Home-Start Clackmannanshire is a long standing, dynamic charity, striving to ensure every young child (under 12) has the best possible start in life locally. Raising a family has never been easy; our trained volunteers and staff are there to support families through challenging times. In Scotland, Home-Starts have over 1,500 volunteers supporting over 3,500 families and 6,500 children each year through compassionate, confidential help to parents/carers when they need us most. The parents/carers we support are often overwhelmed and isolated. They may be struggling with mental health, illness, disability, multiple births, poverty, domestic abuse, separation and/or trauma. We provide a bespoke support package of 1:1 in home and group services for families, helping them to cope with the stresses and strains of daily life and encourage them to build the skills, confidence, and strength they need to nurture their children for years to come.

In 2024, Action for Children, NHS (speech and language) and Educational Psychology launched an exciting new provision called Play Roots with the support and funding from our local Child Wellbeing Partnership. Play Roots is an enhanced 0-5 group provision for local families operating across four localities in Clackmannanshire weekly.

Purpose of the job

Play Roots has developed rapidly since the first group launched, with families directly informing our sessions, allowing us to ensure we are delivering a communities based, group support system, providing a nurturing and educational environment for children (0-5) and their parents/carers. Play Roots aims to enhance positive well-being, parent-child attachment, support early childhood development, and encourage wider community connections and changes for parental progression; providing the foundations for children and families to flourish long-term.

We are looking for an enthusiastic, driven practitioner, capable of coordinating the delivery of our four local groups to ensure their effective running, and maximising impact through groups supporting the development of children and parents/carers by creating fun and interesting learning environments/activities to enhance skills, promote emotional resilience, and encourage positive behaviours and routines. Central to this role is effectively liaising with partners and supporting our delivery team made up of staff from Home-Start Clackmannanshire, Action for Children, Educational Psychology, Speech and language, and a growing team of volunteers.

You will also:

• Contribute to the effective day to day operation of the scheme in accordance with the Home-Start Memorandum & Articles of Association, Home-Start, Standards & Methods of Practice, Home-Start Agreement and Quality Assurance Standards.
• Maintain high standards of practice in supporting families within the Home-Start model.
• Ensure equality of opportunity, fairness and diversity in all aspects of the scheme’s work.
• Implement best safeguarding practice in all areas of work.

Main Responsibilities

Supporting the work of Home-Start Clackmannanshire and our Play Roots Partnership

• Undertaking work as delegated by our CEO to support the strategic management, development, evaluation, and future funding of Play Roots.
• Supporting the implementation of and upholding all Home-Start policies and procedures.
• Complying with the scheme’s administration, monitoring and financial systems.
• Promoting the work of the scheme, as required by the CEO.
• Contributing to and supporting the development of the Home-Start network locally, regionally and nationally.

Support for families

• Take a lead role in receiving and assessing referrals to Play Roots in a timely manner.
• Making initial contact/arranging implementation of support or delegating to operational team members within Home-Start and Action for Children to do.
• Lead delivery partners in planning, preparing for, and delivering group sessions (4 sessions across 4 locations, weekly, during term time).
• Enhance group support offer by leading the planning, preparation and delivery of Holiday Programmes for families.
• Providing rich learning environments where children and their families can engage.
• Facilitating interventions one to one or in a group to support identified areas of need.
• Building effective relationships and channels of communication with our partners, such as children, young people, families, colleagues, and external agencies.
• Ensuring support to families is of a high standard, in accordance with Home-Start’s model, policies and procedures.
• To undertake designated responsibilities to safeguard and promote children’s welfare.

Supporting Volunteers

• We could not deliver our services without the support of our incredible team of volunteers. As such, you will be involved in ensuring any Home-Start volunteers contributing to Play Roots sessions are appropriately onboarded, supported, informed, and adhere to all organisational policies and procedures.

Working in Partnership

• Ensuring appropriate liaison with referrers and other professionals.
• Networking appropriately within the community.

