Introduction

People are at the heart of who we are and what we do. Day-by-day, person-by-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 bring both lived and learned experience. To make a difference, we 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 for each other. We care for and support each other regardless of our role, service or location.

We are looking for a leader who is genuinely passionate about working to prevent and end migration related homelessness and has a clear vision for what is needed in light of the changing landscape across Scotland.

This is a critical, national role at Simon Community Scotland. You will be someone who instinctively puts people’s voices and experiences at the very centre of service design and delivery. Your focus will be on leading us into our next phase of development, embedding and evolving our approach to ending migrant homelessness.

If you can balance high level strategic vision with a deep commitment to our on the ground reality, we want to hear from you.

Job Purpose

The Head of Ending Migrant Homelessness is a national role that will provide strategic leadership across a portfolio of innovative and developing services dedicated to supporting migrants experiencing or at risk of homelessness, as well as Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC). This portfolio includes leading the FairWay project (a multi-agency consortium) and the Saffron service (operating across Glasgow, Edinburgh and North Ayrshire), with the ambition to expand our reach and impact.

This is a senior leadership role with responsibility for driving forward service innovation, development, and systemic change. The postholder will lead diverse teams and programmes across the organisation, ensuring that practice is tightly aligned with immigration and housing policy, human rights frameworks, and organisational values.

You will play a key role in shaping and designing models of best practice, strengthening partnerships locally, nationally, and internationally, and influencing wider systems to dismantle barriers to safe housing for New Scots. This role will balance strategic development, consortium leadership, and oversight of emerging service models, ensuring they are sustainable, impactful, and deeply grounded in trauma-informed care and the voices and experiences of people with lived and living experience of the immigration and homelessness systems.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Leadership & Development

• Lead the strategic development of migrant homelessness and specialist immigration-related support services across the organisation.

• Provide strategic oversight and direction for:

  • The FairWay project consortium

  • The Saffron service (Glasgow and North Ayrshire)

  • Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) support and transition frameworks

  • No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) responses and destitution pathways

  • Rights-based and integration-oriented accommodation and support models

• Identify opportunities for innovation, service growth, and system change within the refugee, asylum, and migrant sectors.

• Ensure all service areas are aligned with organisational strategy, national housing policy, UK immigration legislation, and emerging evidence.

• Develop frameworks, models, and guidance that position the organisation's migrant services as examples of best practice nationally and internationally.

2. Policy, Practice & Quality Assurance

• Ensure seamless alignment between organisational policy, specialised migrant service models, and frontline practice.

• Lead the development and review of policies, procedures, and practice guidance in line with human rights, equalities legislation, and trauma-informed principles.

• Promote high standards of quality, legal safety, and ethical practice across all migrant and UASC services.

• Ensure trauma-informed, culturally competent, and gender-responsive approaches are deeply embedded across all teams.

• Oversee complex safeguarding, risk management, age-dispute frameworks (where applicable), and regulatory compliance related to vulnerable adult migrants and UASC.

3. Leadership of People & Teams

• Provide leadership to the Service Lead and teams nationally and across regions (including Glasgow, Edinburgh and North Ayrshire).

• Foster an organisational culture of inclusion, collaboration, continuous learning, and psychological safety.

• Lead and develop internal networks of practice, such as Migrant Rights and Inclusion Champions.

• Support reflective practice, continuous improvement, and cross-cultural competency across all delivery teams.

• Ensure effective performance management, supervision, and professional development tailored to the complexities of immigration-related support work.

• Lead and support teams to deliver high-quality, trauma-informed services to individuals navigating complex legal statuses.

4. Partnership & System Leadership

• Build, sustain, and leverage strong partnerships with local authorities, justice services, legal representatives, and third-sector refugee/migrant organisations.

• Provide robust leadership and governance for the FairWay project consortium, ensuring shared goals and high impact collaboration among partners.

