Are you passionate about play, and ready to lead the practicalities of delivery?

We are seeking a Team Leader to coordinate and deliver high-quality, self-directed play opportunities across Midlothian. This is a frontline role, combining practical delivery with day-to-day coordination and some line management.

About Play Midlothian

Play Midlothian is a registered charity (no. SC025474) working to enable every child in Midlothian to thrive through play by creating opportunities, removing barriers and addressing inequalities. We have an office base at the One Dalkeith Business Hub in central Dalkeith, but deliver services throughout Midlothian, and if commissioned, beyond.

About the Role

On appointment, the postholder will lead Out2Play (enabling children to play outside in greenspaces close to their homes) and some of our Play in Mind sessions (supporting children’s mental health through adventurous play in woodlands).

The postholder will also staff other sessions run by Play Midlothian, working across each of our services. We champion self-directed play, with a focus on loose parts, and use varied community settings to create rich play opportunities. A high proportion of sessions take place outdoors, all year round.

Travel and transportation of play resources to multiple sites across Midlothian is required for successful delivery of our services. Most sessions take place after school hours and at weekends, with some during the school day, so flexibility is required, though we share out weekend working on a rota so that everyone gets predictable weekends off.

This role would suit someone with playwork, youth work or family support experience who is ready to step into frontline management — or an existing manager looking for a values-led, varied, community-based role.

If you are enthusiastic about enabling children to play in their own ways, we would love to hear from you.

This is an exciting opportunity to work within our Supportline Advice Service as well as support our Wider aims as a charity.

Our Advice service works alongside support collegues to help families to address the challenges and risks which may have led to vulnerability, promote connection to their local communities, and improve financial stability and resilience. Our aim is to support communties to become more resilient and a place where children feel safe, valued, understood and supported.

The Energy Advisor will work within an integrated model of family support, community connection, and expert Energy advice and exploring money and debt advice. This will enable families to stay connected, keep homes warm and resolve debt and money problems, become more financially resilient and break the cycle of fuel poverty.

A priority for the Energy Advisor will be to increase the Energy advice and support we offer our families and with the capacity of our current services to provide Type I and II money advice in one of the most deprived areas in Scotland.

You will work as part of our National Money Advice team. You will support families within their homes, by telephone and other digital methods deliver workshops within the community and in schools and offer drop-in sessions within the community.

If you have experience of energy advice welfare rights, income maximization, money and debt advice, understand the impact trauma and adversity can have on children and families, and believe that you can apply this to your practice, we want to hear from you.

This is a full time, 35 hours post. Hours to be worked flexibly to suit the needs of families, including evenings and weekends as required.

What we offer

• A workplace with values of with love, with purpose and with strength
• 40 days annual leave, inclusive of bank holidays
• Pension scheme and wellbeing support
• Flexible and hybrid working arrangements
• Access to Westfield Health, giving colleagues and their families confidential counselling support, wellbeing resources, and access to health and lifestyle benefits to support physical and mental wellbeing.
• Blue Light card discount
• A Fair Work accredited workplace

Our Values

Living our values, you will help create a workplace where our people can thrive, ensuring we deliver the best possible support to children and families.

With love, we put children first.

With purpose, we transform lives together.

With strength, we do whatever it takes to protect Scotland’s children.

Children in Scotland is currently seeking an experienced Communications Officer to join our collaborative and driven Communications & Marketing Team.

Children in Scotland has numerous functions that support the children’s sector in Scotland - from membership services and events to policy and participation activities, as well as delivering a number of services (Enquire, Reach, Resolve, My Rights, My Say). The Communications Officer will play an important role in raising awareness of both the organisation and the key issues facing the sector – through engaging content, social media and brand activity.

We are looking for a great team player who enjoys the process of collaboration to achieve creative and dynamic communications. They will take a highly-organised and proactive approach to their responsibilities, and have a close eye for detail.

We would love to hear from candidates with a background in content marketing, social media, or multimedia, as well as a good understanding of digital communications.

The successful candidate will be ready to hit the ground running, but will be offered an excellent induction and support through the first few months. Our commitment to staff wellbeing is reflected in our flexible and hybrid working policies, our organisational wellbeing working group, regular line manager one-to-ones, and quarterly in-person all-staff away days. They will join a brilliant group of supportive staff who are passionate about making a difference to children’s lives and work hard to achieve this.

Please read our full job description for details of responsibilities and criteria for this role.

This is a hybrid role with some flexibility around working-from-home days. Members of the communications team are generally encouraged to spend a minimum of one day per week working at the Children in Scotland office in Edinburgh, and attend mandatory quarterly in-person all-staff days and departmental meetings.

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

For an informal chat about the job, please contact Simon Massey, Head of Development and Engagement by email on smassey@childreninscotland.org.uk

Help shape a national service that protects children's rights.

Every child deserves to have their voice heard and their rights upheld.

At Children First, we stand up for Scotland's children by protecting them from harm, helping them recover from trauma and ensuring they have the opportunity to thrive. As Scotland's national children's charity, we are looking for an experienced and values-led leader to join our National Safeguarders Panel team.

This is a unique opportunity to influence practice at a national level while leading quality improvement, children's rights and accountability across one of Scotland's most important child protection services.

About the role

Working alongside the Assistant Director and two other Service Managers, you will help lead the National Safeguarders Panel on behalf of the Scottish Government.

You'll take the lead on complaints and concerns relating to Safeguarders, ensuring these are managed fairly, consistently and in line with legislation and best practice. You'll champion children's rights throughout our work, drive continuous quality improvement and help shape learning and development for Safeguarders across Scotland.

You'll also build strong partnerships with Scottish Government, Children's Hearings Scotland, the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration and other key stakeholders to ensure children remain at the heart of everything we do.

This is a strategic leadership role where you'll combine operational management, quality assurance, relationship building and service development to make a lasting difference for children and young people.

What you'll bring

We're looking for someone who can demonstrate:

• Significant leadership experience within children's services or a related environment.
• Experience of managing investigations, complaints or quality assurance processes.
• Strong knowledge of Scotland's Children's Hearings System and children's rights.
• The ability to build effective relationships across complex partnerships.
• Experience leading teams, managing resources and delivering service improvement.
• Excellent judgement, communication and decision-making skills.
• A collaborative leadership style that reflects our values.
• A Social Work qualification or another relevant professional qualification at SCQF Level 9 (or equivalent) is essential.

Why join Children First?

By joining us you'll be helping to shape services that protect children's rights across Scotland while working alongside passionate colleagues who share your commitment to making a difference.

We offer:

• A workplace with values of With love, With purpose and With strength
• 40 days annual leave (inclusive of bank holidays)
• Flexible and hybrid working
• Pension scheme
• Westfield Health wellbeing support
• Blue Light Card discounts
• Learning and development opportunities
• A Fair Work accredited workplace

Our values

Everything we do is guided by our values.

With love, we put children first.

With purpose, we transform children's lives together.

With strength, we do whatever it takes to protect Scotland's children.

If you're an experienced leader who shares our commitment to children's rights and wants to influence practice on a national scale, we'd love to hear from you.