Welcoming, Connecting and Supporting Families and Visitors is at the core of what we do here at the Croft!

Providing practical and emotional support, information and advice to the families impacted by a loved one’s imprisonment at HMP Barlinnie to help make their visiting experience the best it can be under the circumstances

Do you want to help make a difference to the lives of families affected by another’s imprisonment – this is a group of people, including many children, often marginalised and severely impacted, practically, emotionally and financially by the actions of another. Want to learn new skills in the process? - you can by becoming a volunteer Board Member for the Croft HMP Barlinnie’s Visitors Centre.

What we are looking for

We are looking to recruit a number of Board members.

We welcome applicants from any background and experience, including people who have been personally impacted. We welcome all skills but do have particular skills gaps we would love to bring on board–

• Case Management Systems – to have oversight of and help us develop an appropriate system.
• Treasurer - Accounting/Finance experience to help us with oversight of our funding and statutory reporting.
• Human Resources.
• Business development/growth – particularly Social Enterprises / Community Interest Companies.

What you get from being a Board Member

1. The chance to give something back into the community and make a real difference to the lives of families impacted by imprisonment - Becoming a Trustee is a fantastic way to give something back to a cause you care about. You’ll be playing an integral part in the way the charity is run, ensuring it remains sustainable and financially viable. The help you provide will be invaluable.
2. Meet new people - joining a new organisation or charity is a fantastic way to meet new people from a range of different personal and professional backgrounds. There will be meetings to attend, projects to get involved.
3. Learn new things - getting involved as a charity Trustee is a great way to put your professional skills to use, but can also be a fantastic opportunity to learn new things. You’ll get great insight into what’s involved in the management of charities and gain skills on working well within a leadership role.
4. Improve your CV and enhance your professional development - from learning how organisations are run to planning finances and attending meetings, this experience can be the perfect way to boost a CV and set you apart from the crowd.

Background

For more information about the Croft and its work see:

Visit our new website: thecroftfamilysupport.org

Visit our Facebook page: facebook.com/CroftVisitorsService

Click on this article to read about just some of the work we do: cjg-annualreport23.co.uk/2023/08/21/supporting-families-cost-of-living-crisis-a-year-of-reflection

The Citizens Advice network is set to deliver a comprehensive Help to Claim (HTC). From April 2022 Stirling District Citizens Advice Bureau Ltd will deliver the HTC, providing the advice and support people need to submit their claim for Universal Credit and support them through to their first payment, via a digital-only service.

An HTC Multi-channel Coordinator (Universal Credit) will oversee the implementation and ongoing delivery of the Service through HTC advisers; and is managed by the Lead Bureau in an established geographical consortium. The Multi-channel Coordinator role involves management of the consortium/region adviser rota and performance, adviser supervision, and local stakeholder engagement and service promotion. The Multi-channel Coordinator must be fully HTC adviser trained in order to provide cover and rota support when required, as well as to provide exceptional up-to-date advice support to advisers.

Clackmannanshire Citizens Advice Bureau, based in Alloa, is an independent and innovative advice organisation providing holistic advice to the residents of Clackmannanshire across 7 locations in the county. We currently have 27 paid staff and 17 volunteers who provide a wide range of services, across our projects.

We have been delivering a valuable, high-level service to the community of Clackmannanshire for over 50 years. We have accreditation in Type III advice by Scottish National Standards for advice providers (SNSIAP) in the areas of Housing, Debt and Benefits

Benefits of working with Clackmannanshire Citizens Advice Bureau are, annual performance related salary increases, 5% employer’s pension contribution plan, free membership of an employer health plan, free use of company Ebikes and a retail perks scheme. Holiday entitlement for full year is 39 days leave including public holidays with the ability to buy and sell annual leave. Flexible working scheme including some home working and flexible starts finish times

The Citizens Advice network in Scotland has been delivering a comprehensive, enhanced support service called Help to Claim, introduced in April 2019, providing the advice and support people need to submit their claim for Universal Credit and support them through to their first payment.

Clackmannanshire Citizens Advice Bureau is looking for a client-focused individual with experience of providing specialist level advice, to join as a Help to Claim Adviser (UC) and to help ensure clients get the support they need. This includes supporting with online forms, the evidence required, telephone and web chat.

The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate relevant recent experience and knowledge of the welfare benefit system including Universal Credit, however do not require to be a trained adviser (but will be required to complete this training) but a knowledge of generalist advice would be an advantage. Applicants should also demonstrate strong oral and written communication skills, be well organised and be proficient in using a range of IT tools to carry out their work, including case recording systems, Microsoft Office, benefit check programmes and be able to make and manage benefit claims.

Consideration maybe given to individuals who do not meet the full requirements of the post but who could be trained in a reasonable period of time this will be offered at below the entry level salary initially.

Committed, results-driven and supportive to the needs of others, the successful applicant will be able to work both on their own initiative as well as part of a team and must be willing to follow and develop agreed procedures.

This is a unique opportunity to give citizens access to free, impartial and confidential advice helping them to make informed decisions, whenever they need it and however they choose to access it.

The Citizens Advice network in Scotland is the largest independent advice service in the country. Citizens Advice Scotland is a charity within this network – we act as a national organisation supporting and representing the service as a whole and the interests of citizens. At the heart of the network there are 59 individual bureaux across Scotland, all operating as independent charities in their own right, which focus on providing support and advice directly to clients. Each of these organisations is a member of Citizens Advice Scotland. We believe that every citizen should have access to free, impartial and confidential advice that helps them make informed decisions, whenever they need it and however, they choose to access it.

Our vision is for a Fairer Scotland where everyone has the advice and information they need to realise their rights, and that the barriers to accessing those rights are effectively challenged.

In order to be a member of Citizens Advice Scotland every Citizens Advice Bureau must comply with a set of membership conditions and standards. These conditions and standards aim to ensure a bureau adheres to the principles of the Scottish Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux and provide clients with holistic, quality assured information, advice and support.

This role offers you the opportunity to work right at the heart of supporting Scotland's largest independent advice network and to make an invaluable contribution to citizen’s lives. If you are someone from either an advice, quality or learning background with an eye for improvement then this could be the role for you.

As a Learning and Standards Officer, you will be member of the Learning and Standards Team which is responsible for learning support and assessment of each Citizens Advice Bureau’s compliance with these membership conditions. This is an interesting, varied, challenging, and rewarding role.

Using a defined set of criteria and indicators you will assess the quality of advice provision across a range of topic areas and produce reports which summarise your findings. You’d work with colleagues to produce and maintain a variety of learning materials and learning opportunities for bureaux. The role also involves working with bureaux to help ensure consistency of approach to quality of advice and case checking across all Citizens Advice Bureaux in Scotland.

For more information about the role, please refer to the Job Pack.

Employee benefits

Citizens Advice Scotland offers excellent terms and conditions. We want our people to have a great work life balance and we have designed our working practices and benefits to support this. Here are some of things our employees benefit from: a 35-hour full time working week, 40 days annual leave, genuine flexibility in working hours with a flexi-time system, and hybrid working opportunities for every role. For more details of some of the other benefits on offer to our employees, please see the section on employee benefits in the job pack.

Citizens Advice Scotland is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion. We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies and flexible working arrangements to support all our staff. We are also committed to equality of opportunity for all and applications from individuals are encouraged regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships.

CAS provides options for hybrid working to allow employees to balance their time attending the office with time working from home. The number of days you will be able to work from home each week will be dependent on your job role and can be discussed as part of the recruitment process.