Hamilton Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) was formed over 50 years ago to provide a holistic advice service to the residents of Hamilton. As a member of the Scottish Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux network, Hamilton CAB aims to provide free, independent, impartial, and confidential advice and information to ensure that people understand their rights and responsibilities and can express their needs effectively. We campaign and influence to tackle the root cause of the problems people face and work to strengthen their rights.

Hamilton CAB currently operates from two offices in Hamilton and are supported by 18 members of staff and 31 volunteers including board members. The Bureau supports individuals with a wide range of general enquiries whilst project staff provide specialist support on topics including benefits, debt, utilities, and money matters.

The role:

We are seeking a committed and dynamic individual to serve as the Chair of our organisation.

As Chair, you will play a vital role by providing strategic leadership to the board, ensuring it fulfils its responsibilities for the governance of the organisation. You will also provide line management, support and direction to the Chief Officer, helping them to achieve the organisation’s aims and objectives; and ensures the smooth running of Hamilton CAB.

We are looking for an individual who has experience of leadership and governance. You will have a passion for the voluntary sector, strong leadership skills and an ability to drive forward positive change.

Although, not financially remunerated, the role is high profile and respected within the community and will offer a great challenge, learning and networking opportunity for the right person.

There are an average of 6 Board meetings per year to commit to as well as preparation time and regular collaboration /communications with the team and stakeholders.

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.

About Us

Inverness, Badenoch and Strathspey CAB is an independent charity providing advice, information and support to people across our community. We are a friendly team of over 80 employees and volunteers working over 3 locations (Inverness, Raigmore and Aviemore) delivering a busy advice service to members of the public. We strive to deliver a good quality service that meets the needs of our clients in a non-judgemental and confidential manner.

The Role

This role is responsible for supporting the smooth running of our reception area and ensuring that clients who contact the bureau receive excellent customer service which meets their individual needs.

We are interested to hear from good team players who have experience of working in a similar environment and are confident in dealing with clients who may be vulnerable or have multiple needs. The successful candidate will have a strong customer focus and treat everyone in a non-judgemental, respectful and confidential manner. The job holder will be supported through an initial training programme and encouraged to continually develop during their time with us.

This is a great time to join GamCare as we are growing the reach of our services. We are looking for a Gambling Support Practitioner with qualifications/experience in health or social care and an empathic style, to enable people to change their behaviour through skilled intervention.

Crucially, you will ensure that psychosocial and recovery support interventions are delivered as part of a cohesive recovery plan while working collaboratively with external and partner organisations to achieve positive outcomes for service users.

There will be lots of opportunities to participate in service promotion, networking activities and events to support the visibility of the service, as well as developing relationships with local services and communities to strengthen pathways into the service.

We are looking for an individual to work full-time which will currently include 4 days 9-5pm and 1 day 12-8pm per week (fixed), Monday to Friday, however due to possible requirements of the service, potentially occasional Saturdays (9-2pm), another day off would be agreed on during the week.

Key Responsibilities

• Providing face to face and online advice, assessment, brief and structured interventions to help clients achieve their recovery goals, using motivational interviews and cognitive behavioural approaches
• Providing safe and effective support to individuals whilst managing safeguarding issues in line with safeguarding procedures and policies
• Developing collaborative working relationships with external agencies, professionals and groups to facilitate a multi-agency approach and holistic support
• Developing and maintaining relationships with local services and communities to support identification of gambling harms and pathways into service
• Participating in service promotion, networking activities and events to support visibility and ongoing development of the service, and to proactively respond to the needs identified within the region

About you

Are you passionate about supporting others to make positive changes in their lives? Do you want to make a difference by providing interventions to people impacted by gambling. If this sounds like you, and you would like to be part of a committed, dynamic, and highly supportive team, providing exceptional support, then we would love to hear from you!

You should have significant experience in individual client work in the field of addictions, mental health or a social care setting with adults or young people. You should be flexible in using a range of low and high-intensity interventions and modalities including Cognitive Behavioural (CBT) tools.

The successful candidate will be expected to be able to work from home thereby having the space for a confidential setting whilst also being able to travel within the region to attend events and offer localised in person support as required.

This post also requires a PVG check.

About Us

Founded in 1997, GamCare is one of the leading providers of information, advice and support for anyone affected by gambling harms. We operate the National Gambling Helpline, provide treatment for anyone who is harmed by gambling, create awareness about safer gambling and treatment, and encourage an effective approach to safer gambling within the gambling industry.

Benefits You Can Enjoy

• 33 days basic annual leave entitlement per annum including bank holidays which increases with service
• A generous Pension Scheme - we contribute 6% and you contribute 2%.
• Discretionary company sick pay from day one of service.
• Employee Assistance Programme – 24-hour support
• We also have a vibrant and diverse event calendar full of monthly initiatives and webinars to support the ongoing physical and mental wellbeing of our people.