-1x-financial-health-1x-strong-communities-citizens-advice-scotland
Equality & Diversity Monitoring
To help Citizens Advice Scotland monitor equality and diversity statistics please return the Equality & Diversity Monitoring Form separate from your other application documents by emailing it to: equalitymonitoring@cas.org.uk
About the employer
Citizens Advice Scotland is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
The Scottish Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux – Citizens Advice Scotland. Scottish charity (SC016637) and company limited by guarantee (89892)
Downloads
Investing in Communities is a Scottish Government funded joint initiative of Midlothian Voluntary Action, Volunteer Midlothian and Dalkeith Citizens Advice Bureau that aims to improve the health, wellbeing and resilience of people in the Central Dalkeith and Woodburn areas through information, advice, learning and practical action.
The postholder is responsible for collaborating with partner organisations to develop, deliver and evaluate actions to achieve project aims. In particular, this includes advice and information provision for those in or at risk of financial hardship and building skills and knowledge of local people so they can make informed life and financial decisions.
Up to date understanding of Scottish and UK benefits system and experience of providing advice and information (paid or unpaid) to people experiencing disadvantage are essential. Postholder must hold City and Guilds Level 3 Energy Awareness Award, or be willing to work towards this as part of the role.
Workforce Wellbeing Officer
- Full time
- £32,100
- Mainly working from home, but some travel around Scotland and to our office in Glasgow will be required. (Hybrid)
- Closing 1st May 2024
Money Advice Scotland is Scotland’s money charity. Our mission is to be the driving force towards financial wellbeing for the people of Scotland.
We believe we will achieve this by supporting the money advice workforce, empowering citizens to get help and support, and advocating for fairer policy.
About the role
Over the past four years, the Workforce Wellbeing Project (formerly the Adviser Wellbeing Project) has given us the unique opportunity to document the experiences of staff within the free money advice sector and support their wellbeing through research, training, and community building.
The Workforce Wellbeing Officer (WWO) will be a creative and passionate communicator who can incite engagement and discussion on wellbeing topics in an inclusive way; acknowledging the sensitivity of wellbeing topics and the need to break down barriers – personal and organisational – which affect how wellbeing is addressed and supported in the workplace.
We are looking for an enthusiastic, dynamic and motivated person to join our team. The Session Supervisor has day to day operational responsibility for the delivery of a high-quality generalist advice service within Airdrie Citizens Advice Bureau. The Session Supervisor is responsible that the quality of advice delivered is in line with the Scottish National Standards and Citizens Advice Scotland’s Membership standards.
This post also supports the learning and development of a high-quality service by providing formal training to volunteers and staff as and when required.
The successful applicant will be encouraged and supported in their personal development by the Bureau Manager.
Employee benefits
Airdrie Citizens Advice Bureau offers excellent terms and conditions and is an inclusive employer considering flexible working arrangements where appropriate. For more details of some of the other benefits on offer to our employees, please contact us for more information.
Core Duties
- Provide supervision and support for advice workers, particularly in relation to advice enquiries, CASTLE data entry and enquiry entry.
- Support advisers to produce accurate, legible and complete client records.
- Contribute to building and supervising an effective team, understanding the importance of continual improvement of the service.
- Undertake advice work as and when required.
- Implement effective Triage Service
- Support and maintain uniform advice standards and contribute to their development. Ensure that advice work undertaken complies with CAS Quality Audit standards, Scottish National Standards.
- Actively implement the Aims and Principles of the CAB service, together with its other policies.
Essential Criteria
- Delivery of advice and information services to clients.
- Ability to work without supervision
- Basic training skills
- Ability to deal with staff, volunteers and the public in a calm, caring and competent manner
- Ability to analyse and interpret complex information
- Ability to prioritise own work and that of others, meet deadlines and manage workload in a pressured environment
- Ability to give and receive feedback objectively and sensitively and a willingness to challenge constructively
Desirable Criteria
- At least 2 years’ experience of supporting others in advice provision
- A working knowledge of CASTLE for the purpose of recording client cases
- Commitment to ongoing training
- Working within the voluntary sector
- Experience of supporting vulnerable clients
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Main Purpose:
Stirling CAB seeks to develop a Veterans Housing Advice Service (VHAS) to respond to the COVD19 / cost of living crisis legal impact area of housing to prevent homelessness by the provision of advice, advocacy, casework support and heritable representation, across all of Stirling District working closely with ( & adding value to) the Stirling CAB Armed Service Advice Project.
