Advocacy & Participation Manager

Who Cares? Scotland is Scotland’s only national independent membership organisation for Care Experienced people. Our mission is to secure a lifetime of equality, respect, and love for Care Experienced people in Scotland and we currently have over 3000 Care Experienced members.   

At the heart of Who Cares? Scotland’s work are the rights of Care Experienced children and young people, and the power of their voices to bring about positive change. We provide individual relationship-based independent advocacy and a broad range of imaginative participatory opportunity for Care Experienced young people across Scotland; we work alongside corporate parents and communities of all sorts to broaden understanding; we work with policy makers, leaders and elected representatives locally and nationally to shape law, policy and practice on the basis of all that can be learnt from the voices of those with experience of care – working together to build on the aspirations of The Promise and secure positive change.

The Advocacy and Participation Manager will oversee the development of our independent advocacy services, including our lifelong advocacy offering, and the engagement and empowerment of Care Experienced people through participation opportunities.   

Contributing to Who Cares? Scotland’s leadership team and sharing the learning of this work positively and proactively across the organization, this APM role will provide a robust evidence base to support the evolvement of this work nationally.   

The right candidate will therefore be capable of forming positive relationships with people of all ages and backgrounds, will have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal, and be adaptable to a wide range of contexts. With experience managing budgets and performance targets, as well as reporting internally and to key stakeholders, you will also be skilled at supervising and supporting the work of staff and volunteers.  Some travel, as well as some evening and weekend work, is required due to the remit of the post. 

You will have a proven record of working collaboratively with partners successfully and will be committed to children’s rights, inclusive working, and equal opportunities. You believe that all people can make transformative change happen in their lives if given the opportunity.  

For an informal conversation about this opportunity please contact Caroline Richardson, Director of Advocacy and Participation at crichardson@whocaresscotland.org.