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

Salary: £ 50,000 -55,000.

To apply for this role: Submit your CV and cover letter here.

Closing date for applications: Midnight, 26 July 2026

About you

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.

About the role

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 Connectors in the West Dunbartonshire team.

Key responsibilities include: 

• Develop and oversee delivery of Thrive at Five’s local parent outreach and engagement plans, with reference to our Playbook and wider strategy.
• Work collaboratively with a wide range of local partners to build and continuously strengthen the approach to early years parent and carer outreach and engagement in the communities we work with and for.
• Lead the delivery of community events designed to engage pregnant mums and their partners, parents and carers of babies and toddlers, ensuring Thrive at Five works closely with local partners to embed approaches that work and ensure best practice can be shared.
• Support the scale up of parent-baby-toddler (PBT) groups, where required, identifying local partners to lead and support their set up through use of our Playbook and connecting groups to wider community services and assets which will benefit parents, carers and children.
• Working with the Scotland Director to recruit, lead and manage a team of up to four Parent Connectors, expected to start in early 2027. We are looking for someone with strong interpersonal skills and management experience to induct, support and develop the new team.
• Working closely with the Scotland Director, Senior Research and Evaluation Manager and other members of the West Dunbartonshire team to build a strong team ethos and culture centred around Thrive at Five’s core values.
• Work with the Central Learning & Impact team to develop metrics and gather data to help us and our partners understand what outreach and engagement activities are and aren’t working, and work to continuously improve these.
• Work in partnership with the communications team to support the development of innovative and effective communications to reach local parents and carers at scale, including influencing how communications are delivered to parents across the system.

About us

Thrive at Five is at an exciting stage, coming up to our 5th birthday. We have grown rapidly over that time and are now expanding into our third and fourth places, with a growing team of nearly 40 across the UK.
Our mission is to help children develop strong foundations for life and learning, in and alongside communities where families face the most challenges.

We do this in two key ways: we empower parents and carers as primary influencers of child development, equipping them with the tools and support they need to be the best they can be for their children. We also foster collaboration across public, private and voluntary sectors to create a more joined-up, effective early years system. Everything we do is in partnership with the whole community, including senior decision makers, local professionals working with families, parents and carers.

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
• £100 contribution towards your professional body membership
• Enhanced sick leave and maternity pay (following qualifying period)