Location: National Office at Great Michael House, Edinburgh
Salary: £30,768.10 pro rata (£24,614.48 actual)
Hours: 28 hours per week
Contract: 12 month contract (with a view to extending)
Directorate: Development
Reports To: Director of Development
Change Mental Health is a leading national mental health charity providing unique support to people with severe and enduring mental ill health. With over 50 years’ experience across Scotland, we believe people affected by poor mental health and illness deserve the highest quality of support in the community and that every person has the right to be valued and to share in the opportunities, challenges, and joys of everyday life.
Creating Hope Together
Creating Hope Together is Scotland's suicide prevention strategy and action plan (2022–2032), published by the Scottish Government and COSLA. Its vision is to reduce the number of suicide deaths in Scotland while tackling the inequalities that contribute to suicide, so that any child, young person or adult who has thoughts of taking their own life, or who is affected by suicide, gets the help they need and feels a sense of hope.
All of the work is delivered in line with the strategy's guiding principles: putting inequalities and diversity first; co-developing our work with people with lived and living experience; embedding Time, Space, Compassion; keeping the voices of children and young people central; connecting people across sectors to learn together; reducing the stigma of suicide; and ensuring our work is evidence-informed.
The role
This is a new role, hosted by Change Mental Health on behalf of Suicide Prevention Scotland, created to support delivery of Outcome 3 of Creating Hope Together: that everyone affected by suicide is able to access high quality, compassionate, appropriate and timely support.
The postholder will work alongside colleagues in the delivery collective - primarily the Time Space Compassion (TSC) Lead and the Children and Young People (CYP) Lead - to support delivery of a range of actions across the Delivery Plan. In practice this means helping partners in community, primary care, unscheduled care and mental health settings to put person-centred, compassionate approaches into everyday practice; growing the reach of Time, Space, Compassion across Scotland; and strengthening support for children and young people at higher risk of suicide.
The role focuses on enabling practical change in real-world settings through strong partnerships, effective communication, and the thoughtful use of learning and evidence to support continuous improvement. It sits within a small, collaborative team and works across a wide network of national and local partners, including NHS Boards, local authorities, third sector organisations, the Lived and Living Experience Panel (LLEP) and the Youth Advisory Group (YAG).
Key Responsibilities
Support delivery of implementation and improvement resources in practice
- Support partners to work at a national and local level to embed person‑centred, compassionate approaches to supporting people affected by suicidal thoughts and behaviours.
- Work with partners and draw on the latest evidence, best practice and a range of experts, to identify and respond to barriers and enablers to implementation
- This includes supporting the adaptation and implementation of national improvement and implementation resources, with a particular focus on:
- The roll out of the Enabling Conversations Toolkit for children and young people, in the CYP sector
- The Time Space Compassion approach, including work to support the implementation of personalised risk management approaches in community and clinical settings.
Build and maintain stakeholder relationships
- Develop and maintain relationships with strategic, community and lived experience partners at both national and local level, holding a portfolio of implementation partnerships.
- Represent the work of Suicide Prevention Scotland in multi-agency partnerships and networks, building trust, setting realistic expectations and delivering reliably.
- Work in close partnership with colleagues across the delivery collective to ensure a coherent, joined-up approach across Outcome 3 and the wider delivery plan.
Lead communications and knowledge sharing
- Develop and deliver engaging, accessible communications that promote learning and support the spread of our resources and projects.
- Use digital channels and networks to share insight and good practice.
- Create content that is trauma-informed, inclusive and practice-focused.
Support evaluation and continuous improvement
- Work with local and national partners to develop and implement proportionate evaluation activity that identifies impact, learning and opportunities for improvement.
- Synthesise and share learning to inform the future development of our resources, including producing clear, accessible written summaries.
Project coordination and management
- Support national and local partners to plan, coordinate and administer implementation activity, maintaining project plans, milestones and risk registers.
- Monitor progress against delivery plan milestones and prepare updates and reports for governance groups.
- Support budget tracking and ensure value for money.
General Duties:
- Act in accordance with Data Protection legislation. Ensure all records, personal, staff and client data are managed in line with Data Management and Information Governance policies.
- Comply with legal and regulatory requirements such as provisions set out in the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
- As with all employees, workers and volunteers; to encourage people to join Change Mental Health as a member, donor or activist.
- To act in accordance with the charity's Health & Safety and Safeguarding policies and to notify your line manager promptly if there are any concerns.
- To participate in regular supervision and appraisal and undertake any relevant training as appropriate to the role.
- To work in accordance with the charity's national policies and local operating procedures and those of external regulators or professional bodies.
- Undertake other related duties in line with the scope and purpose of the role, as agreed with the line manager.
Essential Criteria:
- A track record of delivering change and of working in multi-agency stakeholder partnerships and groups.
- The ability to build understanding quickly and become effective in the role at pace.
- The ability to build and maintain trust – setting realistic expectations and delivering reliably, with an approach that balances ambition with pragmatism.
- The ability to find a way through complex topics and situations, prioritising the most important tasks to make the best use of time.
- A strong commitment to compassionate, person-centred ways of working, and to ways of working that can be applied in day-to-day practice.
- The ability to apply group learning principles to support collective improvement and development.
- Excellent communication and facilitation skills, including the ability to produce sensitive, trauma-informed and equity-focused materials and session plans.
- Strong organisational and project coordination skills, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams and meet deadlines.
- A commitment to co-production with people with lived and living experience, and to tackling the inequalities that contribute to suicide.
- Willingness and ability to travel across Scotland, with occasional overnight stays.
Desirable Criteria
- Experience of working in suicide prevention, self-harm or mental health, particularly with children and young people.
- Experience of supporting the implementation of practice resources and improvement programmes across multiple settings.
- Knowledge of the Time, Space, Compassion approach and/or the NCISH recommendations and patient safety toolkit.
- Understanding of the health, local government and third sector landscape in Scotland, including NHS Boards, community planning and national policy.
- Experience of evaluation, quality improvement or implementation science approaches.
This job profile and list of duties is not exhaustive and serves only to highlight the main requirements. The line manager may stipulate other reasonable requirements and projects commensurate with the general profile and grade of the post.
All successful candidates will require a PVG Membership. Please be aware that it is classed as an offence if you apply for this role and are barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children or vulnerable adults.
Benefits:
· 24/7 access to an award-winning Employee Assistance Programme providing free legal, financial, and medical advice as well as support with life’s challenges.
· A 35-hour working week, enhanced sick pay & season ticket loan.
· A great work life balance with flexible and blended working environment.
· Access to purchase a Blue Light Discount Card
· Cycle to Work Scheme
· Enhanced sick pay and leave entitlements.
· Generous 37 days’ holiday.
· Paid Mental Wellbeing days.
· Professional development including funded opportunities.
To apply:
Visit the Change Mental Health website to apply online. Please do not apply through Indeed.
Please note all applications must be received by midday on Friday 7 August 2026. Interviews are due to be held week commencing Monday 17 August 2026.
We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.
If you consider yourself to have a disability, please inform us of any arrangements that we may make to the interview process.
We reserve the right to close this advert earlier or later than stated. Please don’t delay your application to avoid any disappointment.
If you have any questions or would like an informal chat, please reach out to Jonny Cobbold at [email protected]
Pay: £30,768.10 per year
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Company pension
- Employee discount
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Edinburgh EH5
