We seek a part-time Befriending Coordinator to market and deliver our well-established befriending service in the Fife area to adults and older people who are socially isolated, lonely or disconnected because of disability, ill health or other circumstances.

This post requires you to have your administrative home-base in Fife and involves regular travel across Fife to homes and communities.

It involves regulated work for which a satisfactory PVG will be required. Lead Scotland has a Recruiting People with Convictions Policy.

About you:

Are you passionate about the transformative power of befriending to overcome social isolation and loneliness? Are you confident in communicating one to one and have a flexible and creative approach to befriending?

Would you enjoy being an active part of the vibrant, inclusive, and supportive Lead Scotland team?

Do you have great organisational skills, previous experience of supporting disabled adults experiencing a range of barriers, and of designing and delivering befriending activities?

You must enjoy working with both young people and adults, be enthusiastic, and be committed to a person-centred experience for befriendees. Experience of recruiting and training volunteers is a key part of this role.

This is an exciting post to develop Lead Scotland Befriending Services to take forward our strategic ambition.

The successful applicant will:

1. Work with the management team to extend our local projects and explore wider coverage of services.
2. Lead the development of:
   1. High-quality befriending opportunities, with links to our Learning Service.
   2. Online volunteer training resources/programmes.
3. Enable more disabled people and carers to engage with befriending services which lead to a range of positive outcomes, including positive transition into learning services where appropriate.
4. Manage befriending projects, contracts, and partnerships.
5. Home-based in Fife to ensure close contact with our existing Befriending Services.

This post will suit someone who is passionate about the power of befriending services to reduce loneliness and isolation, and who has a track record of successfully managing people and projects.

You will need very good digital skills and excellent communication skills to balance a busy workload, supporting our strategic growth agenda and creating the conditions for staff and volunteers to flourish.

This post is home-based, with remote working generally focused on administrative aspects as there will be a significant element of leading the service through in-person partnership networking and team support/development. A satisfactory PVG will be required. Lead Scotland has a Recruiting People with Convictions Policy.

Lead has Disability Confident status, and we encourage applications from disabled people. All disabled people meeting the minimum requirements will get a guaranteed interview. Information about our commitment to recruit disabled people is available on our website. If you would like to be considered under this scheme, please indicate this on your covering letter. This will in no way disadvantage you in the recruitment process. All job application information can be made in alternative formats on request including braille, large print and audio and people can make applications in alternative formats. Recruitment paperwork is kept for 6 months before it is destroyed. Please complete our anonymous equal opportunities form to help us ensure we are attracting a broad range of candidates.

Kidscene is an after school and holiday club for children from the schools in the Morningside area, children from the Royal Blind School and who have additional support needs as well as a vision impairment.

We ensure all the children who attend Kidscene feel safe and included. We encourage the children to choose from an array of interesting activities. We provide a safe, quality play and care club, within the framework of the club’s policies and procedures.

In this role you will start the day with the team having a 5-minute meeting to discuss what the plans are for the day, you will then head out to the surrounding schools to collect the children from their teachers. Once you are back at the club, its snack time then the children go off to play. Staff will assist the children and young people throughout the session as they head off to various areas within the site. Towards the end of the day, you will greet parents and carer’s as they come in to collect the children and take on duties to help with the clean and preparation for the next day.

Within this role you will be able to take part in training courses such as emergency first aid, gastrostomy, manual handling, epilepsy and safeguarding both online through the LearnPro portal and in person.

You will also have supervisions and development discussions for the purpose of helping you to progress in your role.

We are looking for a motivated and enthusiastic person who can assist with the planning and delivery of play opportunities, provide comprehensive care for the children, provide snacks and refreshments whilst ensuring health and safety and hygiene standards are met, assist children with personal care, administer first aid, supporting and implementing good communication within the team and other colleagues within the organisation as well as parents and outside agencies, help with club administration and keeping the work environment healthy, safe and secure.

• Have an appropriate SVQ Level 2 or equivalent qualification, as per SSSC requirements or willingness to work towards
• Be registered or in a position to register with the SSSC
• Understand the varied needs of children and their families
• Have experience of working with children and be willing to learn new skills in relation to working with children with additional support needs and vision impairment
• Have an understanding of the issues involved in the delivery of quality play care for all children including those with additional support needs
• Provide and facilitate safe and creative play
• Have the ability to adapt to change and respond positively to non-routine situations
• Have good communication skills
• Be able to work as part of a team
• Undertake appropriate and relevant training
• Have an understanding of the issues of equal opportunities

Disclosure and PVG are required for this role.

Working in Care and Support Services

Would you like to make a difference to a person’s quality of life? Would you like to learn BSL while being paid? We are looking for caring and motivated staff to support deaf BSL users to join our team. Could that be you?

Who are we?

Deaf Action is a deaf-led charity, supporting and celebrating deaf people. We were established in 1835 and work with deaf people across Scotland and the South of England. Our work is geared towards empowering all deaf people to achieve their potential and fully participate in society, with equality of rights, access, and opportunity.

You can find out more about us at deafaction.org.

About you

We are looking for people who are caring, fun, motivated, willing to learn and show initiative. The people we support want our team to be friendly, reliable and practical.

If you have experience in supporting people in their own homes, tenancies, or a care home setting, that is beneficial. If you do not, we can provide training. We always provide on the job and formal training, and our workers often go on to complete formal qualifications in social care. If you already have knowledge of BSL that is a bonus, however we can provide training if you do not.

The ideal candidates will be fully committed to our values, which can be found on our website.

The role

We have varied roles within our Care and Support Services such as Care at Home support worker, Outreach Support worker in our services in Edinburgh, the Lothians and Glasgow; as well as Care and ancillary positions at our Care Home at Isle of Wight.

You will be delivering a person-centred service supporting deaf people within our services. This will enable them to fully participate in the decisions affecting their lives, ensuring that wherever possible, service users benefit from informed choice, control, and independence. This will include both activities in the care home, in their own home and within the community which will promote independence and social inclusion.

What do we offer?

• Living Wage Employer - £12 per hour
• Occupational pension scheme with employer contributions
• Generous annual leave entitlement
• 24/7 access to an Employee Assistance Programme provided by Health Assured. Access to the Cycle to Work Scheme and IT Voucher Scheme
• Ongoing support for learning and development through our PDR process
• Training to learn British Sign Language at Level 1 and 2
• Death in service benefit.