The post holder may be required to undertake any other duties that fall within the nature of the role and responsibilities of the post as detailed above.

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.

About the role

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a vibrant and supportive national children’s charity. As Finance Manager you would have overall responsibility for delivering our efficient and effective finance function. You would play an important role in continuing to support a financially resilient organisation which contributes to a better Scotland for all children and young people.

You will be CCAB qualified and have an appropriate accountancy qualification and will have extensive knowledge and understanding of charity finance, including being up to date with the Charity Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP). You will have experience of ensuring that effective and efficient financial procedures are in place and adhered to and good communication skills with the ability to communicate financial information to different audiences.

Children in Scotland puts values at the centre of its work and you will need to be able to demonstrate that you understand how important organisational values are and to show that you are able to embed them in what you do and how you do it.

*We are advertising for a full-time role in the first instance. However, if you are seeking a working pattern of 3 or 4 days a week, then we could consider that if you are the best person for the role.

About Children in Scotland

Children in Scotland is a welcoming and dynamic charity that amplifies the voices, views and experiences of our members and children, families and professionals across Scotland. We achieve this through direct services, meaningful participation, policy work, inspiring communications and sector-leading events and learning opportunities.

We are a vibrant and inclusive community of dedicated individuals and organisations who use our skills and passion to bring evidence-based and fresh thinking together, with one shared aim of giving all children in Scotland an equal chance to flourish.

We are stronger together in driving lasting impact for Scotland’s children.

Diversity

Children in Scotland values the contribution of all our staff, whatever their background. Our recruitment decisions are based on fair, open processes, with appointment on merit. We welcome applications from everyone.

Further information

If your experience doesn’t align perfectly with all the criteria for this role, but you still feel you have something to offer, we would be interested to hear from you. Please contact Judith Turbyne, CEO, at jturbyne@childreninscotland.org.uk for an informal chat, or if you have any questions about the role.

Salary:£41,913.06 per annum (pro-rata) rising to £43,170.45 in July 2026. See detail of our current salary structure here.

“The best way we can help a new baby is to ensure that their parent’s needs are met and their trauma attended to” - Dr Bruce Perry (2020)

About Tayside Perinatal Service

Aberlour has always seen the benefit of early intervention and are pleased to have received funding from Scottish Government to work supporting new parents pre and post birth. By working alongside new parents, we aim to facilitate recovery from problematic substance use and improve parenting capacity and confidence to positively impact on the outcomes for both parents and their new babies.

The service will work across 7 days per week operating within the hours of 8am to 8pm to flexibly meet the needs of the parents and families being supported. The work will cover prebirth to baby’s first birthday offering strength based whole family support.

What we are looking for....

We are seeking to recruit an Intensive Perinatal Support Worker, working 37.5 hours per week. Initial funding from Scottish Government is secured until 31st March 2027. This post will be based in Perth and Kinross. We are looking for candidates with a sound knowledge of child development and experience of working with individuals with problematic substance and/or alcohol use.

We encourage people to apply who have lived experience of alcohol or drug use, with a minimum of 2 years living in recovery, free from all drug use and problem drinking.

At Aberlour we want to make sure every child and young person has the love, support and opportunity they need to reach their potential. If you share the same vision, we want you to join our team. Aberlour’s values are critical and drive everything we do. We will be looking for someone who can demonstrate how Aberlour’s values of Respect, Innovation, Integrity and Challenge will be visible in their practice. You must be comfortable working in an environment where Aberlour’s values are lived in practice. To have a look at our values to understand more about what we are looking for from our employees click here.

What we offer...

As well as a supportive team and excellent training opportunities, we want all our employees to feel valued and rewarded for the vital work they do. When you work with us, we'll recognise your efforts with generous annual leave, an excellent employer pension scheme and a range of deals and discounts across various retailers. Find out more about our Employee Benefits and our commitment to Equality and Diversity here.

We also follow Data Protection Guidelines - Here is our privacy policy.