Home Link Family Support, Circle, Stepping Stones North Edinburgh, Home-Start Edinburgh, NHS Lothian’s Parent and Infant Relationship Service (PAIRS), Citizens Advice and Early Years Education are delighted to recruit staff for a new transformational partnership approach that will test bespoke holistic whole family supports throughout the early years.

The project will ensure that appropriate, universal, and enhanced support is available at the earliest stage possible for all families with a child not yet in an ELC or of a pre-school age setting. This will be prioritised by developing a cohesive pathway and menu of supports alongside families.

The project aims to:

• Improve family wellbeing
• Reduce inequalities in family wellbeing
• Long-term reduction in families requiring crisis intervention
• Long-term reduction in the number of children living away from their families
• Increase the number of families taking up wider support.

We are recruiting staff to work across the 4 localities of Edinburgh. Posts are funded for 24 months.

We are looking for individuals with experience of working with children in their early years and their families delivering offering a wide range of interventions in the community and family homes including one to one and group work support. Occasional weekend or evening work may be required as the project develops to ensure equity of access for all families.

The successful post-holder will be expected to operate in line with our values which are: Justice, Equity, Trust, Collaboration and Compassion.

Overview

OPFS was founded in 1944 and since then we have been at the forefront of shaping policy and services that support the 144,000 single parent families in Scotland. OPFS HQ is in central Edinburgh, there are local services in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Falkirk, Edinburgh and Dundee with National digital and helpline services.

This post is office based to ensure collaboration with stakeholders and a consistent presence in the organisation.

The post holder is responsible for the administrative functions of OPFS as a Registered Charity, HQ functions and wider support to staff across the organisation. They will manage a small administration team and will work closely with other Corporate Services managers to ensure the efficiency and cohesiveness of all central functions. They will be required to operate in line with OPFS values which are Justice, Equity, Trust, Collaboration and Compassion.

Key Tasks

• Administration: Managing the administration staff and functions of the OPFS central operations ensuring effective and efficient administration for OPFS HQ including adequate reception functions for visitors, deliveries and staff. Liaising with service administrators and managers to ensure consistency and best practice across the organisation. Maintain document storage in line with OPFS data retention policy and procedures, utilising SharePoint effectively for electronic storage, arranging confidential destruction and archiving as appropriate. Working with IT and Digital Services to ensure effective use of SharePoint across all OPFS administration functions. Regularly reviewing systems and processes, revising as required, to ensure efficiency and accuracy. Planning and coordinating activities and support required across OPFS for new developments.
• Salesforce: Work closely with IT and Digital Services to support new developments for administration and HR functions across OPFS. Ensure all OPFS salesforce records are secure, accurate, up to date, and regularly monitored with reports being supplied for
• board and senior management meetings. Work with the Digital and IT Services Lead to identify areas for improvement and support the ongoing development of the system.
• Recruitment: Manage all centralised recruitment for OPFS staff in consultation with the appropriate service manager including collation of all relevant information on the role, advertising appropriately, including OPFS website, presenting applications for shortlisting, responding to candidates and organising interviews. Produce documents as required by the interview panel, set up of interview space, including and IT equipment required, for interviews in Edinburgh. Checking right to work information, ID and registrations for selected candidates. Co-ordinating induction programmes for new staff as appropriate to their role.
• Human Resources: Create and maintain accurate and secure records for all staff employed by OPFS ensuring that a complete and current record is kept for all staff and recorded in Salesforce. Issuing staff letters for appointment, details of terms and conditions and any changes thereafter. Undertake staff meetings including all exit interviews highlighting any issues to the Director of HR and Corporate Services. Work with managers handling employee relations matters including investigations, disciplinary or grievance issues, providing appropriate and timely support and maintaining appropriate records. Liaise with external HR Support staff.
• PVGs and Disclosures: Advising new applicants and existing employees on PVG and Disclosure applications for OPFS, ensuring that the correct processes and procedures are followed, with respective managers informed of the outcomes. Acting as counter signatory for OPFS for applications. Ensuring security and confidentiality of all relevant information.
• Training Administration: maintaining the OPFS training calendar and records, arranging training courses as requested, attendees and premises.
• Board, Directorate, meeting and event functions: Ensuring provision for meetings including invitations, room booking, creating reports where required for information including HR and Health and Safety functions, collating and circulating papers, room and technical preparation, minute taking as required. Coordinate meetings and events as required including refreshments and technical support.
• GDPR: Ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act (2018) acting as Data Protection Officer for OPFS, liaising with ICO as required, updating the policy and procedures to reflect change and provide information to management staff and data controllers.
• Properties: Liaise with HQ landlord ensuring the smooth operation of the office in terms of repairs and maintenance. Manage all office moves across OPFS liaising with the local administrator and manager as appropriate. Responsibility for arranging any reorganisation of office space, including any necessary wiring, IT requirements, heating, lighting, redecoration and required flooring, and any furniture needs.
• Procurement: Ensuring best value for all OPFS resources and services by actively benchmarking and negotiating with suppliers, reviewing contracts regularly, and identifying areas of potential savings.
• Health and Safety: Ensuring OPFS is compliant with all aspects of Health and Safety legislation by ongoing monitoring, safety checks, arranging repairs or replacements and escalating issues if required. Liaising with OPFS services to gather and collate information, share updates, and advise if required. Provide quarterly Health and Safety reports for the Board and Directorate, including absence statistics. First Aid and Fire Warden support for HQ.

