Partners in Advocacy has been delivering independent advocacy services since 1998 and is recognised as a trusted and established provider across Scotland.

We are pleased to offer an opportunity to join our Edinburgh service as an Independent Advocacy Worker.

This is a rewarding role in a supportive, experienced team, where you will make a genuine difference by providing one-to-one independent advocacy to people aged 16 and over with learning or physical disabilities, autism, and older people. You will support individuals in having their voices heard, helping them express their views, understand their rights, explore their options, and participate in decisions that affect their lives.

The role involves travelling throughout Edinburgh to meet people in a range of community and clinical settings. Travel expenses are covered, and you will be supported to plan your work in a way that is both effective and sustainable.

Working closely with the Service Coordinator, you will help maintain accurate service data and support the development of quarterly reports, helping demonstrate the impact of advocacy.

This role offers a high degree of autonomy, alongside regular support, supervision, and opportunities to connect with colleagues across the organisation.

We warmly encourage applications from people from diverse backgrounds. If your skills and experience align with the job description and person specification, we would be delighted to hear from you.

Please complete the application form, providing examples of how you meet each aspect of the job description and person specification.

Partners in Advocacy is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible working environment.

What the role is really like:

• You’ll be working most of the time independently, managing your own diary and priorities

• You’ll need to be comfortable and excellent at working with people aged 16 and over with learning or physical disabilities, autism, and older people

• Your days will vary from supporting someone in a meeting, covering duty calls, to travelling across Edinburgh, and completing case notes at home

• Some situations can be complex or emotionally demanding, and good boundaries are important

• You’ll need to be able to understand complex information and processes, translate them to your advocacy partners, helping them to understand their rights and explore their options

• You’ll need to be comfortable making decisions and working proactively, while staying connected to your wider team

• You’ll be speaking to a range of professionals in a range of settings, communicating, and amplifying your advocacy partner's opinions and wishes

• You’ll record, track, and compile statistical and other information, writing it into tracking spreadsheets, Microsoft Word forms and creating anonymised case studies

You’ll be a good fit if you:

• Are comfortable working autonomously and managing your own workload

• Can recognise the right times to check in with your line manager

• Have good planning and are punctual

• Can build trust with people and communicate clearly in a range of situations

• Are organised and able to balance direct work and admin responsibilities

• Have good writing and IT skills

• Are confident travelling independently across Edinburgh

• Value equality, rights, and person-led support

• Can research, read, and understand complex information, then translate it and explain it in clear terms

Freedom from Torture has an exciting opportunity for an Associate Director of Clinical Services (Clinical Operations) to join our team. This role will provide strategic and operational leadership across our Northwest and Scotland clinical services, while supporting quality improvement and the delivery of safe, effective and high-quality rehabilitation services for survivors of torture. The role will require regular travel between our Northwest and Scotland centres and occasional travel elsewhere in the UK as required.

About us

Freedom from Torture is an established charity that has been supporting survivors of torture for over 35 years and has a dedicated donor base. We are committed to providing high-quality, evidence-based interventions for people who have survived torture. We provide therapies to improve physical and mental health, medically document torture, and offer legal and welfare support. Our clinical model has been co-designed with survivors of torture and includes a range of interventions, including trauma-focused therapy, psychotherapy, family and couple systemic psychotherapy, group work, pain management and health assessment.

In addition to our treatment services, we expose torture globally, campaign for the rights of survivors and work to hold torturing states to account. We use evidence from our services and survivor voices to influence national and international change, placing survivors at the centre of everything we do.

Our current strategy seeks to increase access to rehabilitation services for survivors of torture, strengthen our clinical excellence through research, and explore innovative models of service delivery that enable us to reach more people in need. This includes piloting new approaches to service delivery and developing partnerships that help sustain and expand our impact. We undertake our work under our four core values of Hope, Compassion, Empowerment and Resolve. This is an exciting time to join Freedom from Torture and make a meaningful contribution to our future development.

We offer an active CPD programme to clinical staff, including opportunities to train in EMDR and NET.

We offer a competitive package, with a generous 30-day annual leave entitlement (pro rata), 6% employer pension contribution, and flexible and hybrid working arrangements.

About the role

This is a key leadership role within Freedom from Torture and reports to the National Director of Clinical Services, deputising when required. The role compliments another Associate Director role who is currently re-deployed part time on another project. The role has a particular focus on clinical operations, quality improvement and service development within our Northwest and Scotland centres.

The role will have a strong focus on ensuring safe and effective clinical operations, including oversight of clinical governance, clinical risk management, safeguarding, health and safety, quality assurance and audit activity.

An important aspect of the role will be supporting innovation and growth, including developing external partnerships, contributing to the piloting of new service models in Scotland, and working with colleagues in fundraising to identify grant, commissioning and partnership opportunities that support the sustainability of clinical services.

The role works closely with colleagues across clinical services, survivor empowerment, fundraising and organisational leadership to ensure effective collaboration and delivery of organisational objectives.

About you

The successful candidate will want to make a real difference through your clinical leadership by working for an organisation committed to justice, empowerment and high-quality service provision for survivors of torture.

