The Yard is an award-winning charity that runs adventure play services for children with disabilities and/or additional support needs and their families.

As a Facilities Assistant, you will work with the Office & Facilities Team delivering a wide range of functions, including cleaning, repairs and maintenance services.

You will be a key part of the team, carrying out minor building maintenance and repairs, assisting with cleaning, facilities, premises and office management and providing support to the Operations Team.

Working at The Yard

If you would like to work in a supportive and understanding work environment, ensuring that families feel valued and part of an inclusive community, we would love you to be part of our new team.

This job is for you if you have:

• Experience of facilities and premises management including carrying out minor repairs and general improvements
• Experience of health, safety and welfare in the workplace, including COSHH
• Experience of scheduled task planning and project management
• The ability to adapt to and understand the complexities around working in services for children with disabilities

Benefits: Holiday pay, training & development opportunities, life assurance, company pension, health care cash back plan, employee assistance programme, free uniform

Home-Start Renfrewshire and Inverclyde (HSRI) is an award winning, registered charity providing volunteer led, family centred, non-judgmental support to families with at least one child aged under five.

As a valued colleague joining our compassionate and forward-thinking team, you will be part of our vision of walking alongside families, offering early help, empowering families to build on existing strengths, to achieve better wellbeing outcomes for themselves and their children.

Main Responsibilities:

• Receiving referrals and assessing needs of families
• Introducing families to appropriate support
• Recruiting, selecting and training volunteers
• Matching and introducing volunteers to families
• Providing support, supervision and on-going training opportunities for volunteers
• Undertaking designated responsibilities to safeguard children’s welfare
• Ensuring equality of opportunity, fairness, inclusion and diversity in all aspects of our work
• Complying with the scheme’s administration, monitoring and financial systems
• Ensuring appropriate liaison with referrers and other professionals
• Contributing to and supporting the development of the Home-Start network

Location: Renfrewshire or Inverclyde, (please state preference upon application), with flexible working available

Who Cares? Scotland is Scotland’s only national independent membership organisation for Care Experienced people. Our mission is to secure a lifetime of equality, respect, and love for Care Experienced people in Scotland and we currently have over 3500 Care Experienced members.

At the heart of Who Cares? Scotland’s work are the rights of Care Experienced people, and the power of their voices to bring about positive change. We provide individual lifelong relationship-based independent advocacy and a broad range of imaginative participatory and engagement opportunities for Care Experienced people across Scotland. We work alongside Corporate Parents and communities to broaden understanding and create change. We work with policy makers, leaders, and elected representatives locally and nationally to shape law, policy, and practice, working together to build on the aspirations of The Promise and secure positive change.

This unique role offers the opportunity to listen to and work directly with children and young people with experience of care, in an individual relationship-based advocacy role, and within participation and group activity across our South East region.

The post-holder will be a key member of the Advocacy and Participation team, supporting young people from across East Lothian to ensure their rights are upheld and their voices are heard. In this role you will have the opportunity to provide independent advocacy, children’s rights, and participation opportunities for children and young people who are looked after, Care Experienced, or subject to formal processes and structures. The role will see you actively participating in child’s plan meetings, children’s hearings, and other formal processes, as well as assisting children and young people to prepare for them. In partnership with professionals, carers, and organisations, you will help to achieve the best outcomes for children and young people by keeping detailed records of the work you undertake, writing liaison reports, and monitoring statistics.

As a vital part of the work of Who Cares? Scotland, your role will include facilitating group opportunities for and with children and young people within East Lothian. This includes providing engagement and participation opportunities throughout the Who Cares? Scotland local and national network, as well as meeting with care experienced children and young people to introduce the service in agreement with the local authority. Raising awareness of Who Cares? Scotland and its services with children, young people, professionals, and carers you will also be responsible for facilitating training amongst care corporate parents.

The right candidate for this post will be able to form positive relationships with children and young people and have good interpersonal skills. You will feel confident communicating with individuals and groups, both in writing and verbally, and be able to adapt to a wide range of contexts. Secure in making effective plans, as well as evidencing your work, you can prioritise and meet deadlines. You take enjoyment from working collaboratively with partners, believing in equal opportunities and inclusive working. Committed to children’s rights, you are someone who knows that all young people can make transformative change happen in their lives if given the opportunity. You can demonstrate knowledge of the current structure, developments, policy, and practice in relation to children and young people experiencing care in Scotland. You are also flexible, given the remit of the role, as some evening and weekend work will be necessary, along with a full driving licence and access to transport.

While we would welcome the knowledge gathered through relevant qualifications, we are just as interested in relevant work experience. We welcome and encourage applications from those with experience of care.

The successful candidate will be joining Who Cares? Scotland and working within the South East team at an exciting time, when the voices of those who are in or have experienced care are growing in power, individually and collectively - bringing with them insight, challenge, hope and change.

Who Cares? Scotland is Scotland’s only national independent membership organisation for Care Experienced people. Our mission is to secure a lifetime of equality, respect, and love for Care Experienced people in Scotland.

At the heart of Who Cares? Scotland’s work are the rights of Care Experienced people, and the power of their voices to bring about positive change. We provide individual lifelong relationship-based independent advocacy and a broad range of imaginative participatory and engagement opportunities for Care Experienced people across Scotland. We work alongside Corporate Parents and communities to broaden understanding and create change. We work with policy makers, leaders, and elected representatives locally and nationally to shape law, policy and practice, working together to build on the aspirations of The Promise and secure positive change.

As Evidence & Impact Officer, you will help the organisation to evaluate its activities, demonstrate the impact they make, and continually learn from our work. You will contribute within the team to ensure we have the strong evidence and funding base needed to increase the reach of the organisation and work towards achieving our vision for Care Experienced people. Organising and leading consultative meetings, you will help to gather evidence on Advocacy & Participation Worker’s (APWs) experiences of the children’s hearings system (CHS). This will include co-facilitating the Advocacy Community of Practice around CHS. Your role will also see you assist in responding to requests for data and evidence drawn from our bespoke database and help to write evidence and impact reports for a range of audiences.

Coordinating with our team to provide accessible training for staff, alongside supporting the collating and analysing of data to underpin our policy priorities, you will work collaboratively to carry out goals for data reclassification and cleaning. As Evidence & Impact Officer, your position will afford the opportunity to learn how to share impact data accessibly, whilst working in a team improving and expanding the organisations’ digital skills and systems.

We offer flexible working, and the role will involve communication and contact with Care Experienced people and colleagues across Who Cares? Scotland, including dedicated volunteers. The right candidate for the role will therefore be committed to upholding Human and Children’s rights and believe that people can make transformative change happen in their lives if given the opportunity. You will be keen to develop your practice, take advantage of training opportunities and show commitment to building on your existing love for data.

As an individual with experience of data analysis, as well as with Microsoft Office systems, CRMs/databases and programmes such as Canva, you possess a strong attention to detail and tend towards number crunching. Able to work collaboratively, with young people and teams, you may also have helped to facilitate focus groups in the past. With demonstrable knowledge of social science research, you are a clear communicator with the desire to gain experience in a third sector organisation.

While we would welcome the knowledge gathered through relevant qualifications, such as a recent degree in Psychology or a social science, we are just as interested in relevant work experience. We welcome and encourage applications from those with experience of care.