Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) is seeking to appoint an experienced Policy and Public Affairs Officer who is educated to degree level, ideally with a relevant postgraduate qualification, with a keen interest in reducing harms from alcohol.

The Role

The Policy and Public Affairs Officer will help guide SHAAP advocacy activities through identifying and analysing relevant policy, providing advice and developing evidence-based positions, carrying out research, monitoring media and policy activity, dealing with the media, responding to consultations, organising events and providing administrative support.

SHAAP is a partnership of the Medical Royal Colleges and the Faculty of Public Health in Scotland and is based at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE).

Using the best available evidence, SHAAP provides the authoritative clinical voice on how policy makers and clinicians can reduce alcohol-related harms in Scotland. We work in close collaboration with key organisations in the alcohol field in Scotland, the rest of the UK and worldwide.

The Person

The Policy and Public Affairs Officer will be an excellent communicator with internal and external stakeholders at all levels of seniority, with the ability to self-manage and prioritise in a dynamic context and within a small team. They must have the ability to advise on and communicate SHAAP policy positions, with experience of researching and drafting briefings, and/or policy papers and/or consultation responses. They must also be able to represent SHAAP at internal and external meetings, seminars and conferences.

Please refer to the Job Description for the role and person full details.

Remuneration Package

The salary for this role will be £34,711 per annum plus benefits. Additional benefits include:

• Pension: with employer contributions of 9%.
• Holidays: 23 days annual leave (with incremental increase over five years to 28 days) and 11 days public holiday/College close downs.
• Life assurance scheme.
• Long-term income protection scheme for those unable to work due to illness.
• Cycle to Work scheme.
• Discounted rates for use of the venue for personal events.

*Based at the College in Queen Street, Edinburgh, with flexibility for a form of hybrid working to be agreed.

The Royal College of General Practitioners is the largest membership organisation solely for GPs in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1952, it has over 55,000 members, including 5000 in Scotland, who are committed to improving patient care, developing their own skills and promoting general practice as a discipline. General practice is the largest branch of the medical profession. It provides some 1 million consultations for patients in the UK every working day and deals with 86% of the health problems experienced by the UK population.

We are currently recruiting a Policy and Public Relations Officer to support our communications, policy and public affairs activity in Scotland, and we are looking for someone who has demonstrable experience in a communications, policy or public affairs role.

You will work closely with the Policy & Public Affairs Manager to ensure that the priorities of RCGP and issues impacting general practice are recognised by policy makers, the press and the public. You will support RCGP work to influencing decision making at the highest level which will have a direct impact on general practice and its patients by drafting RCGP policy consultation responses, representing RCGP policy at high-level external stakeholder meetings and providing comprehensive briefings to our GP representatives ahead of these meetings.

You will also help to deliver our internal and external communications across Scotland, ensuring that our key messages reach the intended audiences to maximise impact. This will require you to develop and maintain links with media contacts across Scotland, draft key internal communications to our members and produce proactive and reactive media statements. You will take a lead role in maintaining our social media presence.

Our small, friendly team plays a key role in supporting general practice in Scotland. You’ll be helping communicate to stakeholders the views of the RCGP, and to do that effectively, knowledge and experience of the health agenda, patient issues and political context of Scotland would be highly advantageous.

You’ll have degree level education or have requisite experience, be an excellent team player and be able to work across a varied organisation and take a corporate viewpoint.

The successful candidate will share our corporate values. In return, the College offers excellent terms and conditions and great working environment. This role will be hybrid with two days a week in our office in Edinburgh city centre. We offer flexible working hours Monday to Friday.

An exciting opportunity to join our Walking for Health Team

Paths for All is a Scottish Charity. We have a clear focus set out in our Step it Up strategy. We want to get Scotland walking: Everyone. Everyday. Everywhere. Our vision is for Scotland to be a walking nation. We want everyone to have the opportunity to be active every day, creating a happier, healthier and greener Scotland. A key element of this work involves encouraging behaviour change and participation in daily activity through the right programmes, infrastructure and community opportunities.

As a result of some of our team taking up exciting new opportunities within Paths for All, the Walking for Health team is looking for two Development Officers to join us to empower and develop the Scottish Health Walk Network.

Are you passionate about empowering communities to tackle inactivity, improve health and health inequalities to positively impact well-being on a population-wide scale? Well, you could be the person we are looking for!

Day to day tasks for the postholder will include working mainly with the Scottish Health Walk Network member organisations and strategic partners in disadvantaged communities, supporting management of our Walking for Health grants and developing and promoting national resources and campaigns for Walking for Health.

The successful candidates will enjoy working to make a positive difference to individuals health and well-being through Health Walks. They will thrive in a busy environment on a wide range of activities. They should have the ability to form strong relationships with our partners, strategic organisations and SHWN members.

We offer the opportunity to be part of an organisation that recognises staff as our most valued asset. Attractive employment conditions include a contributory pension scheme and flexi-time policy.

If you’re looking for a new challenge in a varied role, and you’re interested in supporting communities to thrive and reducing health inequalities and working towards net-zero, we’d love to hear from you.

If you would like to discuss this role further, please contact Gill McShea, Senior Development officer by email at Gill.McShea@pathsforall.org.uk

Paths for All is a Scottish Charity. We have a very clear focus. We want to get Scotland walking: Everyone. Everyday. Everywhere. Our vision is for Scotland to be a walking nation. We want everyone to have the opportunity to be active every day, creating a happier, healthier and greener Scotland. A key element of this work involves significantly increasing the number of people who choose to walk in Scotland for both leisure and practical journeys.

The Development officer will work as part of a team delivering the Community Transition Fund, in a partnership between Tactran (Tayside and Central Scotland Transport Partnership) and Paths for All. This role will sit within Tactran and will support them with additional capacity to deliver. This will involve managing the quarterly reporting requirements from both a Tactran and a Transport Scotland perspective. The role will also be involved in the delivery of the co-design and networking elements of the programme.

If you’re looking for a new challenge in a varied role, and you’re interested in supporting communities to thrive and reducing health inequalities and working towards net-zero, we’d love to hear from you.

We offer the opportunity to be part of an organisation that recognises staff as our most valued asset. Attractive employment conditions include a contributory pension scheme and flexi-time policy.