Project Officer – Child Maintenance

1.0 Programme Coordination, Governance and Collaboration

• Support the planning and coordination of programme activity to help ensure delivery of agreed outcomes and financial targets, including governance, budget monitoring, reporting and risk management.
• Provide coordination support for relationships with key internal and external stakeholders, including Fife Gingerbread.
• Support clear communication, shared learning across OPFS and the Child maintenance team, ensuring effective communication and consistency of delivery.
• Assist in facilitating collaborative working between OPFS and Fife Gingerbread, including organising meetings and tracking agreed actions.
• Contribute to strong partnership working by supporting communication, shared learning, and joint decision-making processes.
• Help maintain and update monitoring systems, capturing key data such as practitioner engagement, families supported and financial outcomes achieved.

2.0 Practice Development and Stakeholder Engagement

• Assist in building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders across Scotland, including:
  • Local authorities
  • City Region Deals
  • Financial inclusion services
  • Advice sector organisations
  • Family support organisations
• Support the promotion of child maintenance awareness within wider anti-poverty and financial inclusion initiatives.
• Provide coordination support for the national practitioner training programme, including:
  • Scheduling training sessions and managing logistics
  • Supporting session delivery and materials preparation
  • Gathering feedback and helping evaluate impact
• Work with colleagues to ensure learning from frontline delivery is captured and fed into training and service improvements.
• Support the development of practitioner networks and forums by organising events and maintaining communication channels.

3.0 Digital Platform

• Support the ongoing development and delivery of the Child Maintenance Explained online platform.
• Assist in maintaining content, ensuring it is accurate, user-friendly, and accessible.
• Help promote the platform to practitioners and partner organisations.
• Gather user feedback and insights to support continuous improvement of the platform.
• Support integration of the platform into training and wider family support services.

4.0 Corporate Responsibilities

• Support the work of OPFS and improve the lives of single parent families.
• Align with OPFS values of Justice, Equity, Trust, Compassion, and Collaboration. Adopt a trauma-informed, anti-stigma approach that embeds Equity, Diversity and Inclusion practice while ensuring all activities and outputs are accessible.
• Be flexible in approach to work and duties. Attend relevant training and events to enhance service effectiveness.
• Actively contribute to teamwork and promote a positive problem-solving attitude.
• Comply with policies on safeguarding, confidentiality, health and safety, and data protection.
• Ensure single parents’ voices and experiences influence your work.

The job description is a broad picture of the post at the time of preparation. It is not an exhaustive list of all possible duties, and it is recognised that jobs change and evolve over time.

Essential experience:

• Educated to SVQ4 or equivalent experience in a relevant subject
• Experience of financial inclusion and/or income maximisation and demonstratable knowledge of wider Social Security for families
• Training and working experience of supporting vulnerable families, and trauma informed practice
• Experience of navigating complex systems, advocacy and empowering families
• The ability to communicate well with different audiences, including delivery of high quality and engaging training sessions

Desirable:

• An understanding of Child Maintenance for families
• An understanding of relevant policy areas including whole family support routemap and tackling child poverty.

Personal Qualities & Attributes

• Strong understanding or lived experience of and the realities faced by single parent families.
• Commitment to anti-stigma, trauma-informed and rights-based practice.
• Values driven, aligned with OPFS’s mission to challenge poverty and inequality.
• Flexible, reflective and open to learning as the programme develops.
• Self-motivated with a commitment to continuous professional development.
• Strong commitment to equality, inclusion and diversity in all aspects of work.

• Confirmation of Appointment: 12-month fixed term contract with possible extension subject to funding,  Confirmation of appointment is subject to satisfactory completion of a 3-month probationary period, two references and a PVG check.
• Salary: Grade Point SP16 -17 (£31,080 to £32,560)
• Hours of work: 35 hours per week, worked flexibly to meet the needs of the service.
• Holidays: Annual leave entitlement is 25 days and 12 Public holidays (pro rata)
• Pension: You will be auto enrolled in our pension scheme with a 3% contribution from you and 7% contribution from OPFS.
• Training and support and supervision: You will receive induction training and frequent support in the first three months. Thereafter you will receive monthly individual support and supervision and annual appraisals. Regular team meetings will be held, and staff have access to internal and external training.
• Equal Opportunities and Family Friendly Employment: OPFS aims to be an equal opportunity and family friendly employer. OPFS has Investors In People Gold status.
• Recruitment Timetable: The closing date for applications is 8 June 2026.