Victim Support Scotland – Empowering People Affected by Crime.

We put victims and witnesses at the heart of everything we do so they are heard, have improved health and well-being, feel safer, more secure, and informed and that we are an effective organisation, that makes a lasting difference.

Who We Are

Victim Support Scotland provides support and information to people affected by crime and campaigns for victim and witness rights. Regardless of whether a crime has been reported, or when it happened, our services are free, confidential, and tailored to individuals’ needs.

Our vision is that people affected by crime – victims, witnesses, and their families – are treated with dignity and respect and are at the heart of the justice in Scotland. Our mission is to ensure that all those affected by crime receive high quality support that will help them to recover from their experiences. All our work is guided and underpinned by our six core principles of being engaging and compassionate; inclusive and accessible; person-centred; adaptive, flexible, and responsive; collaborative; and knowledgeable and skilled. Now is the time to join Victim Support Scotland, helping us work towards the ambitions of our 5-year plan: Empowering people affected by crime: VSS Strategy 2021-2026.

What is The Role

You will be reporting to Head of Service Delivery - National Programmes, you will lead the management, development and delivery of Victim Support Scotland’s National Support Centre operating 365 days a year. The National Support Centre provides a vital first point of contact for individuals affected by crime across Scotland. It is based in Glasgow and open 7 days per week 365 days per year. The service offers information, initial needs assessments, and trauma-informed support via telephone and webchat. It also manages all national referrals and is supported by a dedicated team of staff and volunteers. In this role, you will be responsible for ensuring the consistent delivery of a high-quality, trauma-sensitive service to victims and witnesses. You will oversee workforce planning for your area, ensuring that both staff and volunteers are well-supported, knowledgeable, and equipped to meet the needs of service users.

What You’ll Need to be Successful

We are looking for an experienced and transformational leader. Someone who will relish the opportunity to shape the delivery of the VSS vision and strategic priorities. An innovative thinker with strong communication skills and experience of partnership working. Evidence of Continuing Professional Development is essential. Someone who has a management qualification and has the ability to develop effective internal and external relationships and networks that enable the understanding and delivery of broad organisational goals.

If you are looking for a role with a purpose, where you can really make a difference, then this may be the role for you.

Salary band: £34,974 - £46,187 + on call allowance. Salary on appointment will normally be at the lower salary point, with progression subject to review - in line with VSS progression arrangements. A higher salary placing will only be considered in exceptional circumstances subject to experience demonstrated.

Further details of this role are available in the job description - National Support Centre Manager - Job Description

What we offer

When you work for Victim Support Scotland, your wellbeing is important to us. Not only do we offer an enhanced annual leave package of 39 days (pro-rata), but you will also have access to our free health cash plan which includes cover for you and your family across a range of benefits. This includes dental cover, access to a virtual GP, counselling, legal support and discounts on gym memberships, cinema tickets, retail and much more. In addition, we offer a generous pension, enhanced maternity and paternity pay and access to a credit union. Supporting employee development is important to us and we offer comprehensive learning and development opportunities.

Please note - This post will be subject to a PVG check.

About the Scottish Child Law Centre

We are a specialist hub protecting children’s rights in Scotland. We provide free legal advice about child law and children’s rights to promote equitable access to justice and specialist training which strengthens advocacy and sustainable support for the rights of the child. We also use evidence from our direct engagement and work with partners to influence long term change for children.

Importantly, we are the only specialist hub for all ages of children and across all areas of child-related Scots’ law. We are here for children, and those who care and support them, and all advice is provided by our qualified solicitors.

Many more children and families are struggling with complex issues in the backdrop of increasing poverty, and demand for our free legal advice has significantly increased. We also know from feedback that our specialist training is deeply valued in the current fast-moving children’s policy environment and as children’s rights are implemented.

The Scottish Child Law Centre’s vision is for ‘All children growing up in Scotland to have their rights respected, protected and fulfilled.’ To support that vision and the growing need, we have recently produced a communications strategy to raise our profile and further extend our reach, particularly targeting communities experiencing multiple breaches of their rights.

The Centre has been through a rapid transformation over the past few years with new, innovative services being set up to ensure that children and young people have knowledge of their rights and how to realise them. We will be opening an in-person free community law clinic in Govanhill in September to allow us to reach those children and families who need us most and provide tailored support to empower families to realise children’s rights. We will also be launching our Access to Justice Programme for secondary school students, which is a course that has been co-produced with the students of Bucksburn Academy. The course aims to coach young people on access to justice and will provide opportunities for young people to influence change in their communities.

