Midlothian Sure Start is a dynamic, award winning third sector organisation. It offers a quality support service to families with children up to age 12 across Midlothian. Midlothian Sure Start has been in existence since 2001 and employs over 70 members of staff providing a service in Family Learning centres and in the community. Our ethos is to provide a holistic, confidential community based service where families are at the heart of what we do.

We are looking for people who are as passionate about the services we provide as we are and in return we are keen to support professional development with excellent training and development opportunities, enhanced sick pay (following completion of probation), enhanced annual leave entitlement (we close completely for a well-earned break over Christmas and New Year) and we support our staff with an Employee Assistance Programme, Pension Scheme, Discounted Childcare, Health Cash Plan and Discounted Shopping.

About BEACON:

Citizens Advice Edinburgh, Capital City Partnership, Fife Gingerbread, Midlothian Sure Start, Circle, Passion4Fusion, The Poverty Alliance and Glasgow Caledonian University are working in partnership to deliver BEACON, a service designed to tackle the roots cause of poverty experienced by ethnically diverse families.

BEACON — Building Equity, Accessibility and Connecting Opportunities Network — will support 200 ethnically diverse families and up to 600 individuals through a relational, wrap-around whole-family keyworker model.

The project will ensure support is available where and when families need it across the Edinburgh and Southeast Scotland region.

Each partner in the consortium will provide additional capacity and specialist expertise to reach ethnically diverse families and improve engagement and outcomes.

The role:

To deliver relational, culturally competent, whole family support in Mid and East Lothian as part of the BEACON regional partnership. Low income, ethnically diverse families will benefit from holistic, strength-based support.

You will manage a small team working in Mid and East Lothian as part of the BEACON regional partnership and coordinate local multi agency provision across employability, income maximisation, health and wellbeing, childcare, housing and early years.

We are looking for a qualified and experienced practitioner (HNC Social Care, DipSW, BA Community Education or equivalent) with a passion for supporting families. You will have experience working with families facing complex challenges and a strong understanding of family support, poverty, trauma, racism and inequality.

You will be skilled in building trusted relationships, coordinating support, working effectively with partners and engaging diverse communities. We are looking for someone who is compassionate, adaptable and organised, with excellent communication skills and the ability to manage complex caseloads. Experience of mentoring colleagues and training in trauma-informed practice, cultural competency or family wellbeing would be an advantage.

Midlothian Sure Start is a dynamic, award winning third sector organisation. It offers a quality support service to families with children up to age 12 across Midlothian. Midlothian Sure Start has been in existence since 2001 and employs over 70 members of staff providing a service in Family Learning centres and in the community. Our ethos is to provide a holistic, confidential community based service where families are at the heart of what we do.

We are looking for people who are as passionate about the services we provide as we are and in return we are keen to support professional development with excellent training and development opportunities, enhanced sick pay (following completion of probation), enhanced annual leave entitlement (we close completely for a well-earned break over Christmas and New Year) and we support our staff with an Employee Assistance Programme, Pension Scheme, Discounted Childcare, Health Cash Plan and Discounted Shopping.

About BEACON:

Citizens Advice Edinburgh, Capital City Partnership, Fife Gingerbread, Midlothian Sure Start, Circle, Passion4Fusion, The Poverty Alliance and Glasgow Caledonian University are working in partnership to deliver BEACON, a service designed to tackle the roots cause of poverty experienced by ethnically diverse families.

BEACON — Building Equity, Accessibility and Connecting Opportunities Network — will support 200 ethnically diverse families and up to 600 individuals through a relational, wrap-around whole-family keyworker model.

The project will ensure support is available where and when families need it across the Edinburgh and Southeast Scotland region.

Each partner in the consortium will provide additional capacity and specialist expertise to reach ethnically diverse families and improve engagement and outcomes.

The role:

To deliver relational, holistic, culturally competent whole family support as part of the BEACON regional partnership, working with low-income, ethnically diverse families experiencing multiple and intersecting barriers, providing coordinated support across wellbeing, income, employability, childcare, housing, education and early years.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and skilled Family Support Practitioner to provide compassionate, strengths-based support to children and families facing a range of challenges. You should have experience working with families with complex needs, knowledge of child poverty and family wellbeing issues, and the ability to build positive relationships across diverse communities. Working collaboratively with partner organisations, you'll help families access services, overcome barriers and achieve positive outcomes through a trauma-informed and culturally competent approach.

Candidates should hold a relevant Social Care or Community Education qualification, with additional training in areas such as family wellbeing, trauma-informed practice or early years support.

Midlothian Sure Start is a dynamic, award winning third sector organisation. It offers a quality support service to families with children up to age 12 across Midlothian. Midlothian Sure Start has been in existence since 2001 and employs over 70 members of staff providing a service in Family Learning centres and in the community. Our ethos is to provide a holistic, confidential community based service where families are at the heart of what we do.

We are looking for people who are as passionate about the services we provide as we are and in return we are keen to support professional development with excellent training and development opportunities, enhanced sick pay (following completion of probation), enhanced annual leave entitlement (we close completely for a well-earned break over Christmas and New Year) and we support our staff with an Employee Assistance Programme, Pension Scheme, Discounted Childcare, Health Cash Plan and Discounted Shopping.

About BEACON:

Citizens Advice Edinburgh, Capital City Partnership, Fife Gingerbread, Midlothian Sure Start, Circle, Passion4Fusion, The Poverty Alliance and Glasgow Caledonian University are working in partnership to deliver BEACON, a service designed to tackle the roots cause of poverty experienced by ethnically diverse families.

BEACON — Building Equity, Accessibility and Connecting Opportunities Network — will support 200 ethnically diverse families and up to 600 individuals through a relational, wrap-around whole-family keyworker model.

