Job Title: People & Culture Business Partner
Location: Edinburgh or Glasgow
Salary: Band D, £37,189.00 - £42,687.00
Post Type: Full time, Fixed term until Feb 2027 (Maternity Cover)
Closing Date: 11th May 2026
Interview Date: Week commencing 25th May 2026
Do you want to help create an outstanding workplace where our people can thrive? At Children First, Scotland’s national children’s charity, we stand up for children, keep them safe, and support families to thrive. We are looking for a confident and organised People & Culture Business Partner to join our friendly, values-led team on a fixed-term basis to cover maternity leave.
In this role, you’ll:
- Partner with services and leadership teams to deliver high-quality HR support.
- Provide advice on people management, employment law, and organisational change.
- Lead on strategic HR initiatives and contribute to continuous improvement.
- Experience in a People/HR Business Partner role.
- Experience of leading workforce planning discussions.
- Excellent knowledge of employment legislation.
- Strong organisational skills and attention to detail.
- Ability to build meaningful relationships with our service areas to proactively embed our people policies and practices.
- A proactive, collaborative approach and commitment to our values.
- A workplace with values of with love, with purpose and with strength
- 40 days annual leave, inclusive of bank holidays
- Pension scheme and wellbeing support
- Flexible and hybrid working arrangements
- Access to Westfield Health, giving colleagues and their families confidential counselling support, wellbeing resources, and access to health and lifestyle benefits to support physical and mental wellbeing.
- Blue Light card discount
- A Fair Work accredited workplace
Living our values, you will help create a workplace where our people can thrive, ensuring we deliver the best possible support to children and families.
With love, we put children first.
With purpose, we transform lives together.
With strength, we do whatever it takes to protect Scotland’s children.
How to Apply
If you share our values and are passionate about supporting our people, we would love to hear from you.
Closing date: Monday 11th May 2026 at 12 noon
Interviews: Week commencing Monday 25 May 2026
Contact: For more information, email jennifer.allan@childrenfirst.org.uk
FULL JOB DESCRIPTION BELOW:
Children First - Vision and Values
Children First is Scotland’s national children’s charity. We stand up for every child because all children should have a safe childhood. We protect children from harm and support them to recover from trauma and abuse through our national and local services. We help children, their families and the people that care for them by offering emotional, practical, and financial support. We give children hope and a safer, brighter future.
Our core values guide how each one of us works in our individual day to day job:
• With love, we put children first.
• With purpose, we transform children’s lives together.
• With strength, we do whatever it takes to protect Scotland’s children.
Diversity Equity and Inclusion
At Children First, we are committed to building a representative, inclusive and authentic workplace open to applications from all sections of society. We believe in the potential of everyone regardless of; sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic origin, ability, family structure, socio-economic background, age, nationality, marital status or civil partnership, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other aspect that makes you who you are.
We envision a diverse and inclusive Children First where we cultivate a true sense of belonging and connection for and between our teams, children, young people, families, and communities we work with.
Further to that, as part of our vision to be an Anti-Racist organisation, we are committed to conscious inclusion to build increasingly diverse teams and emotionally safe work environments.
Role Summary
We’re looking for a confident and organised People & Culture Business Partner to join our friendly People & Culture team on a fixed-term basis to cover maternity leave.
You’ll be joining a close-knit People & Culture team that is supportive, values-led, and proud of the work we do. The team includes our Director of People & Culture, People & Culture Manager, People Business Partner, a Learning & Development Manager, a Volunteer Coordinator and People & Culture Officer.
This is a true generalist role, so you’ll need to feel confident working across the full People & Culture remit, from employee relations and organisational change to recruitment, engagement and policy development.
You’ll work closely with the whole team to ensure smooth operations, support colleagues across the employee lifecycle, and contribute to continuous improvement initiatives.
As a small team, we all play a part in supporting one another. This means being flexible, willing to roll your sleeves up when needed, and comfortable moving between strategic thinking and hands-on delivery.
We believe in combining structure and consistency with curiosity and creativity, and we’re excited to welcome someone who brings the same energy.
Key Results Areas
Business Partnering:
- Build strong partnering relationships with people, working in collaboration with stakeholders to deliver end to end HR processes.
- Maintain excellent knowledge of relevant employment legislation and organisational policies and procedures to help managers resolve complex HR issues.
- Being an integral part of local leadership teams along with Finance Business Partner to be part of local decision making, assist in business planning and provide high quality, professional HR advice.
- Know the services supported so that when opportunities, challenges or issues arise, you are well placed to quickly respond.
- Be available to services for ad-hoc people enquiries as they arise.
- Work with teams to monitor HR metrics and provide early intervention and a proactive approach to people issues.
- Work with managers to help them understand HR metrics for their areas of responsibility and what they mean in the context of Children First and the wider sector and economy.
- Provide support in relation to business change, particularly around onboarding, offboarding, redundancy and TUPE situations.
- Work with teams to support recruitment, particularly around new contracts so that people are in post for contract mobilisation.
- Coach and support people managers in the best way to manage situations to reach the best outcomes for the employee, team and organisation.
- Reflect and debrief on HR matters to understand what went well and what could be improved.
- Provide formal training on elements of the People and Culture Function to support the organisation.
- Seek out learning and development opportunities that support the wider organisational goals.
- Be the organisational lead on one or more strategic HR function e.g. Organisational Design and Development, Employee Engagement, Reward and Recognition, Recruitment or Employee Engagement.
- Promote and embed new People initiatives across the organisation.
- Along with the People and Culture Manager and Director of People and Culture, conduct regular reviews, evaluate, and revise relevant policies and procedures.
- Contribute to the review of other organisational standards and policy documents including those in other areas of business where there is an overlap with People policies.
- Ensure our HR systems are efficient, accurate and fit for purpose
- Support and contribute to the development of bids and tenders to ensure that staffing considerations are included at the outset of the process within services.
- Keep up to date in developments in HR, People Management, Employment Law and Learning and Development.
We’re looking for someone who enjoys a role that combines structure with variety and who takes pride in delivering a high standard of work. You’ll be great in this role if you have:
- Previous experience in a Business Partner role
- Excellent attention to detail and strong organisational skills
- A calm and friendly communication style, both written and verbal
- A proactive mindset and the ability to spot what needs doing and take the initiative
- Ability to handle sensitive information with confidentiality and care
- A problem-solving approach and enthusiasm for continuous improvement
- A team player attitude, willing to help out and get stuck in where needed
- Be committed and adhere to Children First vision, mission and values.
- Comply with Children First Safeguarding policies and procedures.
- Comply with Children First Code of Conduct and any relevant professional standards relating to the role.
- Actively consider the involvement of children, young people and families with whom we work, in all areas of practice and to implement the Children First Participation Standards.
- Actively consider the involvement of volunteers in all areas of our work and to implement the Children First Volunteer Development Policy.
- Observe all health and safety requirements.
- Work within and promote policies in relation to Diversity Equity and Inclusion and anti-discriminatory practices.
- Undertake any other reasonably required duties as instructed by line manager or someone acting on their behalf, in addition to the role specific responsibilities detailed below.