Change Mental Health is a leading national mental health charity providing unique support to people with severe and enduring mental ill health. With over 50 years’ experience across Scotland, we believe people affected by poor mental health and illness deserve the highest quality of support in the community and that every person has the right to be valued and to share in the opportunities, challenges, and joys of everyday life.

About the Position

Our Policy and Public Affairs Officer connects with and influences politicians and senior decision makers to make society better for people who have mental health challenges, have mental illness and their families. They shall manage projects that shall lead to improvements in support for those with poor mental health.

Key Responsibilities

In this critical role you will work closely with the Director of Public Affairs and Communications to develop and implement a policy and influencing strategy to ensure that the voices of people we support, and their families are heard in all the places they need to be. You will manage projects related to mental health and provide reports.

You will build powerful relationships with politicians, civil servants and partners and feel comfortable representing the organisation at a range of different stakeholder events. You will love policy and public affairs, enjoy mastering details and offering sound advice. You will respond on behalf of the organisation to consultations and events and will be comfortable doing lots of reading and writing. You will enjoy building powerful and meaningful relationships.

Full job description available below.

The Mental Health Foundation is recruiting for a Campaigns & Public Affairs Officer to support the VOX organisation based at our Glasgow office.

VOX was founded in 2006 and is funded by the Scottish Government. We are a company limited by guarantee and a Scottish charity registered with OSCR.

VOX is hosted by Mental Health Foundation (Scotland). This means that our staff are employees of MHF and are based within its Glasgow offices. But our policies and priorities are set by VOX’s elected Board of Directors.

This exciting role will include day to day management of a portfolio of campaigning and public affairs work, including occasional specific projects, and engagement with external stakeholders to pursue the organisation’s policy objectives and help to achieve policy changes at a national and local level. We would like this role to really step up our political influence and presence with contacts in the Scottish Parliament.

What skills, knowledge and experience are we looking for?

• A strong understanding of the political landscape and parliamentary and governmental processes and confidence to influence parliament and civil servants to achieve policy / legislative change

• Skilled in developing and sustaining partnerships with diverse organisations and individuals across the political spectrum

• Experience of working with the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government

Safeguarding is Everyone’s business – Mental Health Foundation is committed to safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing of all its beneficiaries, those who surround them, its staff, volunteers, and anyone else who comes into contact with its services and expects all trustees, staff, and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful applicant will be subject to appropriate vetting procedures (proof of eligibility to work in the UK, proof of residency and satisfactory employment screening, including a Disclosure check and two most recent references) along with 3-year renewals of Disclosure checks. We are unable to provide sponsorship for this post, you must be able to demonstrate your eligibility to work in the UK.

“Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another and feeling the heart of another”

Alfred Adler

| Compassion | Integrity | Respect | Realising Potential | Inclusion |

Health in Mind is one of Scotland’s best-known and trusted Mental Health Charities. Established in 1982 we have evolved in response to need which means we actively promote positive mental health in local communities across Scotland. Our vision is straight forward, we build hope and live life through our values because people are at the heart of what we do.

We have a great opportunity for an enthusiastic advocate and supporter of peer support and mutual aid. We are looking for an enthusiastic and experienced practitioner who has lived experience of managing own wellbeing, access to mental health services or experience of childhood trauma.

Future Pathways offers support to people who were abused or neglected a child when they were in the Scottish care system. The service was established alongside the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry and has expanded considerably since its start in 2016. Future Pathways’ aim is to help people live well. To change paths, enjoy life, succeed and grow.

Reaching our shortlist is straightforward providing you can say ‘yes’ to our list of ‘must haves’. You can start your journey now by simply directly asking for an information pack and application but before you start your travels, please kindly make sure the following ‘fits’ into your career and personal attributions rucksack because life is a journey.

• We’d like a degree in Health and Social Care, Social Work or equivalent but, if you hold a recognised, relevant professional qualification at a minimum SVQ Level 4 with relevant workplace experience this works too.
• Up to date child and vulnerable adult protection knowledge together and ideally completion of suicide prevention training such as ASIST.
• You are an exceptional compassionate individual with experience of working with those in society who’ve faced personal challenges, childhood disturbance, abuse, separation, institutional care and trauma
• Curiosity, empathy and a focus on learning, empowerment, collaboration and self- awareness.
• Worked with staff in accordance with the statutory framework and requirement including GDPR, BACP, the SSSC and the Care Inspectorate.

With a great range of benefits including 30 days annual leave plus 10 public holidays and 2 wellbeing days we work fulltime 36.25 hours per week. The salary scale for this post is Point 39 to 43 (£37,716 to £41,729).

Committed to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, we embrace and encourage people from all walks of life, including welcoming applications from Neurodiverse individuals. It is important to us that you feel comfortable and confident and, as such, we are willing to adjust or adapt our application, interview and selection process to suit your needs, including working patterns and hybrid working wherever and whenever we can. Simply contact us and we’ll come back to you.

This role does, however, require periodic but not continuous office presence.

If you are looking for a rewarding career and to work within an epic team that will help you grow and thrive, then you have come to the right place. Working with us, you can start your day knowing what you do really does make a difference!

Our Innovation and Improvement Team oversees a range of our quality processes, evaluation systems and practice and learning and development. We’re looking for a Quality and Improvement Manager to join our team consisting of:

Head of Innovation and Improvement

Practice Development Manager

Learning and Development Manager

Impact and Evaluation Lead

If you are looking for a new challenge, then Penumbra may be for you.

Penumbra is one of Scotland’s leading mental health charities, providing a wide range of community based and recovery focussed mental health services. We’re proud pioneers in the peer movement, with 27% of our colleagues employed in peer support roles. Our creative and forward-thinking approach to mental health recovery has earned us the reputation as a key influencer in public campaigning, policy and practice, and a highly respected provider of high quality and innovative mental health recovery services.

As our Quality and Improvement Manager, you will support our services to gather the data and evidence they need to understand both areas of strength, and of challenges, and to create development plans based on this evidence. A key focus will be leading and managing our Quality Assurance Framework. Substantially revised and relaunched in 2023 with a brand new digital resource, this approach allows our services to self-assess against our strategic priorities and core quality areas, combined with objective review by the Quality and Improvement Manager. Other key responsibilities are the oversight of our operational policies and acting as Penumbra’s Data Protection Officer.

You truly will have the ability to influence what we do, developing and implementing your ideas to demonstrate what you can achieve, which will make a difference to the people we support.

As a mental health charity, we really value the wellbeing of our staff. That’s why we want you to know that you’ll be joining a friendly team, who will give you a supportive environment to help you thrive in your role, including all the training you need to feel confident and equipped.

We can offer you a tonne of employee benefits, and we can promise you’ll be inspired by some pretty amazing humans every single day. We will support you on your own career path; developing new skills, accessing formal and informal learning experiences and providing opportunities to put your continual progress into practice.

For more information, including full job description and application/interview guidance, please download our recruitment pack.

We cannot consider CV’s – all applications should go through the application process on our website. Only applications completed through our website will be considered. If you are unable to complete an online application, please contact us at recruitment@penumbra.org.uk and we can arrange for a paper copy to be sent out to you.

Please note that unfortunately we cannot offer visa sponsorship. We can only accept applications from applicants who currently have the legal right to work in the UK, or applicants who have already have an application in progress to obtain the legal right to work in the UK.