Description Are you ready to lead a transformative project that could help families, tackle child poverty, and shape the future of school-age childcare in Scotland? The Scottish Government is committed to designing and delivering a system of school age childcare, providing care before and after school and during the holidays. A well designed and implemented school age childcare system has the potential to make a significant contribution to meeting our child poverty targets by supporting more parents to enter or to sustain employment and by reducing household costs. This post will take forward a crucial project for the School Age Childcare (SACC) programme, leading the work on regulatory change for SACC. A feasibility study is currently underway jointly with the Care Inspectorate to consider the future regulation of school age childcare services. The work requires strong leadership, working alongside key stakeholders, to deliver a programme of work to understand any required changes to the regulatory system, including legislative change. This work is a key priority for Ministers and this post in essential to delivering the policy. The post sits within the Improving Access and Sector Growth Unit in the School Age Childcare Division which is part of the Directorate for Children and Families within DG Education and Justice. Responsibilities Lead and manage a team to deliver high profile work in a fast-paced environment, building a resilient and highly motivated team with a diversity of skills and attributes. Work collaboratively to ensure policy join up across the SACC Programme and across other SG policy Programmes, including tackling child poverty and employability. Provide high quality support to Ministers and senior Scottish Government officials, including drafting speeches, answering PQs, co-ordinating cross-government briefings and inputting into other policy areas as needed to ensure policy alignment. Lead key areas of work across the SACC programme – in particular, responsibility for the regulation project and the benefits maximisation project. Developing and refining the regulation policy approach in collaboration with the Care Inspectorate and other key stakeholders, and leading on any necessary legislation to ensure delivery of the policy intent. Supporting development and delivery of the benefits maximisation workstream, ensuring policy objectives are aligned with the wider SACC programme aims. Build and maintain effective relationships, working collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders to deliver results. Success Profile Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of skills, experience and behaviours candidates will be assessed on. Qualifications Experience: Project management experience, ideally including Agile; and the ability to communicate and apply the experience in practice Experience in bringing together views, perspectives and diverse needs of stakeholders to gain a broader understanding of the issues surrounding policies and proposed systems change. Good planning and organisational skills including the ability to use own initiative to balance competing priorities, deliver at pace and respond flexibly to changing circumstances. Behaviours: Making Effective Decisions Communicating and Influencing Working together Leadership How to Apply - Closing 09/02/25 Apply online, providing a CV and Supporting Statement (of no more than 1000 words) which provides evidence of how you meet the skills, experience and behaviours listed in the Success Profile above. If invited for further assessment, this will consist of an interview and a presentation. Assessments are scheduled for w/c 03/03/25 however this may be subject to change. About Us The Scottish Government is the devolved government for Scotland. We have responsibility for a wide range of key policy areas including: education, health, the economy, justice, housing and transport. We offer rewarding careers and employ people across Scotland in a wide range of professions and roles. Our staff are part of the UK Civil Service, working for Ministers and senior stakeholders to deliver vital public services which improve the lives of the people of Scotland. We offer a supportive and inclusive working environment along with a wide range of employee benefits. Find out more about what we offer. As part of the UK Civil Service, we uphold the Civil Service Nationality Rules. Working Pattern Our standard hours are 35 hours per week. We offer a range of flexible and hybrid working options depending on the needs of the role. If you have specific questions about the role you are applying for, please contact us. Equality Statement We are committed to equality and inclusion and we aim to recruit a diverse workforce that reflects the population of our nation. Find out more about our commitment to diversity and how we offer and support recruitment adjustments for anyone who needs them. Further information Find out more about our organisation, what we offer staff members and how to apply on our Careers Website. Read our Candidate Guide for further information on our recruitment and application processes.