Vacancy: Early Years Community Engagement Manager

About the role

Job title: Early Years Community Engagement Manager

Contract: Full-time (35 hours per week), permanent

Salary: Starting salary £33,700 (plus an additional 3% allowance for role of deputy DCPO) Grade: 5, Salary band: £33,700 to £40,399

Closing date: 11 May 2025

Location: Blended between our Edinburgh Office and home

Download the recruitment pack

Benefits

• Generous holiday allowance
• Employee pension contribution of 5% per annum
• Possibility of flexible working
• Life assurance scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Cycle to Work scheme

About the job

Key responsibilities

• Leads and develops the EY community engagement work, advocating for the Bookbug Programme at local and national level, ensuring co-ordinated delivery and optimum impact of the EY programme
• Contribute to the strategic development of the Early Years programme, assist and deputise for the Head of Early Years, as required
• Implement a national strategy for engagement of harder to reach, more vulnerable families through the network of Bookbug for the Home practitioners, reviewing and developing as needed
• Develop and maintain strong working relationships with partner organisations and key stakeholders across Scotland (e.g. health, social work, education and library services, and third sector organisations), adapting delivery of key messaging and updates to increase and maintain continued engagement
• Develop tailored engagement plans for each local authority area, and work closely with the EY Training & Development Manager to identify and meet specific training needs
• Identify and establish relationships with new sectors to deepen the impact of Bookbug work (e.g. antenatal, perinatal infant mental health)
• Line-manage two project managers to ensure effective delivery of the programme as well as their training and development
• Oversee network support and communications with trained delivery partners (Bookbug Sessions Leaders, Bookbug for the Home practitioners)
• Oversee support for local Bookbug programmes and development of good practice sharing opportunities in person and online for Bookbug practitioners
• Collaborate with fundraising team to prepare and inform funding applications
• Develop guidance, resources and new initiatives in response to the emerging needs of families and/or practitioners, in collaboration with the EY Training and Development team
• Work with SBT’s Research and Evaluation team, lead on evaluation of Bookbug to ensure effective reporting to stakeholders, and identify further research needs
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge and understanding of national Early Years policies and research, to inform the strategic development of community engagement priorities
• Manage and monitor the EY community engagement budget and specific project budgets
• Support and deputise for the Designated Child Protection Officer (DCPO) ensuring our compliance with child protection practices to ensure safety and wellbeing of children engaging with SBT events; regularly reviewing child protection policies, responding to concerns, and maintaining accurate records
• Lead authority within the team for generating (initiating) and supporting the development of innovative fundraising and commercial opportunities, with collective responsibility for supporting the promotion of SBT’s commercial offerings including paid learning, the SBT shop and other paid for events
• Attend conferences, network meetings and events as an ambassador for Scottish Book Trust

Knowledge, skills and experience

You will have:

• Significant knowledge and practical experience in the Early Years / Child Development field
• A secure knowledge of current early years policy and practice in Scotland and current research in the fields of early years and child development
• Significant experience of managing complex, large-scale (preferably national) projects, including budget management skills
• Skilled network builder and collaborator with experience of managing key internal and external relationships
• Excellent communication, influencing and negotiation skills
• Excellent presentation skills; confident addressing groups of key stakeholders
• Highly motivated, organised and efficient; able to manage, prioritise and delegate a large and varied workload
• Knowledge, experience and understanding of providing quality assurance and supporting continuous improvement, evaluation methods and data analysis
• Experienced problem-solver, adept at finding creative solutions, persevering to achieve goals and resilient in the face of challenges and changing work priorities
• Experience of managing and motivating staff, leading achievement of objectives and excellent team working, in line with SBT’s values
• Experience of compliance with child protection practices and contributions to reviewing policies including knowledge sharing and maintaining accurate records
• Excellent IT skills, including Microsoft Office programmes

The post is a hybrid role with regular attendance at Scottish Book Trust offices in Edinburgh.

Other information

The post-holder must be prepared to undertake travel across Scotland and, from time-to-time, travel elsewhere in the UK, including occasional overnight stays. A full, clean UK driving licence and confident, experienced driving skills are desirable.

The post may involve working with children and young people, therefore appointment will be conditional upon securing a Level 1 disclosure from Disclosure Scotland. Flexible working options are available.

How to apply

Step 1: Download and complete our application forms

Please note that we do not accept CVs or AI-generated content. 

To apply for this role, please complete our application form and equal opportunity form, uploading them as PDFs if possible.

Download application form

Download equal opportunity form

Step 2: Upload your completed forms to our recruitment portal

Ready to submit your forms? Click the button below and complete these steps.

1. Add your contact information

2. Click 'next' when you are ready to upload your documents

3. Add your title to the document page

4. Upload (or drag and drop) the files and click 'Upload' after each document

5. When both documents are uploaded, submit your application

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If you have any difficulties applying or queries regarding this post, you can request support by emailing [email protected](this link will open in a new window).

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