Parent Outreach & Engagement Lead, West Dunbartonshire

We have a fantastic opportunity for an experienced family outreach and engagement specialist to join Thrive at Five’s new programme in West Dunbartonshire. The successful candidate will play a key role in leading our multi-disciplinary team, working to bring together local communities, families and partners, and to join-up and strengthen early years systems to support children to thrive from pregnancy to five.

You will shape the direction of our multi-year programme as part a young, dynamic national charity whose goal is to achieve long-term, sustained improvements in children’s developmental outcomes and reduce inequalities everywhere we work.

Location: Community based in West Dunbartonshire, with some ability to work from home.. There may also be occasional travel to other programme sites (currently Stoke-on-Trent, Redcar & Cleveland and Middlesbrough) or travel to our Edinburgh or London offices

Closing date for applications: Midnight, 26 July 2026

We are looking for someone who is able to demonstrate the following:

• Relevant qualifications and/or significant experience of leading outreach and engagement teams. We would welcome applicants with a background in community development, whole family support or equivalent.
• High levels of empathy, passion and care for children and families in local communities, with a strong commitment to putting children’s voices and rights at the heart of decision-making and understanding of trauma-informed practice.
• Substantial knowledge and experience of developing and executing effective parent and carer outreach strategies, and of working with pregnant women and families who have children under 5 years of age. We are looking for someone with a good grounding in early childhood development and the service landscape from pregnancy through the first five years of a child’s life.
• Ability to work confidently in and across community settings and with local community leaders, building effective, trusted relationships with stakeholders and other early years professionals to influence system change and promote good practice.
• Ability to think strategically and creatively about new approaches or ways of working which embed prevention and ensure that parents, carers and children’s voices shape local decision-making, policies, practice and evaluation.
• Someone who is self-starting and resilient, comfortable with working in complex environments and who is excited about the opportunity to shape the direction of our new programme from the beginning.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate with different groups of people.
• Experience of programme or project management and/or improving practice is also desirable but not essential.

Thrive at Five brings additional capacity, coordination and expertise into local early years systems, helping to build trust, strengthen community connections and ensure families have the knowledge, confidence and support they need so that children can thrive.

This is one of three Lead posts we are recruiting to over the summer to start delivery of our new programme in West Dunbartonshire, our first in Scotland. Alongside a new Early Years Health Lead and Early Years Education Lead, the post-holder will work to design and deliver an outreach and engagement strategy that identifies and responds to local needs, helping to reach up to 2,500 local children through our multi-year programme.

Thrive at Five has recently signed an initial three-year partnership agreement with Dunbartonshire Council. Senior leaders in the Health and Social Care Partnership are also closely involved in shaping the programme.

The purpose of this role is to build exceptional, trusting relationships with parents, carers and the wider community to enhance engagement with early years support services across the communities we work with and for. The post-holder will work in partnership to support and enhance existing parent outreach and engagement activity happening locally, ensuring parent voice and best practice is embedded in local strategies.

This role will also be responsible for providing people leadership to the Parent…