Who Cares? Scotland is Scotland’s only national independent membership organisation for Care Experienced people. Our mission is to secure a lifetime of equality, respect, and love for Care Experienced people in Scotland and we currently have over 3,500 Care Experienced members.

At the heart of Who Cares? Scotland’s work are the rights of Care Experienced people, and the power of their voices to bring about positive change. We provide individual lifelong relationship-based independent advocacy and a broad range of imaginative participatory and engagement opportunities for Care Experienced people across Scotland. We work alongside Corporate Parents and communities to broaden understanding and create change. We work with policy makers, leaders, and elected representatives locally and nationally to shape law, policy and practice, working together to build on the aspirations of The Promise and secure positive change.

As Evidence & Impact Officer, you will help the organisation to evaluate its activities, demonstrate the impact they make, and continually learn from our work. You will contribute within the team to ensure we have the strong evidence and funding base needed to increase the reach of the organisation and work towards achieving our vision for Care Experienced people. Organising and leading consultative meetings, you will help to gather evidence on Advocacy & Participation Worker’s (APWs) experiences of the Children’s Hearing System (CHS). This will include co-facilitating the Advocacy Community of Practice around CHS. Your role will also see you assist in responding to requests for data and evidence drawn from our bespoke database and help to write evidence and impact reports for a range of audiences.

Coordinating with our team to provide accessible training for staff, alongside supporting the collating and analysing of data to underpin our policy priorities, you will work collaboratively to carry out goals for data reclassification and cleaning. As Evidence & Impact Officer, your position will afford the opportunity to learn how to share impact data accessibly, whilst working in a team improving and expanding the organisations’ digital skills and systems.

We offer flexible working, and the role will involve communication and contact with Care Experienced people and colleagues across Who Cares? Scotland, including dedicated Volunteers. The right candidate for the role will therefore be committed to upholding Human and Children’s rights and believe that young people can make transformative change happen in their lives if given the opportunity. You will be keen to develop your practice, take advantage of training opportunities and show commitment to building on your existing love for data.

As an individual with experience of data analysis, as well as with Microsoft Office systems, and CRMs/databases, you possess a strong attention to detail and tend towards number crunching. Able to work collaboratively, with young people and teams, you may also have helped to facilitate focus groups in the past. With demonstrable knowledge of social science research, you are a clear communicator with the desire to gain experience in a third sector organisation.

While we would welcome the knowledge gathered through relevant qualifications, such as a recent degree in Psychology or a social science, we are just as interested in relevant work experience. We welcome and encourage applications from those with experience of care.

If this sounds like the role for you, we would love to hear from you. For an informal conversation about this opportunity please contact Donna Nicholas, our Evidence & Impact Manager on dnicholas@whocaresscotland.org

About Aberlour Options Borders

At Aberlour Options Borders we provide a range of support services for young people up to the age of 18 years who have various disabilities. Our aim is to provide families with a short break from their caring role through the provision of high quality child-centred services which provide a positive experience for the young people we work with.

We have a strong reputation for supporting young people with high levels of complex needs, supporting them to grow, learn and maximise their potential. We believe that every child has the right to flourish. Our Young People’s Workers play a fundamental role in ensuring that the young people they work with have the best possible experience in working towards their objectives in line with their care plan. Whilst not without its challenges and demands, this is a highly rewarding role, where the work we do has a demonstrable impact on each young person's progress. Using a person-centred approach you will provide enabling support ensuring the highest level of physical, personal and emotional care to support children in their daily living and within the local community.

What we are looking for....

We have an opening for a Young People’s Worker on a permanent basis. Usual hours would be around 23 per week during term time for 42 weeks of the year and 35 hours per week for 10 weeks of the year (school holidays). Working an average of 25.30 hours per week. Hours are worked between 3pm and 10pm on weekdays (excluding Mon and Tues). Weekends open full time, hours worked between 12pm Friday and 5pm Sunday. Holiday weeks are full time and shifts can be around the clock. You will be part of a residential respite rota which will require you to work days, evenings, nights, weekends and public holidays. There will be a requirement to do sleepover shifts and these will be paid at £65 per sleepover.

