Every day people with chest, heart and stroke conditions are leaving hospital scared and alone. You can be part of our mission to make sure that there is no life half lived in Scotland.

By joining Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland (CHSS) as a Supported Self Management Training Facilitator, you can be the difference between people just surviving and really living.

You will be part of Scotland’s leading charity providing support to people with chest, heart and stroke conditions to live life to the full again. Our Community Healthcare Support Services form a nationwide network of local services, including our Supported Self-Management programme, community support groups, nurses, volunteers and one-to-one support teams helping families adjust to life with a heart or lung condition or after a stroke.

We are looking for a Supported Self Management Training Facilitator to join our amazing team in the Lothian area. This role is focused on making sure that people affected by chest, heart and stroke conditions have access to our evidence-based Chronic Disease Supported Self Management programme, enabling people with our conditions to live with, and beyond, their new reality.

Through delivering our Supported Self Management programme, you will support people to develop the skills, knowledge and tools to confidently self manage their health condition and live as independently as possible. You’ll also help people to get back to doing the things that are important to them – from simple things like walking to their local shop following a stroke, to returning to a sky-high hobby of gliding!

You will co-facilitate the delivery of our 6-week Chronic Disease Self Management workshops with another trained facilitator and line manage any volunteers who support the delivery of these sessions. You will lead and motivate participants within a group setting to take control of their lives in a positive way, raising their confidence and empowering them to develop the skills to set and achieve goals, make strong and supportive connections with their workshop peers and make meaningful changes to their lifestyle to support their ongoing self management journey.

Candidates don’t need to have medical knowledge, or previous experience as a Chronic Disease Supported Self Management Facilitator, as full training is provided. We are looking for someone with a positive attitude towards people with disabilities and long-term conditions and an understanding of the challenges faced by people with chest, heart and stroke conditions and Long Covid. You should have excellent communication and interpersonal skills and an ability to engage with others confidently and deliver key information, clearly.

At Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, our mission is to ensure there’s No Life Half Lived in Scotland – and you can be a vital part of that. We are Scotland’s leading organisation for person-centred, user-led community support for people with our health conditions.

Applicants must have a car and a current valid driving licence (expenses are paid at mileage rate).

CHSS also supports flexible recruitment through Working Families and we are “Happy to Talk Flexible Working”.

In line with our commitment to safeguarding, this role is subject to a PVG check. CHSS is committed to equality of opportunity and to providing a service which is free from unfair and unlawful discrimination. We therefore aim to ensure that no applicant, volunteer or member of staff is unfairly treated on the grounds of offending background.

About Starcatchers

We champion exceptional, innovative arts and creative experiences for our youngest children, those aged from birth to 5 years old and their parents and carers. The voice, needs and interests of this audience are at the heart of all our activity, providing inspiration and provocation in the development of projects and programmes. Our work is created by highly specialist artists who are attuned to the requirements of making work for and with this unique age group. Supported by nearly 20 years of high-quality work, evidenced through research and evaluation, Starcatchers is recognised around the world as being at the forefront of artistic practice for Early Years.

Primary Purpose

This is a new role within a refreshed Starcatchers Staff Team for 2025/26 and beyond. The post-holder will be pivotal in the development of our Community Engagement activity leading on the implementation of this work, supporting the specialist Starcatchers Artists who lead on delivery, nurturing existing and seeding new relationships within communities and securing funding to sustain activity moving forward.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities

Community Engagement

• To lead on the development and delivery of all Starcatchers' Community Engagement activity including current programmes
• Seed new activities in line with organisational priorities
• To ensure the implementation of a continuous improvement framework within the team
• To ensure the principles of Starcatchers Voice of the Baby research are embedded and reflected in artistic practice
• To ensure the participation of the babies, young children, parents and carers who engage in Starcatchers activity is evident in all aspects of service delivery
• To develop and maintain relationships with partners to support the delivery andpotential future development of project activity
• To oversee the implementation of research and evaluation surveys across all Community Engagement activity and provide feedback and figures for reporting,evaluation and development purposes
• To manage the Community Engagement budgets and ensure delegated budgets operate within organisational monitoring and reporting arrangements.
• To regularly attend Community Engagement sessions and provide support to delivery staff
• To ensure the Health & Safety policy is implemented in accordance with best practice and all activity is planned to include risk-assessment and compliance with Health and Safety and event management regulations
• To ensure the effective implementation of Starcatchers policies and procedures
• To provide line management support to the Community Engagement Artists

Fundraising

• To identify and apply for funding for Community Engagement programmes, both existing and new initiatives
• To support or lead on reporting to funders as required

General

• To play an active role in the strategic development of Starcatchers as a member of the Management Team
• To fully participate in company meetings and events as required
• To contribute to the on-going fundraising of the organisation as required
• To attend relevant training as and when requiredTo positively represent Starcatchers at eventsAny other duties appropriate to the post and organisation

Our vision is that our youngest children, those aged birth-5, fulfil their right to access arts and creative experiences that give inspiration, joy and wonder to early childhood in Scotland. Our mission is to inspire babies, toddlers and young children by including them in high quality live performances and creative experiences that fulfil their right to access a rich arts and cultural life in Scotland regardless of where they live or their background. Starcatchers offers innovative, beautiful, collaborative arts and creative experiences that babies, toddlers and young children aged birth-5 can share with their parents and carers.Engaging with and participating in these activities brings joy and wonder, fostering the understanding that very young children are creative agents with their own capabilities and voices. Placing the child’s voice at the heart of everything we do also means looking after things that are central to children’s wellbeing. This means making strong choices to actively support diversity and inclusion so that all babies can grow up in a more equal and just society. It also means a commitment to climate action, carbon reduction and new models of sustainable working. Starcatchers was founded to provide our youngest children with the opportunity to experience theatre and the arts. Integral to that was the belief that all children,regardless of their age and stage of development, have a right to access arts and cultural life as outlined in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child(UNCRC).This belief is unwavering. As Scotland incorporates the UNCRC into domestic law, our resolve to ensure that all our youngest children have access to age-appropriate, quality arts and cultural experiences is reinforced.We believe that Scotland should be the best place in the world to grow up and that Starcatchers, as the National Arts and Early Years Organisation, has an integral role to play in achieving this goal.

Starcatchers General Manager - Primary Purpose

To support the strategic development of the organisation, whilst managing the day-to-day organisational, administrative and financial systems to ensure the smooth operation of company activity.