Executive Personal Assistant
Job title: Executive Personal Assistant (PA)
Salary: £30,495 to £31,740
Hours: 35 hours per week
Location: Dundee
Contract: Permanent
About us
We are the national regulator and scrutiny body responsible for providing assurance and protection for people who experience care services, their families, carers and the wider public, as well as supporting delivery partners to improve the quality of care for people in Scotland. Our vision is that people across Scotland experience high quality care that meets their needs, rights and choices.
We are a scrutiny body that supports improvement. We inspect individual care services and we also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in their local areas.
We desire to achieve an effective and balanced way of working, that enables us to meet organisational needs and achieve a work-life balance that promotes wellbeing and collaboration opportunities. Our hybrid working policy gives you the flexibility to mix working from home with attendance at your base office and other work locations, spending no more than 60% of your working time working from home, measured over a 4-week period.
Starting salary
Please bear in mind that new entrants start on the grade minimum for the role. However, we have a generous benefits package which you will find on our website.
About the role
We have a permanent vacancy for an Executive Personal Assistant working within the Executive and Committee Support Team. This is a critical role that requires exceptional planning and organisational skills, providing PA support to the Executive Director of Corporate and Customer Services, and to the Chair of the Care Inspectorate Board. It requires a high level of confidentiality and sensitivity due to access to senior leaders’ correspondence and their work.
Working in a busy team, and alongside the Executive PA to the Chief Executive, you will be responsible for checking and prioritising the email correspondence and meeting invitations on behalf of the Chair and Executive Director. Your other key responsibilities will be:
- to develop and maintain a system for dealing with enquiries on behalf of the Chair and Executive Director, including composing responses to routine correspondence
- to manage and co-ordinate the Chair’s and Executive Director’s diaries, making appointments and arranging meetings, events, booking venues, organising catering and hospitality for visitors as necessary
- to make travel and accommodation arrangements for the Executive Director of Corporate and Customer Services and the Chair
- to prepare agendas and collate, check and distribute paperwork for meetings as required
- to maintain and ensure that all types of filing systems, registers and records are up to date, including review and updating of the Board’s Register of Interests
- to attend meetings as required at our head office and at various locations across Scotland, in order to take notes/minutes and prepare action records
- to support the Executive and Committee Support Manager in administrative tasks related to Board and Committee meetings
- to establish good working relationships in regular communication with other officers of the Care Inspectorate, external partners and Scottish Government
- to provide PA support cover in the absence of the Executive PA to the Chief Executive.
To succeed in this role, you will have experience of providing PA support to senior management in a fast-paced changing environment. You will be highly organised and able to plan and manage your time and workstreams efficiently and effectively. You understand that priorities and deadlines can change quickly and you respond flexibly.
You will have a proactive approach and be confident in using your own initiative. Your attention to detail is meticulous and you will have a clear commitment to maintaining high standards and working to the Care Inspectorate values.
You are an enthusiastic team player and are able to build and maintain good working relationships. You will have excellent IT skills with experience of Microsoft applications. You will also have proven experience of diary management, arranging meetings and other events, along with good writing and minute-taking skills.
Next steps
If you believe that your expertise, skills and motivation make you suitable for this post, please complete our online application by no later than by 08:00 on Monday 28 October 2024.
Interviews will be held at our Head Office in Dundee on Monday 11 November 2024.
You will find more information in the job profile and person specification.
If you require any further information, or for an informal chat, please contact Fiona McKeand – Executive and Committee Support Manager via email at fiona.mckeand@careinspectorate.gov.scot
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Children’s rights, care experience and corporate parenting plan 2024 - 2027
What is corporate parenting
A corporate parent is an organisation or person who has special responsibilities to care experienced babies, infants, children, and young people.
The Care Inspectorate is a corporate parent.
This means we should understand and respond to your needs as any parent should. We will do as much as we can to make sure you feel in control of your life and able to overcome any barriers you face. We must publish detailed corporate parenting plans and reports, collaborate with other corporate parents, follow direction, and provide relevant information to Scottish Ministers.
Care experience
The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 provide legal definitions for the terms ‘looked-after’ and ‘care-leaver’. Throughout this plan we will use the term ‘care experienced’. This is more inclusive language which many in the care experienced community prefer, as it speaks to the diverse range of experiences and the lifelong impact of care experience. This term includes those looked after at home, or away from home in kinship, foster, residential or secure care.
We made the decision to include:
- those who are adopted
- a lifelong recognition of care experience by removing the age 26 barrier for care experienced individuals being involved in opportunities with the organisation.
Children’s rights
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is an international human rights treaty that covers all aspects of children’s lives. The United Nations Conventn the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2023 and from 16 July 2024 is now a part of Scottish Law.