Shift patterns vary. For 10 weeks of the year during school holidays, shifts are available around the clock. Standard shifts would be 8-4.15pm or 4-10pm. Sleepovers are also a part of this. For 42 weeks of the year, we work on a pattern of Wed-Sunday one week and Friday to Sunday the following week. Wednesday-Friday is afternoons and evenings. Standard weekend shifts are 8-4.15pm or 4-10pm. Sleepovers are also a part of this.

At Aberlour we want 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.

A Day in the Life of a Young People’s Worker

Our day usually starts around 7.30am with the morning routine. We support our young people to get ready for their day ahead assisting with all aspects of personal hygiene. We then prepare breakfast and medications for each of our young people and organise the day’s activities. We plan mornings out, considering the health and safety requirements for each activity we undertake. After lunch we prepare an in-house activity. This also allows staff to complete daily paperwork such as weekend logs for our young people, updating care plans and review reports etc. In the evening we cook a healthy dinner considering our knowledge of our young peoples’ likes and dislikes and particularly if they have restricted diets.

"Aberlour Options provide a safe, fun and homely environment for respite for our son. He loves going to stay and asks daily when his next visit is" Parent

"Aberlour treat me like part of the family" Young Person

If you have an interest in working with young people we would like to hear from you. Ideally, candidates will have social care experience, an understanding of autism, complex needs and mental health and have the relevant qualifications or will be willing to work towards these.

What we offer...

As well as a supportive team and excellent training opportunities, 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.

About Smarter2gether

Our Smarter2gether service supports young people (aged 11-18) who need extra help with education. We support young people with behaviours that challenge because of the complicated emotions they experience, by giving our young people a trusted person they can talk to, as well as someone who can support them with their learning.

Our young people may have experienced trauma in their lives and feel that no-one understands them. Some may have a chaotic home life, and are risk of being taken into care, far away from their own community. Others are already living in care and experiencing the complicated feelings that come with it. All these factors can cause a lot of stress and worry. In turn, this can make school a difficult environment to be in.

What we are looking for...

As a Young People’s Worker Social Education, you will work in partnership with the school and other relevant agencies to provide a holistic approach to the support we offer our young people. You will work both individually and may help support group work programmes for our young people within the school setting. You will be based between Stranraer Academy and our Stranraer Communites2gether hub. You will also engage and support the young person’s family in the wider community as required.

You will work 37.5 hours per week, due to the nature of this service all annual leave must be used during the school holidays. this post is currently funded through PEF funding for a 2 year fixed term contract with the possibility of an extension.

We are looking for someone who will empower our young people and give them a voice. It is essential that you can demonstrate an understanding and commitment to young people’s rights. You will have experience of working with young people either within a community or residential setting. You will hold, or be willing to work towards, a relevant professional qualification at SCQF level 7 or above.

Due to the nature of this service and the location of the families we support, it is essential that applicants have access to their own car and hold a full driving license.

At Aberlour we want 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.

What we offer...

You will receive a planned and supported induction consisting of a varied training programme, including Child Protection. You will be working alongside a highly motivated and skilled team. Find out more about our Employee Benefits and our commitment to Equality and Diversity on our website.

Aberlour is committed to the safeguarding and welfare of all our service users and uses a thorough and rigorous recruitment and selection process including PVG Scheme checks to ensure this commitment is not compromised.

Do you want to help us transform the lives of children across Scotland? Do you share our vision that children in Scotland will be safer, will grow up in strong, resilient families and will have access to early help and support when they need it? Do you have excellent communication skills, diligence and the ability to work proactively?

If this sounds like you, please read on because we’d love to hear from you!

Children 1st has a terrific opportunity for an Executive Assistant for two of our Directors within our Finance and Corporate Services, and People and Culture directorates. This is to work alongside our other Executive Assistants and Corporate Administration Co-ordinator in ensuring that our administrative needs are met.

We are proud of the way we do things at Children 1st and the culture we have created for our people. We need people who are highly organised, engaging, who can work effectively both autonomously and as part of team and who can provide a comprehensive, high quality secretarial and diary management function for our Directors.

Further information

These are full-time, (35 hours per week) permanent roles, however we would consider applicants wishing to work as low as 25 hours per week. While we support flexible working you will need to be based within an office base.

As well as knowing that what we do is making a positive difference to people’s lives, you will receive the following salary and benefits:

40 days annual leave (inclusive of 9 public holidays). We also have a contributory pension scheme (the charity will pay up to 8% of your salary) and life assurance