We are recruiting a dedicated and compassionate Young Carers Pathways Coordinator, to lead the delivery of a vital mentoring initiative supporting young carers aged 12-20 across Aberdeen.

About the role:

The Pathways Coordinator will work at the heart of a collaborative effort between MCR Pathways, the Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership, and all members of the Carers Strategy Implementation Group to identify, engage and empower young carers, particularly those currently hidden from formal support. Through strong partnerships, trauma-informed practice and community-based outreach, the Coordinator will build trusted relationships with young carers, facilitate group and one-to-one sessions and support consistent, life-changing mentor matches that help young people thrive emotionally, socially, and in their education and future pathways.

Key responsibilities:

• Adapt and test the MCR mentoring model for young carers outside of school settings, developing clear methods, structures, and protocols based on a strengths-based and trauma-informed approach.
• Identify, connect with and build trusted relationships with young carers and their families, while also developing and growing new relationships with private, voluntary and statutory organisations to establish effective referral routes.
• Plan and deliver the mentoring programme, customising it to meet young carers' needs and clearly documenting what works and what doesn't.
• Undertake stakeholder engagement activities to develop non-stigmatised referral methods, manage incoming referrals and provide pastoral support to young carers.
• Drive mentor recruitment, deliver effective inductions and core mentor training, and provide ongoing support and development to mentors.
• Maintain accurate programme and quality assurance records, including data on MCR's database and contribute to performance reports and case studies.
• Proactively contribute to securing key performance targets, feed back programme improvement strategies and participate in team and training meetings.

About you:

• Exceptional ability to build meaningful relationships with young people, education colleagues, volunteer mentors, key partners and local employers
• Awareness and understanding of the principles of safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults
• Ability and confidence to present programme information and deliver prepared training sessions to groups
• Ability to work well on own initiative, as part of a team and on a flexible basis in response to young person and organisational need
• An understanding of the challenges and barriers that care-experienced and/or vulnerable young people and young adults may encounter
• Experience or a knowledge of processes to document and evidence good practice and positive outcomes.

You may have experience as a Youth, Community or Advice Worker. You will be an empathetic person who is open minded, non-judgemental, resilient and who is driven to improve outcomes for care experienced and other vulnerable young people.

About MCR Pathways:

MCR Pathways is an award-winning charity established in Glasgow in 2007. Our mentoring programme is now delivered in schools across the whole of Scotland. Our passionate team is dedicated to helping the most vulnerable young people gain self-confidence, identify their skills and recognise and fulfil their potential. Our vision is for all young people to experience equality of education outcomes, career opportunities and life chances. Our in-school mentoring has profound impacts on school pupils in their confidence, wellbeing, achievement and post-school progression.

We are thrilled to be working with Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership and the Carers Strategy Implementation Group on this new initiative focusing on matching young carers with mentors. MCR Mentors are volunteers who make and experience a life-changing difference. You will be joining a friendly and supportive team who love what they do and enjoy working with each other. We model our values and many of us are also mentors ourselves.

Benefits of working for MCR Pathways include: 33 days annual leave in first year rising to 38 days from 2nd year of employment, additional day off for your birthday, Living Pensions Employer, Life Assurance - 4 x salary.

A fantastic opportunity to come and join the Children First team in Giffnock

This is an exciting opportunity to join an innovative partnership between Children 1st and East Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership.

Over the past number years, in partnership with East Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership, we have developed a variety of responsive and dynamic support offers which align to the needs of families.

We adopt a relational and restorative approach which helps families to strengthen relationships and reduce emotional distress. Placing the voice of children, young people and their families at the centre of the support, the team provide intensive and collaborative whole family support; focusing on highlighting the resilience of families and responding to their individual needs.

We invest in reflective and trauma-sensitive practice which guides workers to develop a relationship with family members characterised by trust, respect, honesty, compassion and an open communication where families can then be linked with community-based networks of support.