The impartial and independent advice, information, casework support and representation offered for Veterans will focus on access to legal housing /homelessness advice to overcome the practical barriers caused by the COVD19 pandemic/cost of living crisis and giving holistic and sustained support to overcome these. VHAS will be available at a range of easy access locations for the target group throughout Stirling Local Authority area. Training on legal housing/homelessness prevention issues & 2nd tier legal consultancy support will also be provided to Stirling CAB staff & volunteers and Veteran stakeholders.
VHAS will be accessible across the total architecture & outreach footprint of Stirling CAB advice services, to build its capacity & increase seamless access to heritable social justice for local Veterans.
Our plans are mature with 26 established trusted local CAB access points – recovery cafes, libraries, food banks and strong established Armed Services Advice Project (ASAP now in year 15), trusted links with local Veteran stakeholders. ASAP will be the main referral point to VHAS & these projects will work closely together.
Specific duties:
- Immediate on the spot legal advice and casework support (up to and including type 3), to local Veterans, to empower, enable and inform decision making to those seeking to overcome COVD19 driven legal housing/homelessness difficulties. The particular focus will be to overcome the practical barriers – separation and financial issues, housing & heritable, mental & physical vulnerabilities, and legal issues that often inhibit security of tenure.
- Support to local Veterans experiencing COVD19 legal impact in heritable legal contexts – small claims, summary cause, heritable and the Debtors (Scotland) act 1987 and any other suitable areas as required, in relation to housing related matters
- Diagnostic legal advice and refer unrepresented local Veterans to an appropriate agency to take on their cases as required.
- In Court Heritable representation to local Veterans in court when deemed necessary
- Representation for local Veterans interests at housing/homelessness case conferences and hearings.
- Liaison for local Veterans with the Sheriff Clerks Department of Stirling Sheriff Court and the Tribunal Service and to maintain and develop effective working relationships with other relevant stakeholders
- The provision of proactive and preventative impartial Legal advice awareness sessions to the wider Veteran Community to raise the profile of the legal issues and remedies surrounding the impact of the COVD19 pandemic /Cost of Living crisis in relation to housing /homelessness and raise awareness of the legal processes to overcome the practical barriers that often impair forward transition
- Liaison with other agencies such as local authority departments, social work, homelessness teams other RSL’s, DWP and to work with these agencies to inform and develop a seamless service for local Veterans via VHAS
- Work with the aforementioned agencies in the pursuit of an upstream preventative approach for local Veterans to mitigate the problems that lead to legislative action
- To develop the front-line capacity of Stirling CAB to facilitate informed, enabled and empowered decision making in relation to the process of sustained transition from the negative impact of the COVD19 pandemic/cost of living crisis in relation to security of tenure for local Veterans
- The provision of a second-tier legal consultancy service to Stirling CAB employees/volunteers engaged in the process of supporting local Veterans with improved seamless access to heritable social justice
- The provision of legal training to Stirling CAB employees/volunteers engaged in the process of supporting local Veterans with legal security of tenure enquiries driven by the impact of the COVD19 pandemic/cost of living crisis.
- To develop and maintain referral procedures with the Sheriff Court, Veteran stakeholders & other agencies
- To fully participate in the monitoring of the service and to keep adequate records of advice or representation offered as well as all referrals made to and from VHAS
- To routinely use the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Impact Hub to record the demography & impact on beneficiaries using ONS4 Well being survey.
- To routinely gather quantative (CASTLE) & qualitative statistics on the local Veteran community, case studies, client & stakeholder testimony to evidence the impact of VHAS
Organisational Responsibility:Directly line managed by the Stirling District Citizens Advice Bureau CEO
Project Delivery
The Veterans Housing Advice Service worker covers Stirling District, working closely with the Stirling CAB Armed Services Advice Project and access to advice on the frontline is essential and the worker would construct their availability and geographic location to maximise opportunity for the Veteran community engage with the minimum of obstacles.
Appointment to this post is conditional on two satisfactory references and a current PVG certificate.
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