We are looking for a compassionate, skilled and motivated adviser to join our Thrive Early team.

The Thrive Early Family Adviser will provide practical, holistic support to families with children under five who are experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, poverty. The role will focus on helping families improve their financial wellbeing by providing advice and support around welfare benefits, income maximisation, debt and other financial issues, as well as information sessions to small groups.

A key part of the role will be building trusted, positive relationships with families who may face significant barriers to engaging with traditional advice services. The postholder will work with families over the medium to long term, providing tailored advice, advocacy and practical support to help them achieve greater financial security and wellbeing.

The successful candidate will work closely with colleagues from Home-Start, Save the Children UK, Citizens Advice Scotland and other local partners to deliver coordinated, whole-family support.

Person Specification

Essential:

• Experience providing welfare rights, money, debt or holistic advice.
• Experience supporting people experiencing poverty, financial hardship or complex life circumstances.
• Ability to build trusting relationships with individuals and families.
• Ability to manage a caseload effectively and maintain accurate case records.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively with partner organisations and external agencies.
• Commitment to equality, inclusion and reducing child poverty.

Desirable:

• Knowledge of the Scottish Social Security and welfare system.
• Experience of providing information sessions to small groups.
• Experience of working with families with young children.
• Experience of advocacy or casework involving complex issues.
• Experience of monitoring outcomes and contributing to evaluation or reporting.
• Knowledge of local services and support available across the Falkirk Council area.
• Access to a car.

Practical Requirements

The successful candidate will:

• Be able and willing to travel throughout the Falkirk Council area as required by the role.
• Be willing to undertake relevant training and professional development.
• Be able to work flexibly in response to the needs of families and the Thrive Early programme.
• Undergo a PVG check

About Thrive Early

Thrive Early is a partnership programme delivered by Citizens Advice Scotland, Home-Start UK and Save the Children UK. The programme supports the Scottish Government's commitment to tackling child poverty by helping families with children under five to prevent and mitigate the impacts of poverty.

Thrive Early provides integrated, community-based and whole-family support. The programme brings together:

• practical and emotional family support from Home-Start;
• financial, welfare and holistic advice from Citizens Advice;
• opportunities for families to share their experiences and influence service development and wider systems change through Save the Children UK.

Support is tailored to individual family circumstances and aims to improve financial wellbeing, emotional resilience, social connections and access to services.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Citizens Advice Bureau (Grangemouth & Bo’ness) Ltd. is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. We welcome applications from people from all sections of the community and particularly encourage applications from people whose experiences and backgrounds reflect the diverse communities we serve.

We are committed to making reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process and during employment to support candidates and staff with disabilities or other individual requirements.

This role plays a critical part in the planning and management of our organisational finances and resources, leading a small team within the Business Support team. It reports to our Head of Resources and Development and line manages a full-time Finance and Resources Officer and a part-time Business Support Coordinator. It sits within the Business Support team, which also includes our Fund Managers and Coordinators.

What You'll Do

Effective strategic and operational planning, performance and development are essential to the sustainability of our growing organisation. A significant element of this is how we plan and manage our finances and other resources, build organisational policy and process to enable the work we do for our sector, and develop our practices to build a great place to work. Our Resources and Development team provides the planning, oversight and development of our central organisational activity and practice, as well as managing the investments we make in our sector on behalf of funding partners.

As Finance and Resources Manager, you will take a leading role in our project and core budget development and reporting, financial oversight and assurance, financial forecasting and financial policy and processes. You will also support the planning and management of our people/staff related activity, working with our external HR Advisor and the Third Sector Dumfries and Galloway (TSDG) Senior Leadership Team (SLT) to coordinate the update and maintenance of our Staff Handbook and policies.

• Lead the efficient and effective management of robust TSDG financial systems, ensuring sufficient processes are in place to provide the SLT with high levels of financial scrutiny and assurance.
• Support the Chief Executive and SLT colleagues in developing, monitoring, re-forecasting and reporting on the core TSDG budget and project budgets.
• Prepare monthly/quarterly management accounts, cashflow projections and financial reporting for the SLT, and provide oversight and assurance of the accurate recording and processing of all income and expenditure, in line with budget and financial delegations.
• Oversee and assure automated payment approvals through online banking and regular bank reconciliation, and develop our Zoho-based finance system, with a view to bringing more services in-house.
• Oversee monthly payroll and expenses processes, and support the Head of Resources and Development, Senior Leaders and others to build grant claims by providing accurate financial data of ring-fenced funds.
• Lead on process and practice improvements to our financial management policies and systems, and on the development of our annual reports, working with our external advisors, accountants and auditor and assuring the first draft as presented to the SLT.
• Oversee the coordination of staff recruitment and the continuous improvement of our induction programmes for new staff, including a new programme for leadership roles.
• Work with our external HR Advisor and SLT to coordinate the update and maintenance of our people policies and electronic Staff Handbook, and oversee the effective use of our online employee HR system (SafeHR).
• Provide leadership, direction and support for the Finance team, line managing your direct reports effectively and managing delegated decisions and budgets, and contribute thoughtfully to strategic discussions and decisions in line with our values.

More about you

• You will have proven experience in small or medium-sized organisational finance management, with a strong understanding of accounting processes, internal controls and regulatory compliance, and of building operational and project budgets, monitoring and reporting.
• You will have proven experience of working with and developing financial processing systems, including invoicing, payments and cashflow modelling.
• You will have excellent time management skills, with the ability to work accurately to tight deadlines, prioritise your own workload and support the work of others, along with excellent attention to detail.
• You will have good leadership skills, with proven experience of mentoring others so that they thrive and grow.
• You will be skilled in using Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft apps, particularly Excel.
• You will be self-motivated and able to take responsibility for personal outcomes, with a commitment to ongoing personal and organisational improvement, and an inclusive, adaptable, action-biased and collegiate attitude.
• You will be able to be at the Dumfries or Stranraer office for agreed working hours (based on 9–5) consistently, three days a week.
• You may have proven experience in charity finance management, with a strong understanding of charitable accounting, restricted funding and grant claims, including using financial processing systems to inform charity grant management.