The East Renfrewshire Service offers support to help improve the emotional wellbeing of children and young people aged 8-18, and their families.

We are currently looking for a new colleague to join the team in a temporary role. In the role of Project Worker, you will connect with children and their families who are looking for help and support; offering them space and time to begin to share their story and thinking with them about what they might need to help things feel better.

We offer a range of different supports for children and families, including individual and family support; facilitated and peer led group supports and befriending relationships. This is an exciting yet demanding role which will require you to get alongside children and their families where, when and how best suits them. We want to be able to offer children and families the right support at the right time.

What kind of people are we looking for?

• Experience of keeping children safe in their own families
• Extensive experience of working alongside and together with children and families impacted by trauma and adversity, with a lens on the promotion of long-term recovery
• Experience of providing support to children and families, with confidence, in a trauma sensitive and systemic way
• Experience and understanding of relational and restorative approaches to practice
• Curious, responsive, flexible and courageous in your relationships with children and families, and colleagues in other services
• Fiercely passionate about Children’s Human Rights
• Shares our belief that it’s a privilege to get alongside children and families to help life feel better for them
• Confident and competent communicators who can work autonomously in a fast paced, demanding role

What kind of Children First team member will you be?

Knowing our ambition for children, you will be someone who is:

• Resilient, skilled and knowledgeable, who wants to transform children’s lives
• Determined to support children to stay safely with their own family
• Big hearted and courageous
• Able to build strong relationships and to manage difficult conversations
• Calm and clear minded during times of challenge or distress
• Kind and compassionate
• Able to demonstrate Children First's core values of working with love, with purpose and with strength

If you have a professional qualification in a relevant area such as Social Work, Health, Teaching or equivalent in Child Care/Social Care or related area, accredited counselling qualification, or other relevant qualification at SCQF level 9 or higher then we want to hear from you. In particular, we are seeking to further enhance our diversity from the perspective of ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender and disability.

Base

Your base will be in Giffnock alongside time spent meeting young people and their families in their local community; with the option for occasional home working.

Salary, Conditions, Pension

We will offer you a competitive salary, generous annual leave entitlement (40 days inclusive of 7 public holidays), flexible working opportunities and a contributory pension scheme. We also have a cash healthcare plan, cycle to work scheme and access to a credit union.

Further Information

1 fixed term, part time post of 21 hours per week funded until 31 March 2026

Hours to be worked flexibly across the week to meet the needs of families and the service. Our 21-hour post is anticipated to be delivered across 3 days, although this is negotiable and equally flexible to meet the needs of families. Furthermore, there is an expectation to work Wednesdays which is seen as our ‘core day’ when essential service activities take place such as team meetings.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of the role before applying, please contact – eastrenfws@children1st.org.uk

Barnardo's Threads Service is partnership with Renfrewshire Social Work is recruiting a Project Worker 2 for our Early Help Service.

This role has been created to provide an alternative to social work intervention for families who are experiencing difficulties which without support, might escalate to require statutory involvement.

Early Help Project Workers will take a strengths-based approach to their work with families, working in partnership to identify and develop strengths and protective factors. Practitioners will focus on achieving:

• More positive family relationships
• Improved family functioning
• More effective parenting
• Improved health and wellbeing for children, young people and parents/carers
• Reduced social isolation and better connections within the local community
• Better connecting families to other sources of community support.

The project worker will have a good knowledge and understanding of the wider supports available from voluntary and community-based organisations and will refer families to these supports where appropriate. This will maximise family engagement with long term community-based support available to them within their local area.

The role activities include assessing and planning, parenting and family support. Outcomes include Improved Family Wellbeing, Reduced Isolation and Community connectedness.

Pay & Reward Framework

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.

Benefits

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

The world of work has changed. We are understanding of what works best for our colleagues both current and future as we look to embrace this new way of working. Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or any combination of these.

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

About Barnardo's

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

Our basis and values