We are seeking committed individuals interested in taking on the exciting role and opportunity as Chairperson of Play Midlothian.

Play Midlothian is a leading charity dedicated to improving and enriching the lives of children and young people through the power of play. We believe that play is a fundamental right and an essential part of a child’s development. Our services are designed to offer inclusive, safe, and stimulating environments where children can grow, learn, and have fun.

We work to support children to thrive through play. It is important for their lives in the here and now as well as for their future life chances.

We:

• Provide enriching opportunities for children to play in support of their health, wellbeing and development
• Build family, community and professional capacity to support play
• Advocate for play and inform and influence decision-making

Time commitment

As a minimum, you need to be able to commit to:

• Frequently attend and Chair (on Teams) board meetings, of which there are approximately six per year on a weekday evening, for two hours;
• Attending infrequent development or strategic planning sessions (usually no more than once per year);
• Steer short-life working groups ;
• Occasionally work closely with member(s) of the staff team on a specific issue.

Join our Board as Treasurer and contribute your expertise

Are you a finance professional looking to promote children’s right to play and contribute to their wellbeing? We are currently seeking a skilled individual to act as the Treasurer on our Board of Trustees. If you possess financial expertise and our organisation’s mission resonates with you, we invite you to apply for this important role.

About Play Scotland

Play Scotland is the lead organisation for the development and promotion of children and young people’s play in Scotland. We work strategically to implement the child’s right to play so that all children can reach their full potential and be able to confidently inhabit an inclusive public realm, as well as help shape child friendly communities.

The work of Play Scotland is underpinned by the UN convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 31, which states: “State parties recognise the right of every child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.”

For more about Play Scotland see playscotland.org

Why Become Our Treasurer?

As Treasurer, you will play a crucial role in overseeing our finances, ensuring financial health, and supporting our mission to be the national:

• expert in play for parents, providers, the play workforce and policy makers
• custodian and voice for children and the play sector
• leader and campaigner for the importance of quality, accessible free play
• expert in developing and delivering strategic planning for play and play sufficiency assessments

This voluntary role offers the chance to use your expertise without requiring a significant time commitment.

Key Responsibilities:

• High-level Financial Oversight: Review financial reports and ensure the organisation’s financial stability.
• Board Communication: Keep the board informed about financial matters and reassure them of the organisation’s financial health.
• Budget Oversight: Provide occasional oversight and adjustments to budget models as needed.
• Being an approved person for the checking of expenses and invoices by email (one Board member needs to approve expenses and payments per month)

What We’re Looking For:

• Experienced Professional: Ideally with a career background as a Financial Director or Financial Controller.
• Qualified Accountant or working towards a relevant qualification.
• Confident Communicator: Able to inspire confidence, provide reassurance and communicate financial matters clearly.
• Familiarity with Charity Finance: Understanding of charity finance issues and governance, software experience (eg Xero) would be helpful.

What’s in It for You?

• Make an Impact: Your financial expertise will contribute to our success, allowing us to continue to improve the play opportunities for children and young people.
• Gain Valuable Experience: Further your skills in financial management, budgeting, and presenting finances to both informed and uninformed audiences.

Commitment

• 6 weekly meetings (approx.), usually taking place on zoom, 2 annual in person meetings, including the AGM. All meetings are arranged in advance to suit diaries.
• Email approval of expenditure monthly (one Board member needs to approve expenses and payments per month)

OPFS was founded in 1940 and since then we have been at the forefront of shaping policy and services in Scotland, that support single parents and their children. Today, there are over 144,000 single parent families in Scotland, 25% of all families. We involve parents, champion their voices and keep their needs at the heart of everything we do.

We want a society in which single parent families are treated equally and fairly. To help achieve this we provide a range of single parent tailored services. We do this through our advice channels, self-help pages on our website and our local community-based services. To create lasting change we involve single parents, experts by experience, to influence policies which challenge discrimination and judgmental attitudes, which will reduce child poverty and make services more accessible to all families.

The Advice and Information Service plays a vital role in supporting single-parent families and professionals across Scotland by providing multi-channel advice and guidance. Covering a broad spectrum of topics related to single parenting, the service ensures families have access to accurate and timely information tailored to their unique circumstances. As a national service, we are committed to reaching single-parent families wherever they are in Scotland, delivering support that is inclusive, accessible, and responsive to their needs.

Operating from Monday to Friday, 9:30 am to 4:00 pm, the service is available throughout the year, apart from Christmas and Easter holidays. By offering assistance through multiple platforms, we ensure flexibility and ease of access, empowering single parents to navigate challenges and access the resources they need to thrive.

Purpose of Role

The purpose of this role is to deliver accurate, up-to-date advice and effective signposting to single parents and those advocating on their behalf through the OPFS Advice Service. The role ensures that single-parent families have access to vital information, resources, and guidance to navigate their unique challenges.

Additionally, the role involves actively monitoring and identifying social policy concerns emerging from interactions with service users and sharing knowledge throughout the wider organisation. This critical function contributes to shaping OPFS’s policy and strategic efforts, ensuring the voices of single parents inform policy discussions and drive meaningful change to address societal barriers.

Equal opportunities and family friendly employment

OPFS aims to be an equal opportunity and family friendly employer and flexible working requests will be considered. OPFS has Investors In People silver status and Living Wage accreditation.

Barnardo's Stronger Families offers an exciting opportunity to join an established team who are developing Attachment and Trauma Informed Practice models to support families with children aged 0-13 yrs across Fife. Barnardo's has been established in Fife for over 20 years and the Stronger Families service and support to children and families has been a consistent feature within our services across Fife.

Stronger Families offers intensive support to families (6-10hrs per week), and for 6-9mths working alongside partner agencies to prevent family breakdown. This level of support will hopefully help families to make effective and sustainable change to enable the children to safely remain at home.

Due to the intensive nature of this work your caseload will be around 4 families which will enable you to build good relationships with the children, young people & families and through your support will help them effect meaningful change.

You will have experience of working with children & families and will be required to deliver direct services to families who have a range of complex needs.

Experience of working with children and families and a working knowledge of attachment theories and Trauma Informed Practice would be extremely desirable as would a knowledge of The Promise as the principles are embedded into our service delivery.

This is an exciting opportunity to join an established, dynamic and friendly team where you will have the opportunity to expand and share your skills and experience within a supportive environment. The service sits within a locality with 4 other services further enhancing the learning opportunities and skill sharing with those supporting Children, Young People and families in different ways.

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

The world of work has changed. We are understanding of what works best for our colleagues both current and future as we look to embrace this new way of working. 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, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or any combination of these.

• 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 Barnardo's

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