About Simon Community Scotland

People are at the heart of who we are and what we do. Day-by-day, person-to-person, we tailor what we offer to what people need. We’re here to provide consistent, friendly and informed support so that people can explore options and take ‘the next step’ towards their future. We welcome people with a wide range of skills and experiences to our team – including those who have lived through homelessness. To make a difference we need to work flexibly, with everyday-leadership, humour and a ‘can do’ spirit. We want to make it easy, make it right, and make it happen – not only for the people we support, but also for each other. We care for and support each other regardless of our role, service or location. We want people who share these values to join us and become a part of the Simon Community Scotland team.

Job Specific Description

This is an exciting leadership opportunity to bring together two pioneering and transformative services working with women experiencing homelessness in Glasgow: the newly developed Soft Edges and the established Connect Hub.

Soft Edges is a multi-agency government funded project, with Simon Community Scotland leading on the operational delivery, the aim of the service is to connect with women who have experienced barriers to accessing support for a number of reasons.

Soft Edges will be a co-produced and trauma-informed service built in partnership with women, supporting women that services struggle to reach. The Connect Hub offers a community based, drop-in model that prioritises flexibility, safety, and meaningful engagement and support alongside women experiencing homelessness in Glasgow City Centre.

A key focus of this role in the first six months will be to lead the co-design of the Soft Edges service alongside women with lived and living experience. This includes collaboratively shaping the full service offer - from outreach and housing pathways to staffing structures, job roles, and operational design. The successful candidate will guide an inclusive, creative and empowering design process that ensures the resulting service is grounded in the real needs, strengths, and aspirations of women that traditional systems and structures have historically struggled to serve.

Alongside this, you will provide strategic leadership for the Connect Hub, an established four-day-a-week community service for women, and manage a skilled multidisciplinary team across both services. You'll work in partnership with clinical psychology and partner agencies to deliver responsive, trauma-informed and relational support that creates meaningful change in women's lives and challenges systemic barriers.

This role requires a compassionate and strategic leader who can build trusting relationships, lead with compassion, support staff wellbeing, and champion co-production, all while ensuring services are sustainable, integrated, and impactful

Key Responsibilities

Strategic and Service Leadership 

Lead the co-design phase of the Soft Edges service, working alongside women to define:

• The service offer and model of support
• Team structure and job roles
• Values, principles and practice approach
• Service spaces and operational approaches
• Ensure lived and living experience drives every aspect of the Soft Edges design, embedding trauma-informed values from day one.
• Sharing and developing the service alongside broader strategic partners across Health and Social Care Partnership
• Translate the co-design outcomes into a fully developed, operationally ready service for launch after the initial six-month design phase.
• Ensure services remain aligned with trauma informed and co-production values.
• Provide ongoing operational leadership of the Connect Hub, ensuring it remains a responsive, trauma-informed, and accessible service for women in Glasgow.

Team Leadership

• Provide direct line management to the Soft Edges and Connect Hub team, and leadership support to the Practitioner Psychologist and Assistant Psychologist.
• Work in close partnership with the Clinical Psychologist and Head of Service to embed psychologically-informed environments (PIE) and trauma-informed care throughout the service.
• Ensure the recruitment and onboarding of new team members for Soft Edges aligns with co-designed values and role profiles.
• Ensure all staff are supported through supervision, coaching, and reflective practice, in collaboration with psychology colleagues.
• Actively promote wellbeing, emotional safety, and professional growth within staff teams.
• Model compassionate and values-based leadership in all relationships and decisions.

Partnership and System Engagement

• Build strong and strategic relationships across sectors (e.g. housing, health, VAWG, justice, social work, mental health) to improve pathways and systems of care for women.
• Represent the services and Simon Community Scotland in local forums and multi-agency settings.
• Champion systems change through storytelling, influence, and collaborative working, informed by women's lived experience, creating space for women to shape service design. Support team members to have regular care meetings to ensure multiagency working alongside women - steering the need for stronger communication across both public and third sector organisations involved in a women's care.

