The Policy and Participation Officer plays a crucial role in advancing Together’s mission to ensure that all babies, children, and young people in Scotland have their human rights respected, protected, and fulfilled. This role supports the Legal and Policy Manager by enhancing policy development and ensuring robust participation of babies, children, and young people in all aspects of Together's work. The Officer will assist in policy advocacy, engage in public affairs, and strengthen the engagement of babies, children and young people in Together’s activities, including the Rights Detectives.

Key areas of responsibility include:

• Supporting policy development and analysis by assisting with Together's annual State of Children's Rights report and the #RightsOnTrack programme, monitoring developments and recommendations from UN treaty bodies, drafting responses to relevant Scottish/UK Government and Parliament consultations, and developing policy briefings.
• Supporting the development of participation projects and leading desk-based research that ensures babies, children, and young people’s views are at the heart of Together’s policy and advocacy.
• Facilitating collaboration with members and supporting partnership activities with organisations across the UK, Europe and internationally.
• Supporting the Legal and Policy Manager with public affairs tasks and working with the Membership and Social Media Officer to coordinate strategies to enhance Together's social media presence.
• Supporting the Legal and Policy Manager in policy meetings and events, actively engaging in team meetings, and assisting in the development of funding proposals.

Throughout the role, the post-holder will be expected to involve Together’s membership – including children and young people – whenever possible and appropriate.

Reporting to: Legal & Policy Manager

We are the first port of call for social entrepreneurs and our mission is to make social enterprise accessible, achievable and aspirational.

We are looking for new board members to broaden and strengthen the skills and experience of our existing board. As a board member, you will oversee our governance and financial arrangements, ensuring that we operate in line with best practice and our charitable objectives. You will play an important role in our future direction and will provide support and motivation to the board and the Chief Executive.

While we welcome applications from anyone who meets the role’s description and person specification, we particularly want to reach individuals who can demonstrate specialist knowledge, skills, and lived or learned experience in one or more of the following:

• Key public policy areas affecting Scotland
• Scottish Government, Local Authority, or other public sector knowledge, including relationships with civil servants and government officials
• Business development, corporate partnerships and diversification of income streams
• Impact measurement and evaluation frameworks

As accredited Investors in Diversity, we are committed to making our Board balanced and diverse, reflecting the people and communities we work with. Acknowledging our current board make-up and those ending their term this year, we particularly welcome applications from women and those who identify outside the gender binary, as well as people who bring a diversity of thought, mindset and background through their age (young people), sexuality, ethnicity, learning style or geography (rural/remote location).

Who are we looking for and why work at Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS)?

At CHS we recruit, train and support empathetic and committed volunteers across Scotland.

Our 2,200 volunteer Panel Members take part in children’s hearings in their local areas, making decisions with and for infants, children and young people. We also work closely with a network of nine regional teams who support Panel Members in their local communities. This role provides a great opportunity to help children, their families, and the panel community by using feedback to enhance practice.

We are looking for someone with a proven track record in handling feedback and complaints. You must be passionate about resolving issues and making sure deadlines are met, using what we learn from feedback and complaints to improve outcomes for children. You’ll be the main point of contact, either by e-mail, web form or telephone. You’ll have great interpersonal skills, be an excellent communicator and be able to multi-task and prioritise effectively.

You will need to capture the detail of the complaint accurately, establish what outcomes are required and work with our panel community and other partners to establish the facts so that you can respond to the complaint appropriately within the timelines required.

Ideally you will a good understanding of public sector complaints and the requirements of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman’s Model Complaints Handling Procedure.

Supporting the Complaints Management Officer you will be involved with several exciting projects we are working on, including the continued development of our child friendly feedback and complaints approach, an improved feedback loop and supporting the continued development of relationships with our key partners. CHS has also introduced a new Tribunal Support Model for managing our internal volunteer organisational structure and you’ll be expected to support those changes through the lens of your feedback and complaints role.

You’ll also need a good eye for detail, be comfortable using complaints management systems and be familiar with Office 365 products, including Teams. You’ll be able to produce reports in relation to complaints and have the confidence and skills to engage with our partners and senior leaders. You need excellent analytical skills and the ability to accurately capture data to inform improvements.

Please be aware that occasional travel may be required as a requirement of this role, as well as very occasionally having to work outside CHS’s normal working hours.

Feedback & Complaints at CHS

We are keen to enhance our feedback channels and our primary aim is to resolve most of our complaints at the frontline, without the need for formal investigation. As Feedback and Complaints Officer, you will play a key role in improving processes relating to feedback and complaints management. As well as handling complaints in line with SPSO guidelines we also have a pastoral responsibility for our panel community so it’s important to understand what that means and get the balance just right.

You will have the opportunity to get involved in other projects which will enhance our insight and awareness of the experience of children and young people in hearings as well as from other partners. There will also be opportunity for career development for the right candidate.

Complaints sits within the Practice and Standards Team at CHS and that provides the perfect route for us to take the learning from complaints and feedback and translate that in to practice improvements within children’s hearings, as well as making sure we involve children in improving practice and policy.