As a public body, we play a role to support Scottish Government to promote, uphold and fulfil children’s rights and wellbeing across policy and practice for all children and young people, and in particular people where we have responsibility as a Corporate Parent.
Article 20 of the UNCRC highlights the importance of:
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The Plan 2024 - 2027
This high-level plan will cover the period April 2024 to December 2027. It details our commitments and recognises that all staff at the Care Inspectorate are Corporate Parents. The priority actions and commitments in this plan were consulted on with:
- our young volunteers with care experience
- children’s rights and care experienced group
- national organisations
- care experienced adults.
They also come from the development areas as noted in the 2021 – 2023 Corporate Parenting triennial report.
To achieve everything set in this plan, we will:
Work in partnership
Engage in meaningful participation
Be trauma informed
Be rights-based
Promote young people's right to continuing care and enduring relationships
To help us achieve the commitments in the plan, and meet our responsibilities under section 58 of the act, we will be:
- alert to all matters that affect the wellbeing of our children and young people
- strong when challenging the disadvantages that our children and young people face
- leaders by driving improvements and working with other corporate parents to raise society’s expectations for our children and young people
- responsive in how we assess the needs of our children and young people, or any service or support provided
- active in providing our children and young people with real opportunities within our organisation, so that they grow and develop skills for the future.
Commitment 1: Children’s rights
Promote, uphold, and fulfil children’s rights for all connected by our work, particularly those where we have corporate parenting responsibilities.
We will:
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Promote an approach that reduces the use, and eliminates the misuse, of restraint and restrictive practice
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Improve the ways children and young people who are connected by our work, can offer / receive feedback and access independent advocacy
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Use accessible and inclusive communication with all infants, children and young people
Commitment 2: Participation
Strengthen our participation and equalities practice to support care experienced individuals.
We will:
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Work towards acknowledging care experience as a protected characteristic
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Work closely with other corporate parents and participate in national groups to share good practice and learning
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Use the Lundy model of participation to inform how we meaningfully involve individuals.
Commitment 3: Development
Provide flexible and supportive development, volunteering, and employment opportunities for care experienced individuals.
We will:
- Deliver a volunteer development scheme
- Provide accessible, supportive, and tailored development opportunities.
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Job profile
Job title: Service Manager Early Learning and Childcare (ELC)
Responsible to: Chief Inspector Early Learning and Childcare Services
Responsible for: Team Managers
Principal working contacts
- Executive Directors of Assurance and Improvement
- Chief Inspectors
- Executive Team
- Senior Management Team
- Team Managers
- Strategic Inspectors
- Regulated Care Inspectors
- Care Inspectorate colleagues
- Scottish Government Officials
- Integrated Joint Boards, Local Authorities, Agencies and Other Scrutiny Bodies
- Community Planning Partnerships
- External Stakeholders
- Sponsor Department
- Chief Social Work Officers
- Police
- NHS
Job purpose
- Support the Chief Inspector ELC to manage the day to day delivery of inspection activity for regulated care services for children to ensure that the Care Inspectorate performs effectively and efficiently as an independent scrutiny body.
- Support the Chief Inspector ELC in ensuring that the Care Inspectorate meets its responsibilities as defined by the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 and other relevant legislation, to inspect and improve the quality of care and social work services in Scotland in a collaborative way.
- Support the Chief Inspector ELC in developing, implementing and monitoring approaches to quality assurance, performance management, recruitment, training, development and support of staff .
- Work with the Chief Executive, Executive Directors and Senior Management Team to support significant cultural change; consolidate excellence in the Care Inspectorate’s activities and; continue to invest in our competent, confident workforce in a way that puts collaboration at the core of our work.
Key responsibilities
Strategic management:
- Support the Chief Inspector ELC to develop, deliver, monitor and review the regulatory practices, processes and procedures in early learning and childcare services to deliver robust, outcome focussed assurance and improvement and other activities which support continuous improvement in care and social work services.
- Support the Chief Inspector ELC with developing, implementing and monitoring an integrated approach to quality assurance, self-evaluation, best value and consolidating excellence.
- Support the Chief Inspector ELC with developing implementing and monitoring an integrated approach to performance management.
- Support the Chief Inspector ELC with the recruitment, training, development and support of staff in inspection to support their continuous professional development and increase staff confidence and competence.
- Coordinate the work of contact managers, expert groups and quality circles.
- Coordinate formal and informal consultations.
- Support the Chief Inspector ELC , working with the Chief Inspector Registration and Complaints to ensure that the scrutiny and registration/complaints functions work efficiently and effectively.
- In conjunction with the Chief Inspector ELC support the implementation of the day to day delivery of regulated care service assurance and improvement activity for the Care Inspectorate and contribute to its direction, ensuring that all legislative requirements are met.
- In conjunction with the Chief Inspector ELC support the planning of regulated care service assurance and improvement for early learning and childcare services.
