Role: Family Links Lead - Skye
Hours: Full-time: 35 hours per week.
Salary: £36,261 (FTE – pro rata)
Holidays: 25 leave days plus 13 statutory holidays (pro rata)
Pension: 3% Company Pension contributions
Place of work: Hybrid - with an expectation of frequent travel within Skye and, occasionally, to Inverness/Invergordon and across Highland to fulfil aspects of the role.
Contract: 12 months initially, extension is subject to funding.
Reports to: Home-Start East Highland Manager
Closing date: Friday 18th September 2026 - 9am
Interview dates: w/b 28th September - TBC
All applications will be acknowledged, and candidates will be kept informed on the progress of their application.
About Family Links
Family Links is a pioneering service led by a partnership of third sector organisations - the Care and Learning Alliance, Homestart East Highland and Thriving Families - and supported by the Highland Whole Family Wellbeing Programme. Working alongside schools and other statutory and third sector providers, the Family Links partnership is testing and developing our approach to the delivery of holistic support to families in targeted communities across Highland.
For the past 18 months, we have focused on testing our approach within the Inverness area, and we have now secured funding to further test and develop Family Links in other areas of Highland. The current role is to lead the Home-Start East Highland Family Links team in Skye.
Family Links provides a bridge between home, school and community, supporting families to overcome challenges to wellbeing and enabling children and young people to flourish in school and beyond.
It is recognised that there is a range of potentially beneficial outcomes for children and young people to be gained from building closer partnerships between schools, communities and families and supporting all family members to address both practical and emotional issues.
Support provided to families is agreed alongside families, is delivered flexibly and is responsive to the needs of families and individual family members. It is available to families for as long as they need it.
About Home-Start East Highland
Home-Start East Highland provides family support services across East Ross, Inverness-shire and southern Skye. We recognise that parenting can be both rewarding and challenging, particularly during the early years of a child's life. Many families experience periods of stress and uncertainty, and for some, these challenges are compounded by circumstances such as postnatal depression, parental or child illness or disability, social isolation, or the demands of caring for multiple births.
Home-Start East Highland exists to provide compassionate, practical and emotional support to families when it is needed most. Our core service is delivered by carefully recruited and trained volunteers with parenting experience, who provide regular home visits and tailored support. This trusted peer-to-peer approach empowers families to build confidence, strengthen resilience, and achieve positive outcomes for themselves and their children.
In addition to our volunteer-led home visiting service, we deliver a range of targeted projects funded through charitable donations, grants from trusts and foundations, and government funding programmes. Alongside our dedicated volunteers, our team of paid Family Support Workers, PEEP Development Worker, and Family Links Partnership staff provide specialist support to meet the diverse needs of families across our communities.
By joining Home-Start East Highland, you will become part of a committed organisation dedicated to improving the lives of children and families through early intervention, compassionate support, and strong community partnerships.
Role description
Purpose of role
The Family Links Lead will lead and support a small team of Family Links Workers in Highland, simultaneously working as part of the wider Home-Start East Highland team and the Family Links partnership.
The Family Links Lead ensures that all Home-Start East Highland Family Links Workers are fully supported to undertake their duties, provide a high quality of service and have their needs met. As a senior member of the Home-Start East Highland team, this role plays an integral role in coordinating operational delivery, supporting with working practice guidance, policies and processes.
The Family Links Lead is also responsible for coordinating and facilitating the partnership with schools, statutory agencies and third sector in the area – including ensuring robust monitoring and evaluation of project outcomes and, where required, mentoring local partners in the delivery of holistic family support - in collaboration with the Highland Whole Family Wellbeing Programme’s Family Links Project Manager.
In addition to this, the Family Links Lead – Skye will support a small caseload of families in the same way as our Family Links Workers (see Appendix A). These cases may be more complex in nature than the typical Family Links Worker caseload. In your Family Links Worker capacity, you will provide one-to-one holistic, information, advice and support to families in Skye who are experiencing school attendance and engagement issues, supporting and enabling them to improve their lives by building their confidence, empowering them to recognise their personal expertise and value, to implement practical support strategies, access services, know their rights, and to have their voices heard.
Main responsibilities and duties
The Family Links Lead Skye is responsible for:
· Line managing the Home-Start East Highland Family Links team, including providing one-to-one (and team-based) support and supervision for all Family Links Workers in the area.
· Delivering internal training to the Family Links team and coordinating external training and development opportunities for Family Links Workers and co-ordinating with the wider Home-Start East Highland team and the Family Links partnership.
· Working alongside the Family Links Project Manager to ensure the smooth and ongoing delivery of Family Links.
· Ensuring Family Links Workers are aware of, and working in line with, the policies, procedures and guidance of both Home-Start East Highland and the Family Links partnership.
· Involvement in recruitment and selection processes as necessary, including interview and induction processes.
· Quality assuring the service delivered by the Home-Start East Highland Family Links team and collaborating with Family Links Team Leads from other Family Links partner organisations to ensure equity and quality of Family Links delivery across all test sites in Highland.
· Provision of regular progress reports for the Home-Start East Highland and the Family Links Project Manager.
· Undertaking all aspects of the Family Links Worker role (most complex cases) as detailed in Appendix A below.
· Undertaking any other duties within the skillset of this role required by the Thriving Families Chief Executive.
[We understand the value of finding the right candidate for the role, so some flexibility in working hours may be possible. This role is open to job share.
Please see Appendix A: Family Links Worker role description
Family Links currently operates in Inverness and is developing new teams in Skye, Lochaber, and Badenoch and Strathspey
Main Responsibilities
· Work in partnership with children, young people, schools, parents, carers, local statutory providers and community organisations to deliver tailored, holistic support to families who are referred to Family Links.
· Liaise with contacts within schools beyond to ensure that support for referred families is joined up and effective.
· Meet and support both young and adult family members – individually or collectively and in their own home or in a safe space outside the home as appropriate to individual circumstances and need – to identify practical and emotional issues which have an impact on wellbeing and actions to address these.
· Where appropriate and within the remit and skillset of this role, work directly alongside family members, as relevant, to action issues identified. Otherwise, direct and signpost family members to appropriate sources of support within the community and beyond.
· Meet regularly with the wider Family Links team to reflect on experiences, share learning and good practice.
· Carry out continual monitoring of support delivered against key indicators and provide regular feedback reports to the schools and the Family Links partnership and ensure that the voices and views of children, young people and families are at the heart of this.
· Work alongside partners from schools, statutory services and community groups to contribute to the creation of more neuro-positive environments within homes, schools and the community.
· Where appropriate and identified as a need by families and partners, facilitate group and peer support opportunities for families, including during school holidays.
For an application pack or if you have any questions please e-mail [email protected] or call 01349 854018. Any applications received after 9am on Friday 18th September will not be considered.
Pay: £36,261.00 per year
Benefits:
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Isle of Skye