• Develop strategic relationships with national and international stakeholders, including the Scottish Government’s Ending Destitution Team, Home Office, COSLA, housing networks, and human rights bodies.

• Represent the organisation at strategic forums, governmental working groups, and policy discussions.

• Influence policy, practice, and system change to mitigate the impact of NRPF and improve structural responses to migrant destitution and homelessness.

5. Innovation, Learning & Evidence

• Drive a culture of innovation, testing, and learning to find legal and creative solutions to migrant homelessness.

• Oversee monitoring, evaluation, and impact measurement frameworks across all migrant service portfolios.

• Utilise data, legal trends, and lived experience evidence to inform service design, continuous improvement, and the scaling of successful interventions.

• Develop and disseminate policy briefings, learning reports, and best practice models to the wider sector.

• Contribute to research, publications, and knowledge-sharing regarding migrant homelessness and UASC pathways at national and international levels.

6. Service Development & Sustainability

• Lead the development of new services, pilots, and strategic funding opportunities tailored to non-UK nationals and UASC.

• Work collaboratively with senior leadership to secure, diversify, and sustain statutory and philanthropic funding streams.

• Oversee budgets across the FairWay consortium, Saffron, and UASC service areas, ensuring effective, compliant, and accountable use of resources.

• Support the scaling, adaptation, and replication of successful migrant support models across different local authorities.

7. External Profile & Promotion

• Act as a senior ambassador for the organisation’s migrant rights, integration, and homelessness development work.

• Promote consortium models (like FairWay) and localised services (like Saffron) as national benchmarks of best practice through presentations, events, and sector networks.

• Contribute directly to strategic communications, including media commentary, conferences, and social platforms, to advocate for the rights of homeless migrants and UASC.

• Strengthen the organisation’s reputation as a leading, courageous voice in innovative, trauma-informed, and rights-based practice for displaced individuals.

 Our Values and 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

● 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 & Qualifications

Essential:

Core Requirement: Degree-level qualification (or equivalent experience) in Immigration and Migration, Human Rights, Law, Housing, or Social Work, alongside leadership credentials.

Specialist Training: Advanced grounding in trauma-informed practice and cultural competency.

Desirable:

Desirable Assets: * Certified training in UK Immigration Law (e.g., OISC Level 1).

• Specialised training in Child Protection and UASC statutory frameworks.

Experience

Essential:

• Significant leadership experience within health, social care, housing or third sector services.

• Experience leading complex, multi-site or national services.

• Experience developing and implementing innovative service models.

• Experience of partnership working at a strategic level.

• Experience influencing policy and system change.

• Experience of designing and facilitating training

• Experience managing budgets and multiple funding streams.

• Experience overseeing monitoring, evaluation and impact reporting.

Knowledge & Skills

Essential:

• Immigration & Housing Law: A deep grasp of how UK immigration policy intersects with homelessness, specifically regarding No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) and asylum pathways.

• Safeguarding & Risk: High-level governance skills covering complex safeguarding for both vulnerable adults and children.

• Understanding of systemic inequalities and intersectionality.

• Excellent leadership, communication and influencing skills.

• Ability to think strategically and translate vision into practice.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

• Knowledge of governance, safeguarding and regulatory frameworks.

Values & Behaviours

Essential:

• Driven by rights and social justice, a deep, visible commitment to migrant justice, human rights, and anti-racism.

• A leadership style that fosters psychological safety across diverse teams and builds trust with marginalised groups.

• Lived Experience Centred, unwavering commitment to co-production, ensuring services are shaped by those who have navigated the immigration and homelessness systems.

• Collaborative, with the ability to build trust across diverse stakeholders.

• Innovative, adaptable and solutions-focused.

• Committed to co-production and amplifying lived experience.

To be eligible for this position, we require candidates to either hold British citizenship or have the right to work in the UK. Unfortunately, we are unable to sponsor applications from candidates who do not currently possess the right to work in the UK.