About Simon Community Scotland

Simon Community Scotland is the largest provider of homelessness services in Scotland. Our vision is for everyone to have a safe place to live, with access to the support they need. Every day we help make positive things happen for people facing extremely difficult circumstances. Everything we do is about and for people, the people we support, our staff, our partners and everyone affected by homelessness. Our values are built into every area of activity and tell the story of how people remain at the heart of Simon Community.

Day by day, person-to-person, we tailor what we offer to what people need. We are here to provide consistent, friendly and informed support so that people can explore options and take 'the next step' towards a positive future. We offer support across a range of service delivery points; Street Outreach teams, Housing First initiatives, Floating Support, Information Hubs, Managed Alcohol Program (MAP), Supported Accommodations, Emergency Accommodation, Rapid Access Accommodation, and our own rented properties. These services are delivered across many local authorities within Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, Edinburgh and Perth.

We welcome people with a wide range of skills and experiences to our team. To make a difference, we need to work flexibly, with everyday leadership and a 'can-do' approach. We want to make it right and make it happen –not only for the people we support, but also for each other.

Our #OneTeam ethos is core to who we are, and it means caring for and supporting each other regardless of our role, service or location. Find out more about our services here.

Our Support Services

Job Purpose

The Health Improvement Worker delivers compassionate, person-centered care to individuals experiencing homelessness who face severe health inequalities, including complex trauma, mental health challenges, problem drug and alcohol use, and blood-borne viruses (BBVs). Working as an essential part of a 24/7 residential care team at the Milestone Intermediary Care Unit (MICU), you will provide hands-on clinical and practical support, including medication administration, harm reduction interventions, and 1:1 emotional support, to promote recovery and stability. Through trauma-informed practice and close collaboration with multi-agency health partners, you will empower people to overcome barriers to their wellbeing, build resilience, and transition safely toward positive, long-term outcomes.

Job Summary

The Milestone Intermediate Care Unit (MICU) is a ten-bed Care Inspectorate registered care facility that provides short-term residential care and support for vulnerable people recently discharged from the hospital who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, as well as those in the community where admission can lead to early intervention, prevent hospitalisation, or mitigate serious harm. The service supports people navigating multiple complex needs across physical health conditions, mental health challenges, and severe morbidity, including those requiring the initiation or stabilisation of medication-assisted treatment for addiction, starting or adjusting treatment regimes for blood-borne viruses, or needing to engage with intensive community care to manage complex wound infections and trauma related to substance use. Accepting referrals from both in-patient care through a step-down pathway and the community through a step-up pathway, MICU delivers a patient-centered and trauma-informed holistic package of care to facilitate recovery, address health needs, and offer connection to other community projects both within Simon Community Scotland and externally to enable a safe and appropriate discharge.

The shift patterns are 3 or 4 days over 7, day shift 7.30am to 7.45pm and waking night shift 7.00pm to 7.45am for a total of 37.5hrs per week.

Key Responsibilities

• Service Delivery & Direct Support
• Harm Reduction & Health Support: Deliver practical harm-reduction interventions (including Naloxone administration/guidance) Provide support to adhere to new and re-started medication regimes and ensure prescriptions are accurate and taken as prescribed. Support to attend community healthcare appointments, case discussions, and review meetings. Assist people in identifying dietary needs and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
• Personalised Care Planning: Work collaboratively with people to complete initial assessments, safety plans, create outcome-focused personal plans, and carry out regular reviews.
• 1:1 & Group Interventions: Provide 1:1 emotional and practical support to assist people in overcoming barriers to their health and wellbeing. Facilitate group activities and events that build confidence, self-esteem, and social connection.
• Trauma Informed Crisis Intervention: Provide calm, compassionate support to people in distress or crisis, utilising de-escalation skills and working alongside partners to ensure a safe environment.
• Professional Standards: Maintain excellent standards of care and support which meet regulatory requirements such as SSSC and Care Inspectorate, including confidentiality and GDPR.
• Data Recording: Record accurate and professional case notes in order to gather qualitative and quantitative data for reporting purposes, in line with SSSC.
• Multidisciplinary & Partner Collaboration: Actively participate in Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) meetings and communicate professionally with internal and external partners to coordinate high-quality care, advocate for people, and unlock the best available support and opportunities for each person.

Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS) is Scotland’s leading organisation working to support survivors of sexual violence, transform attitudes, improve the justice response to sexual crime and, ultimately, to end sexual violence in all its forms.

The Scottish Women’s Rights Centre is a unique collaborative project providing free legal information, advice, representation and advocacy support to women in Scotland affected by violence and abuse. The Advocacy Worker will support the delivery of core SWRC services. The advocacy worker will provide outreach and advocacy casework support to survivors who are engaged with the SWRC following an experience of Gender Based Violence (GBV). The post will also provide support to the delivery of FollowIt App.

At RCS, we offer:

• A warm, welcoming and feminist organisational culture
• Access to internal and external training and development opportunities
• A generous employment package, including 43 days of leave (pro-rata)
• Flexible/hybrid working
• A commitment to employee wellbeing

We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace and especially welcome applications from women of colour and those under-represented in the workforce