Job
Description

Job title:People-led Policy Officer (Social Care Support)

Reports to:Policy and Localisation Manager

Salary:£27,828 per annum, plus 8% pension contribution

Hours:35 per week (full time)

Location:Edinburgh with regular travel

Contract:Until July 2019, extension subject to funding

Background

Inclusion Scotland

Inclusion Scotland is a well-established and rapidly growing national membership organisation. Through our networks of disabled people, their organisations and allies we reach large numbers of disabled people across Scotland. We are a Disabled People’s Organisation (DPO), which means we are led by disabled people. This is important, because disabled people know best, from lived experience, what prevents our full inclusion into Scottish society and what needs to be done to promote it.

Inclusion Scotland works to achieve positive changes to policy and practice, so that we disabled people are fully included throughout all Scottish society as equal citizens.

We do this by:

  • Influencing decision-makers, ensuring that disabled people are involved in developing effective solutions for policy and practice that reflect our expertise by experience and meet our needs and aspirations.
  • Supporting disabled people to be decision-makers themselves, promoting the equal representation of disabled people as policy-makers and our right to make decisions about our own lives.
  • Developing capacity, awareness and engagement, of disabled people, disabled people’s organisations, and the organisations and institutions that affect our lives.

Inclusion Scotland is structured into teams:

  • Management team (made up of CEO, Deputy CEO and team managers)
  • Employability and Civic Participation (internships and activities to support disabled people’s inclusion in politics and public life)
  • Independent Living in Scotland (developing new policy and strategic connections)
  • Local Policy and Engagement (Highlands project and local development activities)
  • Engagement and Communications (supporting and co-ordinating our engagement and communications activities)

There are cross-organisational teams focusing on policy, administration and IT. We are also the Scottish partner in the UK-wide Disability Research on Independent Living and Learning (DRILL) programme.

You can find out more about our work by going to our web-site: or by visiting our Facebook page: by following us on Twitter:

The project

This new post has been created to deliver a new flagship project aiming to increase the influence of people who use Adult Social Care Support on national policy and practice, placing them at the heart of related developments.

Funded by Scottish Government, the key focus of the project will be to establish and co-ordinatean innovative engagement structure through which policy-makers concerned with social care support can easily access the views of people with lived experience of using it. The engagement structure will be made up of a core group of around 15-20 diverse people with lived experience. This group will sit within a wider ‘policy panel’ of around50 people. The core group will be the main focus for engagement, with the panel providing less intensive input. The core group will have a direct channel of communication to the Cabinet Secretary. Members will include disabled people, carers, older people and people living at home, or in residential or segregated settings. There will be people with different characteristics, from different backgrounds or communities, using social care support in different ways for different purposes, drawn from right across Scotland.

Working collaboratively with a range of key stakeholders, the purposes of the project are to:

  • Place people who use services genuinely ‘at the heart’ of strategy and policy development and service design of social care support.
  • Provide an effective, efficient means of gathering focused, relevant input from people who use services to inform policy-making.
  • Have a positive impact on the quality of policy, practice and services.
  • Shape a shared vision for social care support and raise awareness of its distinct contribution, both to personal well-being and to societal enrichment, its multiple roles and value.
  • Capacity-build all participants as necessary to help promote effective, productive engagement.
  • Develop and strengthen the overall engagement infrastructure.

The People-led Policy Officer (Social Care Support) is one of two posts that will be recruited to deliver this project. The other is a People-led Policy Worker (Social Care Support) Worker post that will be based in our Highland office.

Local Policy and Engagement Team

Both new posts will be members of Inclusion Scotland’s Local Policy and Engagement Team. This is charged with delivering several projects, including:

  • The development and capacity building of 6 ‘Disabled People’s Policy Panels’in different policy areas. This project includes the development of a Policy Panel on Adult Social Care Support and related areas.
  • A Localisation and Engagement Project, based in the Highlands.
  • Highland’s Peer Participation and Empowerment Advice (Community Partnership engagement) Project.

Additional projects and/ or activities may be added to this list during the course of the year, as new opportunities for funding are identified and funding secured that enables us to progress our strategic goals.

The Local Policy and Engagement team is comprised of the Policy and Localisation Manager, the Highlands Policy and Engagement Officer and administrative support, and both new posts working on the People-led Policy (Social Care Support) pilot. The Policy and Localisation team is located within Inclusion Scotland’s wider Policy team.

Please note – this is a new job description and it may be subject to some refinement in discussion with the post-holder.

Job purpose and overview

The primary focus of this post will be to take responsibility for the successful delivery of the People-led Social Care Support pilot project, testing out this new approach, and ensuring that we meet the outcomes contained within our funding agreement with the Scottish Government. The pilot is funded to run until the end of June 2019and so the post is offered on a fixed-term contract to cover that period. Further funding is expected to be granted subject to successful delivery of the project but this cannot be guaranteed.

The post-holder will work closely with the Policy and Localisation Manager and the Highland People-led Policy Worker who will be promoting the project in the Highland region. They will also need to work with the Engagement and Communications Team, and particularly the Communications and Information Worker in that team, who has a cross-organisation role in promotion, social media and use of our website.