Life at CHS

As an organisation that works within the children’s hearings system, we are passionate about making a positive contribution to improving outcomes for Scotland’s infants, children and young people. Our values are at the very heart of what we do every day. By working with us, you’ll be joining a diverse community of colleagues and volunteers.

At CHS we are proud to celebrate difference. We all have different skills, experience and backgrounds and we strive to have a friendly and inclusive culture where you can be yourself.

We offer an excellent benefits package, from health and wellness to finances and family. including: generous annual leave, flexible working and other leave policies, fantastic pension, Employee Assistance Programme, development opportunities and wider employee wellbeing initiatives.

Diversity and Inclusion

CHS is an equal opportunities employer. We encourage diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We actively encourage applicants from all protected characteristics and commit to providing any reasonable adjustments required during application and assessment process, and upon joining CHS.

Why apply for this role?

Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS) is undergoing an exciting period of reform, designed to make a step change in improving the outcomes for infants, children and young people who need us most. Children’s Hearings Tribunal Members play a vital role in Scotland’s society. They listen and make legal decisions for infants, children and young people. They ensure that the young person is at the heart of every decision taken – because every decision, no matter how big or small, has an impact.

You will be joining CHS at a pivotal point, as we continue to implement our new regional tribunal support model that was launched in 2023. Alongside the Regional Tribunal Delivery Manager, Regional Partnership Co-ordinator and our current Area Support Teams you will play a significant role in supporting our Panel Community through change by shaping and implementing wellbeing approaches within the new model, ensuring our volunteer communities are effectively supported.

Working under the guidance of the National Wellbeing Manager, and reporting to the Regional Tribunal Delivery Manager, the successful candidate will join the other Wellbeing Coordinators to deliver consistent approaches to wellbeing support and volunteer management in all the areas in their region.

This new role will be part of the operational delivery team for each of 9 new CHS Area Support Team regions across Scotland and will work alongside and support our volunteer community through the change and transition now and in the future. It will help us to provide an enhanced and consistent support structure to better enable our volunteer Tribunal Members to support children and young people throughout Scotland. It will provide a strong foundation to support and enable our panel community to deliver our duties from the Care & Justice Act and the recommendations agreed in the ‘Hearings for Children’ report.

Your role

Reporting to the Regional Tribunal Delivery Manager, the Regional Wellbeing Co-ordinator is responsible for the promotion of wellbeing support needs of Tribunal Members within one of 9 regions across Scotland. You will support the Regional Tribunal Delivery Manager and the Regional Partnership Co-ordinator to deliver the National Convener’s statutory duties for the provision of Children’s Hearings across a dedicated region in Scotland to a consistent high-quality standard.

The core purpose of this role will be the identification of wellbeing support needs on a regional level and signposting Tribunal Members to relevant support. This may involve contact pre/post hearings which are identified to have distressing subject matter and putting the relevant support mechanisms in place to promote the wellbeing of Tribunal Members. The role holder will be key to managing the relationship(s) between Tribunal Members who are volunteers and the organisation more broadly.

The role holder will be expected to be an exemplar for the values of CHS including listening to and valuing the voice of children and young people, the contribution of volunteers, and ensuring a respected, quality based, and sustainable tribunal system is delivered on behalf of the National Convenor.

About you

You will have excellent people skills and can build positive relationships with people who come from a variety of backgrounds and beliefs.

You will share collective responsibility for delivering organisational objectives, through active engagement and collaboration with colleagues at all levels in the organisation.

You will be energetic and enthusiastic, a brilliant collaborator with demonstrable experience of effective wellbeing support within an organisational setting; able to evidence insight (professional, direct or personal) into the implications of Trauma on behaviour.

You will have direct experience of supporting people (volunteers or employees) through complex or challenging situations. You will have experience of guiding and supporting others through continuous improvement projects; having the willingness and ability to enable changes to take place in the most productive way.

You will be an excellent communicator, building links and networks across teams (internally and externally), effectively initiating dialogue across the organisation recognising that we have a shared responsibility to provide the best experience for our volunteer colleagues and wider stakeholders.

Life at CHS

At Children’s Hearings Scotland, our highly trained Tribunal Members make decisions for Scotland’s unique Children’s Hearings System that upholds and promotes the rights of infants, children and young people. Our 2,500 volunteer Tribunal Members take part in children’s hearings in their local areas, making decisions with and for infants, children and young people. Our organisation also supports a network of Area Support Teams throughout Scotland who support Tribunal Members in their local communities.

As an organisation that works within the Children’s Hearings System, we are passionate about making a positive contribution to improving outcomes for Scotland’s infants, children and young people.

You can read more about our core values on our website as well as view an introductory video to our organisation. We also offer a generous benefits package from hybrid working to flexi hours and a fantastic pension scheme – check out our full benefits summary.

Diversity and Inclusion

CHS is an equal opportunities employer. We encourage diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We actively encourage applicants from all protected characteristics and are committed to providing any reasonable adjustments required during the application and assessment process, and upon joining us.