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.

Mission Statement

Our long-term vision is to end youth homelessness. Our more immediate mission is to ensure that every young person in Scotland has access to expert youth specific services to assist them to avoid, resolve and move on from homelessness, making it rare, brief, and non-recurring.

Context

The Project Worker will work as an intensive support worker linking directly with young people either in the community or from the office base in Govan. They will coordinate and provide emotional and practical support on a 1:1 and group basis. Working with young people to secure a tenancy or to maintain their tenancy to ensure that a young person’s experience of homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring.

The Project Worker will offer line management, guidance, and support to volunteers, working together to support young people to improve their practical independent living skills, access other services and to reach their full potential. Project Workers are responsible for completing housing applications, support plans and risk assessments and are the main contact for any key peopleinvolved in the care and support of young people.

We’re looking for an enthusiastic and skilled worker to lead the delivery of our North Edinburgh Futures programme — a new early intervention project offering safe, engaging, co designed youth work for 10–15 year olds during evenings and weekends.

You will:

• Plan & deliver high quality youth work sessions, workshops & trips
• Lead & support a team of sessional youth workers
• Build positive relationships with young people & families
• Reduce barriers to participation and promote inclusion
• Strengthen partnerships with schools, organisations & specialist providers
• Maintain accurate monitoring records & support reporting to funders
• Promote safeguarding, trauma informed practice & reflective learning
• Work flexibly, including evenings & weekends

You need:

• Minimum 4 years’ experience working with young people in a youth work or related setting
• Experience planning, delivering and evaluating group activities
• Strong safeguarding knowledge and confidence supporting staff
• Excellent communication and relationship building skills
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a wider team
• Understanding of trauma informed, inclusive practice
• Social media confidence
• Experience supporting staff/volunteers (desirable)
• Driving licence or willingness to gain minibus training (desirable)

Are you passionate about helping people to live a better life? Do you want to work for a charity where your health and wellbeing matter just as much as the people you support? Do you want to be part of a trauma-informed team where you will be supported to develop creative and flexible ways of working?

At LinkLiving, our values and people are at the heart of everything we do including how we recruit our staff. It is important for us to find people who share our values, which are:

• Empathy (listen to and understand an individual’s needs and circumstances)
• Respect (treat others the way they wish to be treated)
• Integrity (be honest and have strong moral principles)
• Caring (show kindness and concern for others)

LinkLiving is a Scottish health and wellbeing charity that supports people to manage or overcome the effects of negative life experiences (including trauma, mental health challenges, poverty and inequality) so that they can build on their strengths and aspirations in order to live their best possible lives. We support people through a range of models including:

• Personal development and employability programmes
• Self-help coaching
• Supported accommodation
• Care at home
• Housing support
• Befriending
• Social cafes

The Service

The Falkirk Core & Cluster project supports young people aged 16 to 21 who have experienced care or are arriving in Falkirk through the National Transfer Scheme. The goal is to help them develop the skills necessary for successful independent living while also providing access to employment, training, and educational opportunities. In collaboration with Link Housing Association, we offer a supported core and cluster housing initiative. This project features ten independent tenancies situated around a central hub/training flat, where our small but dedicated team delivers flexible, individually tailored support

The Job

As a senior practitioner, you will be skilled and experienced in working with care-experienced young people. Taking a trauma-informed approach, you will be responsible for complex and varied key-working issues, co-ordination of complex support arrangements and supporting the leadership of the service. You will use your extensive knowledge and experience to provide support and guidance to less experienced colleagues through informal mentoring (where relevant).

You will have extensive experience in multi-agency working, housing support systems and the support of care experienced young people which you will use to establish and maintain respectful and empowering relationships with service users so that they feel valued and supported and in control of their own lives. You will be responsible for carrying out assessments of new service users and for reviewing existing service users on a regular basis.

In your role you will offer practical, emotional and social support to care experienced young people within the project, assisting them to develop the independent living skills necessary for future tenancy sustainment. You will need to develop warm and effective relationships with the young people supporting them to cope with their lives in a positive and planned way so that they can make informed choices and take responsibility for their actions, advocating for them with a range of other agencies to ensure their rights are upheld at all times

About You

We are looking for a compassionate and dedicated individual with the skills and passion to make a meaningful impact on the lives of others. You should have a general standard of secondary education, including passes in English and Maths at Standard Grade level, and a SVQ Social Services and Healthcare SCQF Level 6 and be willing to work towards qualifications recognised by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC). These include an and an SVQ Social Services and Healthcare SCQF Level 7, alongside a suitable supervisory or management qualification, if not already attained.

You will bring extensive knowledge and experience in social care, housing issues, welfare rights, benefits, and procedures, alongside a solid understanding of housing support and care-at-home systems. Experience working with diverse service user groups, particularly care-experienced young people, is essential, as is an understanding of the challenges faced by marginalised and excluded individuals.

We value a non-judgmental attitude and the ability to recognise and nurture the unique gifts of others. You should have strong relationship-building skills, a commitment to supporting people, and sound decision-making abilities. Sensitivity to emotional and social needs is crucial, as is a proactive and reflective approach to learning and self-improvement.

You will also need proficiency in using technology to maintain and update records, along with the ability to stay informed about relevant practices, policies, and legislation. Your dedication to embracing diversity and challenging exclusive attitudes will make you an asset to the team.

If you are ready to bring your expertise, compassion, and commitment to this role, we would love to hear from you.

For a comprehensive list of the essential and desirable criteria required for this post, please refer to the Job Specification in the Job information Pack.

What’s in it for you?

The benefits of being a LinkLiving employee (subject to the policies and benefit terms and conditions) include:

• Competitive salary, reviewed annually, and opportunity for annual performance related salary increases and discretionary non-consolidated pay awards, subject to terms of the scheme
• 35 days’ holiday per year (inclusive of public holidays) pro rata plus additional 3 days pro rata after 3 years’ service
• opportunity to buy and sell holiday
• enhanced company sick and family friendly pay
• access to paid SVQ qualifications and a wide range of learning and development opportunities
• funded Disclosure Scotland and Scottish Social Services Council memberships
• defined contribution pension scheme with generous employer contributions plus salary exchange and additional voluntary contribution options
• access to a Salary Exchange car leasing scheme, subject to the terms of the scheme
• life assurance scheme providing death in service benefits
• healthcare cash plan for employees (and dependents) to support health and wellbeing plus discounts on shopping, restaurants, and other services
• employee assistance programme for employees and their immediate household dependants to support health, mental and financial well-being
• access to purchase annual corporate clothing vouchers
• annual flu vaccination
• access to a credit union savings and borrowing scheme
• cycle to work scheme
• access to discounts on mobile airtime plans and much more!

For a full list of benefits available to employees, please see the following link - linkliving.org.uk/work-with-us

Successful applicants will be required to apply for registration with SSSC within 3 months of their start date and be registered within 6 months.

This role is subject to PVG membership under the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020. Individuals who are barred from working with children or protected adults will not be considered for this position. Link will meet the cost of any new PVG scheme membership or membership update.