Senior Communications Officer, West Dunbartonshire

As Thrive at Five expands into Scotland, this is a fantastic opportunity to join our small but ambitious Scottish team as Senior Communications Officer and to be part of our West Dumbarton journey from the start.

Location: This role is community-based in West Dunbartonshire with minimum two days on site in the programme location.

There may also be occasional travel to other programme sites (currently Stoke on Trent, Redcar & Cleveland, Middlesbrough and Scotland) or travel to our London office.

Closing date for applications: Midnight on Friday 17th July 2026.

We are looking for someone who can demonstrate the following:

• Significant experience in a communications role, including experience with copywriting and content creation.
• Experience producing high quality, clear, compelling and audience appropriate content for a range of platforms.
• Demonstrable knowledge and understanding of the local community, including its strengths, needs, and challenges.
• Empathy, cultural awareness, and sensitivity when communicating with and about communities whose voices and experiences are often underrepresented, including those with English as an additional language or limited literacy in English.
• The ability to clearly demonstrate our impact and inspire collaboration among our partners by sharing compelling and meaningful stories.
• Strong knowledge and skills in Adobe Creative Suite such as Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop or Canva.

About the role

The responsibilities of this role include:

• Actively identify opportunities where communications can strengthen programme delivery, support parent outreach and increase engagement with families and communities.
• Develop the local stakeholder engagement approach in line with agreed objectives, proactively identifying opportunities to strengthen relationships and using data and team insight to increase engagement.
• Support effective communications with stakeholders across sectors including community, health, education and local organisations.
• Develop and produce compelling, audience focused content for a range of channels, including newsletters, case studies and promotional materials.
• Work closely with our Director Scotland and the team and colleagues across the organisation to align communications priorities with programme and organisational objectives.

About us

Thrive at Five is a national charity focused on giving every child the best possible start in life. Everything we do is to ensure all children in their early years have the strong foundations they need for life and learning. We bring together and work alongside local communities, families and partners to join up and strengthen the early years system, supporting children to thrive from pregnancy to five.

Thrive at Five is a relatively young organisation but with an already strong national and political profile, having been called out in Parliament for our ways of working in Stoke-on-Trent and invited to be interviewed at the 2025 Civil Society Summit by the Secretary of State for Education.

About our benefits

Pension contributions – We will contribute 3% and you can contribute 5% towards your pension through NEST.

25 annual leave days per year plus bank holidays.

In addition to your laptop and phone provided by us, you can also receive a £100 contribution towards your home-working set up.

£100 contribution towards your professional body membership.

Please note that as this role is subject to a successful Basic Level Disclosure check through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). If you have any unspent convictions, but wish to apply for this role, please advise us in your application. The successful candidate will also need to provide satisfactory references and current right to work in the UK.