About Simon Community Scotland
Simon Community Scotland is the largest provider of homelessness services in Scotland. Our vision is for everyone to have a safe place to live, with access to the support they need. Every day we help make positive things happen for people facing extremely difficult circumstances.
Everything we do is about and for people, the people we support, our staff, our partners and everyone affected by homelessness. Our values are built into every area of activity and tell the story of how people remain at the heart of the Simon Community.
Day by day, person-to-person, we tailor what we offer to what people need. We are here to provide consistent, friendly and informed support so that people can explore options and take ‘the next step’ towards a positive future.
We offer support across a range of service delivery points: Street Outreach teams, Housing First initiatives, Floating Support, Information Hubs, Managed Alcohol Program (MAP), Supported Accommodations, Emergency Accommodation, Rapid Access Accommodation, and our own rented properties. These services are delivered across many local authorities within Glasgow, Edinburgh, North Lanarkshire and Perth.
We welcome people with a wide range of skills and experiences to our team. To make a difference, we need to work flexibly, with everyday leadership and a ‘can-do’ approach. We want to make it right and make it happen – not only for the people we support, but also for each other.
Our #OneTeam ethos is core to who we are, it means caring for and supporting each other regardless of our role, service or location. Find out more about our services here. https://www.simonscotland.org/get-help/our-support-services/
Job Purpose
We recognise the challenges people with complex lives and challenges face in engaging with mental health services. These challenges are both systemic and borne from the individuals unpredictable and needs led lives. Despite having significant mental health and mental illness the ability to seek and receive treatment can be challenging.
We are looking for opportunities that can rethink what good accessible and meaningful mental health interventions can look like for people in our services.
Taking a co-production approach to identifying interventions that can be delivered in a social care environment and designed to be useful in real life conditions of homelessness, trauma, substance use and stigma. The postholder will explore international best practices and innovative external models and seek to support our frontline teams to facilitate a responsive and trauma-informed support system that meets people where they are, rather than where a service dictates they should be.
Job Summary
The role will provide leadership in developing and delivering an ambitious programme of integrated mental health recovery and suicide prevention interventions across SCS homelessness services. The role focuses on building "mental health recovery capital" and resilience through co-production with people who have lived experience of homelessness and multiple disadvantages. The lead will establish a national network of champions, translate evidence into practical resources, and collaborate with national partners.
Key Responsibilities
Inclusion and Participation
Leads a robust co-production approach, ensuring all resources and interventions are designed with and for the people we support.
Establishes and nurtures a "Champions Network" of staff and residents to tackle stigma and surface real-world solutions.
Promotes a high-tolerance, psychologically safe framework that prioritises the voices of those often disenfranchised by stigma.
Supportive & Ambitious
Directly leads the design and testing of new trauma-informed interventions and community-led learning resources.
Manages the project budget to ensure maximum impact and momentum.
Navigates and simplifies complex systems to ensure people leave homelessness better equipped to manage their mental health and provide support to others in their community
Warmth & Regard
Models a compassionate, relationship-based support style that recognises the unique, long-term trust built in residential environments.
Values lived and living experience as the primary driver for service improvement and system change.
Partnership & Collaboration
Establish partnership working between national entities, including Suicide Prevention Scotland, Public Health Scotland and the Scottish Recovery Network.
Connects with local statutory suicide leads and third-sector agencies to align with the Creating Hope Together Action Plan 2026-2029.
Ability to share learning and best practice studies across the wider homelessness sector in Scotland.
Personalised and Creative
Explores the delivery of innovative peer-led approaches and community-led learning resources.
Develop creative methods to embed tailored models of training such as Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) and SafeTalk training, for the people we support
Produces impact reporting that uses person-centred indicators to demonstrate success.
Digital Inclusion
Uses digital platforms and social media to disseminate shared learning and impact reports emerging from the project.
Promotes digital inclusion by ensuring mental health recovery materials are accessible to those with limited experience of digital systems.
Our Values
Inclusion & Participation
We include everyone in the services and resources they need, regardless of their circumstances and ensure each person's voice and influence are heard and felt in everything that we do.
Personalised & Creative
Each person we support is an individual with unique circumstances, needs and future potential which requires a uniquely tailored response.
Warmth & Regard
We see beyond a person's current or past circumstances, recognising their inherent value, worth and potential as human beings.
Partnership & Collaboration
We know we need to work positively with others to deliver a truly inclusive and personalised approach, improve our response and add value to the experience of the people we support.
Supportive & Ambitious
We encourage and support ambition, building on strengths to foster hope for the people we support as well as deliver growth and development for staff and volunteers.
Person Specification
Training & Qualification
Essential
Desirable
Experience
Essential
Desirable
Knowledge & Skills
Essential
Desirable
Personal
Essential
Desirable
