VOCAL – Voice of Carers Across Lothian is seeking an enthusiastic and experienced Carer Support Practitioner to join its busy team, providing high quality casework support to unpaid carers across Midlothian.

The post holder will work directly with unpaid carers to deliver person centred, outcomes focused support, helping them to navigate their caring situation and access appropriate support for their health and wellbeing, personal development, and wider life goals.

VOCAL is a carer led organisation that delivers a wide range of services to support unpaid carers in their caring role. The successful candidate will work collaboratively as part of a team, contribute to improving outcomes for carers, and actively promote and maximise engagement with VOCAL services.

Applicants will demonstrate:

• excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• experience of casework and person centred support
• a strong understanding of the diverse nature of caring roles, the impact of caring on people’s lives, and the barriers carers may face at different stages of the caring journey

A sound working knowledge of health and social care is essential, alongside a good understanding of how the statutory, voluntary and private sectors operate. The role also requires the ability to build effective, outcome focused relationships with other agencies and professionals to support carers holistically.

Carers of East Lothian is a values driven local charity making a real impact in the community supporting adults who care for family and friends. We have an excellent reputation, recently gaining recognition through the Carers Trust ‘Excellence for Carers’ Award and have recently secured the contract to deliver adult carer services across East Lothian for an initial two-year period and a total period of up to six years, to 2031. We are a Carer Positive Exemplary employer, as well as being Disability Confident Committed and a Living Wage employer.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and supervise Carer Support Workers and the Welfare Rights Coordinator.
• Support staff to manage caseloads effectively and provide guidance on complex cases.
• Triage new referrals and prioritise carers most in need.
• Allocate caseloads and monitor workload across the team.
• Support staff development through training, mentoring, and continuous improvement.
• Monitor and audit case files to ensure accuracy, timeliness, and compliance with safeguarding and data protection standards.
• Implement quality assurance processes and address gaps in service delivery.
• Ensure adherence to organisational policies and best practice guidelines.
• Represent carers’ needs in local and national forums.
• Track team performance against KPIs and service targets.
• Produce reports on caseload management, service outcomes, and team effectiveness.
• Identify trends and recommend service improvements.
• Ensure staff follow HR policies and organisational guidelines.
• Build strong relationships with health, social care, and voluntary sector partners.
• Represent the organisation at meetings and advocate for carers.
• Contribute to service improvement projects and strategic planning.
• Work closely with the Innovation & Improvement Manager to promote best practice.
• Ensure accurate and timely recording for monitoring, evaluation and reporting.
• Maintain high standards of confidentiality and data protection.
• Follow CoEL policies including safeguarding and lone working.
• Participate in staff meetings and organisational development activities.

About The Carers Hub

Glasgow East End Community Carers is a registered charity which provides support to carers in the East End of Glasgow. The organisation has 2 areas of operation;

• The Carers Hub (an independent Carers Centre)
• Homecare Service - operates as a social enterprise.

The Carers Hub provides ongoing support to carers via a range of services, activities and support.

About Play-Sense

Our Play-Sense play group is a group for parents and their pre-school children with disabilities. The group runs weekly for 2 hours in a safe, fun environment where both parents and their children will benefit from increased communication and play, being with others in a similar situation and parents will get a break from full-on caring.

The Play-Sense group has been appreciated by parents who have told us that their children enjoy our messy play, sensory art and music sessions and benefit from our sensory room which they have access to during the play group time.

Who Comes to Play-Sense?

Parents and their pre-school children who have a range of disabilities or additional needs including several who are autism.

Our group has also previously been attended by those who are asylum seekers and from a range of different nationalities including African, Chinese, Korean and Polish.

About Family Nights

Family Night is a time when we provide the childcare and parent/carer get the chance to have a chat and a break. A light meal is provided for the kids. This group usually meets on the 3rd Thursday of the month from 5-6.30pm.

Who Comes to Family Nights

Parent/carers and their children of all ages who have a range of disability or additional support needs including several who are autism. Siblings are also welcome. It has become a friendly community where parents can get peer support and children can play and interact with others.

Who we are looking for

Sessional worker for

• 4 hours each Tuesday morning, £10.90/hour
• 3 hours once a month on a Thursday evening.
• Seasonal trips and activities during school holidays.

We are looking for experienced, reliable childcare workers who enjoy working with children and would like sessional work. Candidates must be committed to equality of opportunity and enjoy working with families from all backgrounds. Experience of working with children with autism and other additional support needs is helpful but not essential.

Please see attached Job Description or call Ruth Forsythe, Carers Hub Manager on 0141 764 0550 for further information.

We are seeking a motivated and compassionate Deputy Manager to help oversee our holiday support service and develop improvements across our organisation.

This is an exciting time to join The Yard and play a key role in delivering and improving our specialist services for children and young people with additional support needs.

The Role

You will support the Children’s Services Manager in leading the day-to-day operations of the Holiday Support Service, providing direction to a team of Support Workers while liaising with parents & carers to maintain and review Personal Support Plans for each child.

During term-time, this post will involve additional duties in the delivery of our core services.

You will:

• Support the delivery of service in line with standards set by regulatory bodies (Care Inspectorate and SSSC)
• Support the engagement of children in creative play and the management of suitable activity plans for the different ages/stages of development and interests of children
• Provide effective support and direction to a team of support workers through motivation, supervision, and feedback
• Support the Children’s Services Manager to ensure compliance across the service and ensure the team receive training and guidance appropriate to their role

If you are passionate about making a difference in the lives of children with disabilities and have the skills to help run a regulated service, we would love to hear from you.

About You

We are looking for a Deputy Manager who is inspired by our ethos and is excited to bring their knowledge and experience to our specialised Holiday Support Service for children with complex medical needs.

You will have:

• Supervisory experience, including direct staff supervision, development and implementation of rotas
• Knowledge and experience of facilitating indoor and outdoor play opportunities and environments and leading recreational activities
• Experience of working with children and young people with a range of disabilities
• Excellent organisational skills and administrative abilities

Desirable:

• Leaderships skills and team building capacity
• Previous experience of improvement work within a childcare setting
• First Aid at Work certificate
• Experience of Moving and Handling, delivering personal care and supporting complex medical needs

About the organisation:

The Yard is a Scottish charity offering adventure play, short breaks, training, and support for children and young people with additional support needs, and their families. We operate inclusive play centres, deliver outreach work, and run holiday and youth clubs. We aim to build supportive communities and promote understanding and inclusion for disabled children.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all sections of the community. The post is subject to a PVG check and SSSC registration.