Public Involvement Advisor

Public Involvement Advisor ()

Community Engagement and Transformational Change Directorate

Band 6 (£41,608 - £50,702)

Permanent, Full-time (37 hours per week), Edinburgh/Glasgow - hybrid working will apply for the foreseeable future (all roles require some routine travel for in-person meetings, site visits, workshops and events).

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) is Scotland’s national improvement agency for health and social care. Our Community Engagement and Transformational Change Directorate works to drive better outcomes through meaningful engagement with people and communities, innovative system redesign, and sustainable improvement.

The Engagement Practice Improvement Unit leads national work to strengthen engagement and volunteering practice across health and social care. Our priority areas include:

• Developing and delivering a national Engagement Practice and Improvement Learning System
• Leading a Volunteering Transformation Programme across NHS Scotland

Together, these programmes aim to embed engagement, lived and living experience, and volunteering in the design and delivery of services, ensuring they meet diverse needs and improve the quality of care for people who use health and social care services.

The Public Involvement Advisor (PIA) plays a central role within the Engagement Practice Improvement Unit, applying and developing expertise in both engagement practice and project management. The postholder will also provide advice and support to health and social care organisations across Scotland.

This position sits within the Engagement Practice Learning and Improvement System (EPLIS) team.

• Work collaboratively with the Senior Engagement Advisor and Improvement Advisors to plan, co‑ordinate and deliver projects and programmes that strengthen engagement practice, build capability, and support learning and improvement across Scotland.
• Contribute to the Engagement Practice Responsive Support Service by scoping new requests and providing tailored advice, guidance, signposting, or hands‑on support, where appropriate.
• Manage a small team of Project Officers, providing them with leadership, mentoring and development support to ensure high‑quality project management and delivery of Learning and Improvement System activities.
• Design and deliver high‑quality training, coaching and learning activities that build engagement capability and strengthen practice across diverse teams and settings.

• Lead the development and delivery of projects within the Engagement Practice Improvement and Learning System.
• Work as part of a multidisciplinary team to plan, deliver and assure programmes that support engagement with people with lived and living experience, ensuring alignment with organisational engagement methods, tools and standards.
• Use a range of community engagement and co‑production approaches to meaningfully involve people in the collaborative design and delivery of learning and improvement tools and resources.
• Capture, collate and analyse engagement insights and feedback to produce outputs, reports and resources that support improvement.
• Work with people who use and deliver health and social care services to identify and evidence opportunities to strengthen engagement practice.

• Strong knowledge of evidence‑based engagement practice, with practical experience of involving people with lived and living experience in improvement work.
• Proven project and programme management experience, including tools and techniques for managing complex programmes or portfolios.
• Leadership and mentoring skills, with the ability to support team members and ensure high‑quality project delivery and outputs.

For further information on the Community Engagement and Transformational Change Directorate, see: hisengage.scot

For further information on the work of the Engagement Practice Learning and Improvement System, see:
Improving Engagement Practice – Healthcare Improvement Scotland

If you have any questions regarding this post please contact Kevin Ward, Programme Manager, Engagement Practice - Improvement (kevin.ward1t)

Closing Date: midnight on Thursday 12 March 2026

It is anticipated that interviews will be held in‑person in Delta House, Glasgow on Thursday 02 April 2026