The main areas of work for this post will be:

  • Recruit, support and run a core people-led policy group on Social CareSupport, within a wider ‘Policy Panel’.
  • Build the capacity of members and of those wishing to engage with them in order to support effective engagement, sourcing training as necessary.
  • Prepare accessible briefings and papers on social care support policy, etc.
  • Act as a source of expertise on social care support and accessible engagement methods.
  • Build good relationships with key external stakeholders and be a focal point for communications with lead Scottish Government officials and others wishing to engage with the group or panel.
  • Support the design and implementation of a continuous evaluation/evidence-gathering process against the group’s outcomes, captureand share learning.
  • Promote the activities and achievements of the project

Line-management will be provided by the Policy and Localisation Manager, who provides overall strategic leadership and oversight for this area of work within the organisation as part of the organisation’s Management Team.

Please note – this is a new job description and it may be subject to some refinement in discussion with the post-holder.

Key tasks

  1. Project delivery and reporting
  1. Recruit, support and run the People-led Policy group, ensuring people with awide range of characteristics and lived experience are included.
  2. Recruit, support and run a wider ‘Policy Panel’ for less intensive engagement.
  3. Establish working methods, including support and promotion of co-production processes between the group and policy-makers.
  4. Develop a forward plan of topics for engagement, ensuring timeliness to maximise scope to inform and influence developments.
  5. Organise accessible meetings, and events as necessary, ensure an accurate record is kept and stored.
  6. Prepare accessible briefings and papers on social care support policy, etc., working closely with Inclusion Scotland’s Policy and Research Officer, lead officials, and others wishing to engage with the group.
  7. With your line manager and the project worker in Highland, develop a detailed project plan, budget and time-line. Support the design and implementation of a continuous evidence-gathering, monitoring and evaluation process against the project’s outcomes.
  8. Produce reports for funders, Inclusion Scotland’s Board and subcommittees in conjunction with your line manager.
  1. Policy, Engagement and Capacity Building
  1. Act as a source of expertise on social care support and its impact and relationship to other policy areas.
  2. Act as a source of expertise on engagement methods.
  3. Represent Inclusion Scotland on Scottish Government and other advisory groups and engagement structures on Social Care Support, Health and Social Care Integration, and other related policy areas, ideally in partnership with member/s of the group.
  4. With the lead Scottish Government official, promote the group and panel and proactively identify opportunities to involve them.
  5. Liaise closely with Inclusion Scotland policy colleagues to ensure ‘on the ground’ experience is fed into other related national policy work, and that information on national policy developments is conveyed back to group members.
  6. As necessary, capacity build members of the group, policy panel and those wishing to engage with them, sourcing training/ ers if required.
  7. Support the design and implementation of a process to capture, evaluate, implement, and share learning.
  1. Collaboration, Communication and Advice
  1. Build good relationships and work collaboratively at all times with key external stakeholders, including Disabled People’s Organisations, disability and carers organisations, COSLA, social care provider organisations and others, draw on their expertise and experience, add value to their work, identify opportunities tocollaborate across the wider sector, ensuring duplication is avoided.
  2. Act as a link to the wider sector and the focal point for communications with lead Scottish Government officials and others wishing to engage with the group.
  3. Work with and support the group to prepare advice notes and any other outputsto policy-makers, including the Cabinet Secretary.
  4. Maintain good communications with Scottish Government officials with lead responsibility for this work
  5. Make good use of communication channels (Facebook, Twitter, web-site, blog, newsletter, etc.) to promote group activities to raise profile and awareness of input, achievements and learning.
  1. General
  1. Attend and contribute to Inclusion Scotland staff meetings and awaydays, and meetings of their Board of Directors, as required.
  2. Prepare papers and reports to the Chief Executive Officer and/or Board as required.
  3. Help to promote the values and ethos of Inclusion Scotland.
  4. Undertake other duties as may reasonably be required by the Chief Executive Officer or Inclusion Scotland’s Board of Directors

Person specification

Experience

Essential:

  1. Working collaboratively and effectively with a wide range of stakeholders with different priorities and views, to produce results
  2. Policy development and/ or analysis
  3. Community development or capacity-building experience
  4. Personal or professional experience of disability and the barriers disabled people face
  5. Planning, monitoring and delivering a project, to meet deadlines and targets, within budget.

Desirable:

  1. Delivering results through co-production
  2. Event planning and delivery.
  3. Representing an organisation externally

Skills and abilities

Essential:

  1. Excellent interpersonal skills including relationship/ partnership building skills and/or collaborative working
  2. Excellent communication skills, able to communicate accessibly and appropriately with a wide range of people for different purposes, and using various communication methods
  3. Proficiency with intermediate IT skills including MS Office (including Excel)
  4. Strong team working skills

Knowledge and understanding

Essential:

  1. Good understanding of social care policy, roles and processes at national and local levels, including local Health and Social Care engagement processes and structures
  2. Good understanding of engagement methods and purposes
  3. Knowledge of policy-making processes
  4. Knowledge of the key issues affecting users of Social Care.

Desirable:

  1. Basic understanding of data protection and security

Personal qualities

Essential:

  1. Commitment to independent living, the social model of disability and human rights (see our website for more information on these)
  2. Able to work under pressure, prioritise appropriately and meet deadlines
  3. A proactive, creative approach to problem solving
  4. Able to take appropriate action on own initiative and work as part of a team.

Other requirements

Essential:

  1. Willingness to travel throughout Scotland, with some overnight stays
  2. Willingness to work occasional anti-social hours.

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