- Support the Chief Inspector ELC to formulate objectives, strategies, action plans and targets for all regulated inspection activity in respect of early learning and childcare services, and ensure that these are achieved.
- Support the Chief Inspector ELC to help build the diverse strands of strategic and regulated care service assurance and improvement activity into a cohesive, integrated and productive approach, aligned to the achievement of the Care Inspectorate’s corporate aims and objectives, focusing on consolidating excellence in all aspects of the Care Inspectorate’s work.
Operational management:
- Support the Chief Inspector ELC with day to day responsibility for the efficient and effective operational delivery of regulated care inspection activity for early learning and childcare services.
- Support the Chief Inspector ELC to develop innovative approaches to support the continuous improvement of the Care Inspectorate’s assurance and improvement work, including the development of quality systems, designed around creative problem-solving and bringing new thinking, delivery mechanisms and solutions to the Care Inspectorate.
- Help ensure operational activities are delivered efficiently and adhere to the principles of best value.
- Prepare and present reports to the Executive Team, Senior Management Team Board and Committees of the Care Inspectorate that are both timely, and informed.
- Deputise for the Chief Inspector ELC and undertake such other duties as may be required by the Chief Executive, Senior Management Team or Executive Directors.
People management:
- Guide, support and direct staff for Assurance and Improvement and ensure that their work is carried out in an effective, efficient and consistent manner and meets the standards, targets and requirements of the Care Inspectorate.
- Support, develop and mentor staff through regular supervision, performance development reviews and personal development plans to help build a competent and confident workforce where individuals are developed and supported to reach their potential.
- Promote consistent, high quality practice amongst staff encouraging them to give of their best and continually strive to improve performance and consolidate excellence. Manage the performance and monitor standards and consistency of practice of all staff of regulated care services.
- Support the recruitment and development of all employees, and the implementation of HR policies, within the function, ensuring that Care Inspectorate objectives are translated into meaningful and realistic personal objectives for staff and team plans.
- Promote the health, safety and welfare of employees, with responsibility for ensuring that Care Inspectorate health and safety policies, procedures and practice, and legislative requirements, are followed across all areas of service delivery.
- Promote diversity and equality of opportunity, ensuring that these principles are upheld across all areas of service delivery.
- Carry out your duties in accordance with our Health and Safety policies, procedures, guidance, practices and legislative requirements, taking reasonable care for your safety and that of others who may be affected by what you do or fail to do while at work.
Relationship management:
- Ensure productive and smooth working arrangements and protocols between staff delivering all regulated care service assurance and improvement in respect of early learning and childcare services and all other Care Inspectorate employees.
- In conjunction with the Chief Inspector ELC help to facilitate and deliver business and cultural change with the Care Inspectorate.
- In conjunction with the Chief Inspector ELC help promote customer focus internally and externally, supporting staff to work collaboratively with colleagues across the Care Inspectorate, as well as with people who use services and their carers, the Partnership Forum, scrutiny partners, service providers, government, health and other bodies.
- Develop effective working relationships with the Senior Management Team to ensure effective collaborative working and strong customer focus.
- Promote the principles of partnership working throughout the organisation and in all working practices in accordance with the Care Inspectorate’s Partnership Agreement.
- Develop and maintain productive and effective working relationships with a range of appropriate external stakeholders and relevant key policy contacts within national bodies, Scottish Government, local authorities, integrated joint boards and health boards, together with relevant, designated regulatory and quality assurance bodies and other statutory agencies with responsibilities for service delivery and commissioning. Use these relationships to continually improve service delivery, strengthen collaborative working, and promote the work of the Care Inspectorate.
- Provide leadership, contribute to and promote, the continuous development of the Care Inspectorate, managing change effectively and creatively.
- Support the deployment of appropriate mechanisms to consult with all relevant stakeholders concerned in the delivery of inspection of care, ensuring we fulfill our duty of user focus and that this informs continuous improvement in our work.
- Support, promote and encourage public, care user and carer participation in, and consultation about, the work of the Care Inspectorate.
Other duties
This job requires some travel and may involve some overnight stays and unsocial hours.
This job description is a broad picture of the post at the date of preparation. It is not an exhaustive list of all possible duties and it is recognised that jobs change and evolve over time. Consequently the post holder will be required to carry out any other duties to the equivalent level that are necessary to fulfil the purpose of the job, and to respond positively to changing business needs.
Download the job profile in PDF format here.
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Person specification
Job title: Service Manager - Early Learning and Childcare
Please note a revision was made on 22 July 2025 to the Education, qualifications and training section of this page.
Attributes
Experience
Essential:
- Experience of managing and delivering assurance and improvement activity.
- Experience of managing scrutiny and assurance teams operationally.
- Direct experience of supporting improvement and building capacity through self-evaluation.
- