Mentor in Edinburgh

Location: West Lothian (home-based with regular travel across West Lothian communities)

Salary: £25,664 + excellent benefits

Hours: 35 hours per week (flexible working)

Status: Fixed term to April 2027 (subject to funding)

Closing date: 29 July 2026

Help shape the future of family support in West Lothian. Every parent wants the best for their family. Sometimes life gets in the way. At the Wise Group, we believe lasting change happens through trusted relationships, not quick fixes. We work alongside communities, employers and public services to connect support around people rather than expecting people to navigate complex systems alone.

Through our Relational Mentoring approach, we're helping create stronger pathways into employment, financial wellbeing and healthier communities across Scotland. We're looking for Mentors to join an exciting new whole-family employability programme across West Lothian, supporting parents experiencing multiple and interconnected barriers to build confidence, strengthen family wellbeing and move towards sustainable employment.

This is about much more than helping someone find a job. You'll help families navigate complex systems, connect opportunities around the whole household and build the confidence, stability and relationships that make sustainable employment possible. Every family is different, so you'll take time to understand their aspirations, strengths and circumstances, helping coordinate the right support around them at the right time.

You won't be expected to have all the answers. Your role is to bring together the right people, organisations and opportunities around each family. We don't replace existing services - we help people navigate them, engage with them and get the very best from them. That's what we mean by Relational Mentoring.

Every journey will be different. One day you might be meeting a parent in their local community to understand what's preventing them from moving forward. Later you could be accompanying someone to a partner organisation, helping reconnect them with local support, introducing them to an employer or celebrating with a parent who's secured their first interview in years.

You'll become part of West Lothian's local support infrastructure, building trusted relationships with schools, employers, community organisations, family services, health partners and local groups so families experience one connected journey rather than multiple disconnected services.

What you'll do:

• Build trusted, strengths-based relationships with parents experiencing multiple and interconnected barriers.
• Support families to identify their aspirations and take practical steps towards greater confidence, stability and sustainable employment.
• Use our Relational Mentoring approach to coordinate support around the whole family, helping people navigate services and opportunities.
• Work alongside parents across a wide range of issues including wellbeing, confidence, finances, housing, employability, family life and community connections.
• Advocate for families, helping remove barriers and ensuring support is joined up around individual needs.
• Build trusted relationships with schools, employers, community organisations, family services, health partners and local groups across West Lothian.
• Maintain an active caseload, celebrating meaningful progress and recording outcomes that matter to each family.
• Contribute to a supportive learning culture, sharing insight and helping continually improve how support is delivered across West Lothian.

What you'll bring:

• Excellent relationship-building and communication skills.
• A compassionate, curious and strengths-based approach.
• Confidence working alongside people experiencing complex or changing circumstances.
• The ability to encourage, motivate and appropriately challenge people to achieve their goals.
• Strong organisational and digital skills, including Microsoft 365 and CRM systems.
• The ability to manage a varied caseload while working independently.
• Curiosity, systems thinking and the ability to connect people, organisations and opportunities around families.
• Confidence navigating complexity, building partnerships and working collaboratively across organisational boundaries.
• Experience within family support, community development, employability, education, housing, health, social care, youth work, wellbeing or similar environments is advantageous but not essential.
• Knowledge of West Lothian communities and local support services would be highly desirable.

Essential requirements:

• Full driving licence and access to a vehicle for regular travel across West Lothian.
• Willingness to work flexibly across communities and partner locations.
• Home broadband to support flexible working.
• Successful PVG Scheme membership (you don't need to already be a member, we'll apply for that when you join).

Why join us?

You'll be joining a values-led social enterprise that's helping shape the future of public services. Rather than delivering isolated programmes, we work alongside communities, employers and partners to create stronger, more connected pathways that help people overcome poverty and build better futures. You'll receive training in our Relational Mentoring approach, ongoing professional development and the opportunity to become part of a supportive, ambitious team that's passionate about improving lives.

This is your opportunity to help shape a brand-new programme from the very beginning while contributing to something much bigger—the future of whole-family support, place-based working and connected public services. Help shape the future of support in West Lothian. This isn't just a mentoring role. It's an opportunity to help redesign how support works around families and communities. Join a team that's helping families navigate complexity, connecting services around the whole household and building stronger pathways into sustainable employment. Together we're not simply delivering a service—we're helping create a better way for communities, employers and public services to work together.