Budget and Resource Management

• Oversee and manage grant funded budgets across both services, ensuring accountability, transparency and delivery.
• Lead on securing additional funding and income generation opportunities, in collaboration with internal teams.
• Maintain clear and accessible reporting to funders, commissioners and stakeholders.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

• Oversee service monitoring and evaluation processes that are participatory, woman-centred, and deliver on outcomes for women.
• Collaborate with the psychology team and research partners to capture and share learning, impact and insight.
• Embed continuous improvement through learning reviews, co-production forums, and meaningful feedback loops.

Our Values & Approach

All SCS employees are expected to demonstrate the following values in their work:

Warmth and Regard

Recognising and valuing everyone

Treating people with kindness, dignity and respect

Acting with compassion

Showing warmth and welcome to everyone

Taking difficult decisions sensitively and with due regard to others

Taking a calm, professional and intelligent approach to stigma

Inclusion and Participation

Encouraging the participation and inclusion of people we support

Exploring choices and options with people we support or fellow colleagues

Making things easy for others

Embracing technology in delivering your role

Supporting clients, staff and volunteers to become digitally included

Personalised and Creative

Innovation and creativity

Helping to find solutions that are a good fit for someone, irrespective of who they are or the problem they have

When someone isn’t at their best, quickly recognising there’s probably something else. going on, and finding ways to respond with care

Supportive and Ambitious

Helping to bring hope through our words and actions

Helping to build trust

Being supportive and showing care

Partnership and Collaboration

Fostering positive relationships with our partners

Building team togetherness and collaboration

Fostering a positive problem-solving vibe

Leadership and Learning

Making things happen

Motivating and inspiring others

Taking time to reflect on what’s working and what isn’t

Taking care of our ‘places and spaces’ so they feel tidy and welcoming

Asking for help and learning to do things better

Playing an active role in our social media strategy

Person Specification

Training and qualifications:

Essential:

• Degree/HNC level in Social Work, Community Education, Health, or related field OR equivalent experience

• Trained in trauma informed practices

Desirable:

• Leadership qualification or relevant experience

Experience:

Essential:

Significant leadership experience in the homelessness, women’s, or related sectors, with a strong understanding of the intersectional challenges women face.

Proven experience managing multi-disciplinary teams in trauma-informed and psychologically-informed environments.

Track record of working in partnership with statutory and third sector professionals, including psychologists or mental health specialists.

Demonstrable experience of managing budgets and delivering funded projects with accountability.

Experience of working in or alongside systems such as housing, justice, health, or social care.

Experience of supporting service evaluation and research, which focuses on demonstrating the impact of services, as well as the importance of longevity.

Desirable:

Experience of co-producing services and working alongside people with lived experience to influence design and delivery.

We welcome applicants with lived experience of homelessness, poverty, or service involvement


Knowledge and Skills:

Essential:

Understanding of systemic inequalities and how they intersect (e.g. trauma, gender, poverty, racism, disability, migration, care experience).

Skilled communicator, confident in chairing meetings, speaking publicly, and writing reports or proposals.

Ability to think creatively, navigate complexity, and respond to emerging challenges.

Strong analytical and organisational skills; able to manage multiple priorities with flexibility and composure.

Committed to reflective practice, emotional resilience, and ongoing learning.

Skills in taking the initiative to build bridges between services. Understanding where there are gaps in service needs, and best routes into building something different.

Desirable:

Understanding of governance and accountability in a service delivery context (safeguarding, health & safety, etc.).

Experience working with groups or facilitating group-based interventions.

Knowledge of PIE (Psychologically Informed Environments)

Experience working with peer-led or peer-involved models.

Values & Behaviours:

Essential:

Passionate about women’s rights, social justice, and women’s wellbeing.

Compassionate, relational and emotionally intelligent leadership style.

A collaborative team player who can also work independently and make sound decisions.

Open-minded, flexible and able to work in non-traditional settings and hours.

Commitment to inclusion, co-production, and amplifying women's voices.