A unique leadership chance to shape wellbeing and protection across Scottish sport

At Children First our ambition is for every child in Scotland to be safe, loved and well with their family. As a charity we offer emotional, practical, and financial support to help families to put children first and campaign to uphold the rights of every child.

This is an exciting opportunity to lead the development of a recently established, national service which supports Scottish governing bodies of sport (SGBs) to effectively manage wellbeing and protection concerns for all who participate in sport. The service is being established through a strategic partnership between sportscotland, Children First and SGBs.

We are looking for a skilled and confident leader to lead the strategic development of the service. As the Service Manager, you will provide professional strategic leadership and direction of the service and manage the team’s partnership with SGBs to:

support their management of wellbeing and protection concerns and investigations in a timely and appropriate manner.

build the knowledge, skills and confidence of SGB staff through training, mentoring and directed learning.

facilitate the development of resources including practice guidance, tools and templates that support SGBs’ case management of wellbeing and protection concerns.

What kind of person will make a great Service Manager for the Case Management Support Service?

• resilient, skilled, strategic leader who can shape and build a new service in response to identified needs.
• able to inspire and motivate team members providing leadership, guidance and emotionally-intelligent support.
• ability to lead and work collaboratively with partner agencies to maintain momentum, effective planning and open communication.
• have an excellent understanding of wellbeing and protection for both children and adults.
• have effective organisational skills and an ability to respond to complex and changing situations.
• is a strong communicator who values a collaborative approach.
• is passionate about human rights.

If you have the above and possess a professional qualification and experience from an appropriate sector, such as social work, law, human resources or sports governance, we would be delighted to hear from you.

Base

You will work flexibly at home with a periodic requirement to attend meetings at our offices and those of our partners across central Scotland.

Salary, Conditions, Pension

We will offer you a competitive salary, generous annual leave entitlement (40 days inclusive of 9 public holidays, pro rata), flexible working opportunities and a contributory pension scheme. Additionally, we offer further benefits such as a cash-back healthcare plan, cycle to work scheme and option to join a Credit Union.

Hours

This is a fixed term, full time post of 35 hours per week funded until May 2027.

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 1940 and since then we have been at the forefront of shaping policy and services in Scotland, that support single parents and their children. Today, there are over 144,000 single parent families in Scotland, 25% of all families. We involve parents, champion their voices and keep their needs at the heart of everything we do.

We want a society in which single parent families are treated equally and fairly. To help achieve this we provide a range of single parent tailored services. We do this through our advice channels, self-help pages on our website and our local community-based services. To create lasting change we involve single parents, experts by experience, to influence policies which challenge discrimination and judgmental attitudes, which will reduce child poverty and make services more accessible to all families.

The Policy and Influencing Lead will play a key role in supporting OPFS to achieve its mission – to amplify the voices of single parent families in their unique role as sole carers and providers and together challenge judgemental attitudes, poverty and inequality to achieve change.

You will have a central role leading OPFS policy and influencing work, including:

• Leading on government and parliamentary focused engagement work – and to support single parent led and developed campaigns.
• Developing strong policy recommendations co-produced with single parents across the range of issues affecting single parent families.
• Utilising existing research of relevance to single parent families to support OPFS’s external messaging and forward planning.
• Developing impactful policy influencing strategies to improve the lives of single parents, by influencing the Scottish and UK Governments as well as local authorities and the general public to achieve change.
• Working collaboratively with OPFS Comms team and colleagues and stakeholders to disseminate OPFS policy and research activities.

All roles at OPFS contribute to our mission of working with and for single parent families, providing support that enables them to achieve their potential and helping to create lasting solutions to poverty and barriers facing single parents and their children. Our core values of Justice, Equity, Trust, Collaboration and Compassion are at the heart of everything we do and underpin all aspects of our work.

Equal opportunities and family friendly employment

• OPFS aims to be an equal opportunity and family friendly employer and flexible working requests will be considered. OPFS has Investors In People status and Living Wage accreditation.

Are you an expert in IT, Infrastructure and system security? Are you looking for that next step in your career? If so, reach your full potential and join Quarriers as our IT Operations and Security Manager!

Your new opportunity

Quarriers have a rare and exciting opportunity for an IT Operations and Security Manager to lead and drive the vision of our state-of-the-art technology and systems across multiple services. You will be responsible for high quality delivery, autonomy over design, implementation and management of a small team of IT professionals.

As a key player within the IT team, you will work at a strategic level alongside the Head of IT ensuring that both user needs and organisational objectives are met. You will be responsible for the delivery and implementation of current and future IT needs while aligning various aspects of IT support Scotland wide.

If you are looking for an IT role with a difference, where your technical knowledge and skills directly support staff and the people, we support then this is the perfect opportunity for you!

This is a full-time permanent role working 35 hours per week in line with our agile working policy, which blends home-working with office time and service visits.

What you will need to bring to the role

• Qualified to degree level or relevant equivalent experience.
• Extensive knowledge of infrastructure implementation and support, including Networking, Telephony and Storage.
• Proven experience and knowledge of managing IT systems and packages including Microsoft Technology stack (O365, Azure, Intune)
• Responsibility for implementing and maintaining Cyber Security systems, processes and Accreditation (Cyber Essentials Plus)
• Be forward thinking in applying new technologies into our support and medical services, like AI, Applied technology and IOT
• Excellent problem solver who can work to strict deadlines.
• Ability to manage business relationships effectively and deliver positive outcomes.
• Excellent IT, analytical and strategic planning skills.
• Experience of leading a team of IT professionals.

What you will get in return

• Substantial holiday entitlement.
• Generous workplace pension.
• Family-friendly working policies and procedures.
• Life Assurance.
• Wider benefits including our Employee Assistance Programme, free physiotherapy & occupational health support.

Quarriers have Investors in People Platinum accreditation and are a Scottish Living Wage Employer

About Us

Quarriers is one of Scotland’s leading social care charities. We provide practical care and support for vulnerable children, adults and families who face extremely challenging circumstances. We challenge poverty and inequality of opportunity to bring about positive changes in people’s lives.