The project will ensure support is available where and when families need it across the Edinburgh and Southeast Scotland region.

Each partner in the consortium will provide additional capacity and specialist expertise to reach ethnically diverse families and improve engagement and outcomes.

The role:

To deliver relational, holistic, culturally competent whole family support as part of the BEACON regional partnership, working with low-income, ethnically diverse families experiencing multiple and intersecting barriers, providing coordinated support across wellbeing, income, employability, childcare, housing, education and early years.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and skilled Family Support Practitioner to provide compassionate, strengths-based support to children and families facing a range of challenges. You should have experience working with families with complex needs, knowledge of child poverty and family wellbeing issues, and the ability to build positive relationships across diverse communities. Working collaboratively with partner organisations, you'll help families access services, overcome barriers and achieve positive outcomes through a trauma-informed and culturally competent approach.

Candidates should hold a relevant Social Care or Community Education qualification, with additional training in areas such as family wellbeing, trauma-informed practice or early years support.

The Financial Wellbeing Worker will play a key role in delivering OPFS’s Whole Family Support offer, providing high-quality, person-centred and strengths-based income maximisation and financial wellbeing support to single parents and their families across Scotland.

Working within the OPFS My Life and Me framework, the postholder will support parents to understand their financial circumstances, maximise household income, manage essential expenditure and build financial resilience.

The role will involve working with single parents experiencing financial pressures including low income, benefit changes, debt, rising household costs, insecure employment and childcare costs.

Key responsibilities

• Provide high-quality one-to-one income maximisation and financial wellbeing support.
• Assess household income, expenditure, financial circumstances and priorities.
• Identify opportunities to maximise income through welfare benefits, grants and other financial support.
• Support parents with welfare benefit applications, renewals and changes of circumstances where appropriate.
• Undertake benefit entitlement checks and calculations.
• Provide early intervention and preventative financial wellbeing support, helping parents identify and address financial pressures before they escalate into crisis or unmanageable debt.
• Support parents to budget effectively and identify opportunities to reduce household expenditure and essential living costs.
• Provide Better Off in Work calculations to help parents understand the financial implications of employment or changes to working hours.
• Support parents to understand the financial impact of changes in circumstances.
• Identify and respond appropriately to immediate financial hardship, including food,fuel and other essential needs, supporting parents to access relevant crisis assistance, grants and emergency provision.
• Provide income maximisation and financial wellbeing support within the agreed scope and competency of the role, identifying where specialist welfare rights, debt or regulated advice is required and ensuring timely referral to the appropriate OPFS or external service

Supporting single parents and families

• Build positive, trusting and respectful relationships with single parents, recognising their individual circumstances, strengths and aspirations.
• Use a person centred, strengths based and trauma informed approach.
• Work alongside parents to identify financial goals and develop realistic action plans.
• Support parents to build confidence, knowledge and skills in managing household finances.
• The postholder will take a holistic, whole-family approach, recognising the links between financial wellbeing, employment, housing, childcare, health and wider family circumstances. They will identify wider needs, strengths and goals and connect parents to appropriate OPFS and partner support, ensuring families can access the right support at the right time.
• Empower parents to make informed financial decisions and develop greater financial resilience.
• Recognise the wider impact of financial hardship on parents, children and family wellbeing and identify needs which may require support beyond the presenting financial issue.
• Take a whole-family approach, connecting parents to appropriate OPFS services and external support including family support, employability, childcare, welfare rights and debt services.
• Identify safeguarding, wellbeing or other concerns and respond appropriately in line with OPFS procedures.

Information, advice and signposting

• Provide accurate and accessible financial and benefits information within the remit of the role.
• Keep up to date with changes to welfare benefits, Scottish social security and relevant financial support.
• Make appropriate internal and external referrals to specialist services
• Work closely with OPFS Debt Service, Advice and Information, Family Support, Employability and other services to provide coordinated support.
• Maintain knowledge of relevant national and local services and resources.

National outreach and partnership working

• Deliver income maximisation support nationally across Scotland through face-to-face, telephone and digital approaches.
• Undertake proactive outreach and develop flexible and accessible approaches to engage single parents who may experience barriers to accessing traditional advice and support services.
• Develop effective relationships with statutory, voluntary and community organisations.
• Represent OPFS at relevant partnership meetings, events and networks.
• Promote the OPFS income maximisation service and wider support available to single parents.

Administration, monitoring and evaluation

• Maintain accurate, confidential and timely case records in line with OPFS policies and data protection requirements.
• Record outcomes and progress and contribute to monitoring, evaluation, case studies and funder reporting.
• Record evidence of the financial impact of the service, including income maximised and savings achieved where appropriate.
• Contribute to reporting requirements associated with the Whole Family Support Third Sector Delivery Fund.

Capture parent feedback and identify emerging issues affecting single parents.

Service development

• Contribute to the development and continuous improvement of OPFS’s national income maximisation offer.
• Share learning, good practice and emerging issues with colleagues and managers.
• Contribute to developing accessible financial wellbeing information, resources and workshops.

Health, safety and safeguarding

• Comply with OPFS policies and procedures relating to safeguarding, confidentiality, equality, diversity, inclusion, health and safety and data protection.
• Promote the wellbeing and safety of single parents and their children and ensure concerns are appropriately identified, recorded and escalated.
• Maintain appropriate professional boundaries when working with parents and families.

General responsibilities

• Attend team meetings, supervision, training and development opportunities.
• Share learning and good practice and contribute to effective team working.
• Promote equality, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of the role.
• Undertake any other duties commensurate with the post as requested by the Service Manager.