About the Role

Are you an experienced communicator and passionate children’s rights advocate? If so, we’d love you to hear from you.

We are looking for a communications officer to drive forward the Scottish Child Law Centre’s communications and to further raise our external profile and demonstrate our impact.

Ideally, you will also have experience of children’s policy and/or have worked with children and young people. Public affairs experience would also be valuable.

We are a supportive, creative and dynamic team and this is a part-time post.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Taking a strategic approach to communications to communicate to a wide variety of audiences the Centre’s purpose and services
• Implementing the communications strategy for the Centre and specific projects such as our community clinic and schools project.
• Co-ordinating our forward communications planner to effectively raise our profile as a specialist hub protecting children’s rights in Scotland, and across a diversity of audiences and channels.
• Drafting content for all of the Centre’s communications to engage and support a wide range of audiences, and in line with our Message House and wider communications strategy. This will include letter/emails, social media messaging, graphics, leaflets, press releases, articles, blogs and newsletters.
• Attending team meetings and working closely with the team to best identify all activities, opportunities and issues to inform our forward communications.
• Regular liaison with the senior solicitor and director to discuss the child policy environment and provide communications campaign support where the Centre can support or influence change for children.
• Supporting the community advice clinics and wider work through inclusive and accessible communication materials. This includes a bank of case stories, educational materials, and in person and creative events to help people understand how the Centre’s services and knowledge of child law and children’s rights can support them.
• Monitoring and regularly refreshing the content of the Centre’s website, ensuring it is inclusive and accessible to a diversity of audiences.
• Drafting funding applications to support diversification of the Centre’s funding
• Leading on the shaping of creative social media campaigns across all channels, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok.
• Producing a quarterly online and print newsletter to keep our membership, partners and the wider public updated on the Centre’s work and impact.
• Designing online surveys to support the Centre’s evaluation and monitoring work.
• Responsibility for the Community Clinic’s monitoring and evaluation, through liaising with the administrator and solicitor regarding collection of data and using this to develop a narrative and writing funding reports and demonstrate the impact more widely
• Building the Centre’s media presence. This includes establishing a network of supportive print, broadcast and specialist media contacts, generating content for each, preparing quotes and supporting the team with media opportunities.
• Organising promotional events and materials, such as a Scottish Parliament exhibition/event and promotional stalls at related national conferences.
• Regularly reviewing and updating distribution lists for the Centre’s key communications.

Person specification

• Highly developed communication skills, written and oral, and an ability to provide complex legal information in a comprehensible way to children, young people and those for whom English is an additional language.
• Ability to liaise and work effectively in partnership with a wide range of partner organisations and funders.
• Ability to work independently and on own initiative, taking responsibility for delivering and reporting on set targets.
• Excellent IT skills and organisational skills.
• Graphic design skills to draft videos and images in our branding for social media.
• Clear understanding of how to gather evidence, monitoring and evaluation and how to communicate our impact to different audiences.
• Experience of drafting funding applications.
• Knowledge and understanding of how to engage children and young people through digital media.
• Excellent people skills with an ability to build positive and productive working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders.
• Monitoring of the communications budget line and that activities are delivered within budget.
• Monitoring and evaluation of communications activities to ensure a cycle of continuous improvement.

Aditi - Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Women’s Well-being Service

We are looking for Women’s Support Workers from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds to deliver direct practical support interventions for Sacro’s new Aditi Women’s Wellbeing Service in partnership with Multi Cultural Family Base (MCFB). You must have experience of cross-cultural work, be an effective communicator in English as well as in another language prevalent in Scotland’s Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities, highly organised and have effective casework management skills.

You will be responsible for delivering direct support and mentoring interventions to BAME women affected by domestic abuse and Honour-Based Violence (HBV) and for maintaining accurate case notes. You will operate within the Scottish Government’s Equally Safe Strategy as well as Sacro’s policies and procedures and will escalate any safety/well-being concerns around adult and child protection to the Service Co-ordinator/Service Manager. You will be responsible for monitoring women’s well-being throughout their journey within the service and for making appropriate follow-on referrals to relevant services. You will also be required to organise, deliver and participate in group community activities.

Membership of the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme is a requirement this post. We particularly welcome applicants from BAME communities for this post, and applicants must be female. Funded by the City of Edinburgh Council.