The job description is a broad picture of the post at the time of preparation. It is not an exhaustive list of all possible duties. It is recognised that jobs change and evolve over time.

Personal Specifications

Essential

• Relevant qualification to HNC level or equivalent relevant experience.
• Significant experience of leading in a busy office.
• Excellent IT skills, good working knowledge of Microsoft systems, Salesforce and meeting technology.
• Experience of HR administration and recruitment.
• Ability to prioritise workloads.
• Ability to take responsibility to proactively resolve issues and provide support in challenging situations.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Commitment to continuous professional development.
• Proven ability to plan for and deliver short term and longer-term events and projects.
• Ability to build relationships at all levels across the organisation and with external stakeholders.

Desirable

• Chartered member of CIPD, or working towards
• Experience of working in the Third Sector
• Understanding of single parent challenges

Terms & Conditions

• Confirmation of Appointment: This is a permanent appointment. Confirmation of appointment is subject to satisfactory completion of a 3-month probationary period ending when a probationary review has been completed.
• Salary: OPFS Scale Points 25 – 29, £37,879 - £46,297
• Hours of work: 35 per week worked flexibly to meet the demands of the job
• Holidays: Annual leave entitlement is 25 days and 12 Public holidays.
• Pension: You will be auto enrolled in our pension scheme with a 3% contribution from you and 7% from OPFS.
• Training and support and supervision: You will receive induction training and frequent support in the first three months. Thereafter you will receive monthly individual support and supervision and annual appraisals. Regular team meetings will be held, and staff have access to internal and external training.
• Equal Opportunities and Family Friendly Employment: OPFS aims to be an equal opportunity and family friendly employer. OPFS has Investors In People status

The Yard is an award-winning charity that runs adventure play services for disabled children, young people and their families in Scotland. We offer disabled children and their siblings the chance to experience creative, adventurous indoor and outdoor play in a well-supported environment. Our services are known for their innovative and inclusive approaches, and our facilities are unique in Scotland.

Due to increasing numbers attending our services, we are looking to increase our team of Playworkers at The Yard Edinburgh.

Job details

Do you get a buzz from helping children and young people, creating laughter, mess and happy memories? If so, we think we have the ideal role for you.

We are looking for individuals who can initiate and support innovative and engaging play for disabled children and young people, focusing on their interests and needs.

If successful you will join our team of passionate and committed playworkers, delivering child-led, family sessions at our purpose-built site in Edinburgh. You’ll plan and deliver a range of play activities such as arts and crafts, loose parts play, den-building, sensory and water play. You’ll be an integral part of our team, with the opportunity for training and development. We are an accredited living wage employer and offer a wide range of benefits.

The successful candidate may have experience working in childcare, early years, nursery, play, youth work or the care sector.

Smart Play Network is a dynamic, forward thinking play organisation and charity supporting and delivering a range of play services in Scotland.

PlayTalkRead is a Scottish Government Early Years campaign aimed at promoting positive parenting in order to give children the best start in life and a strong platform for healthy growth, development and attainment.

Are you a fun and enthusiastic individual who enjoys working as part of a high energy team? Do you like to travel? Are you passionate about making a positive impact on families and understand the importance of parent and child relationships? Then this may be the job for you.

Our PlayTalkRead Roadshow travels across all of Scotland’s 32 local authorities to inspire and support parents and carers to interact with their babies and little ones through fun, simple and inexpensive activities.

As a key member of the play worker team you will travel to locations across Scotland. Working away from home is an integral part of the role and offers a great opportunity to see Scotland while making a difference!

Having the right mind-set, attitude and approach is as important for us as having the right experience and skills.

We appreciate that the best person might not have all the criteria we have listed, so if you feel your experience and skills will help you to make a great contribution in this role and you have the right mind-set, we would welcome an application from you.

When applying, please refer to the job details for full list of essential and advantageous criteria.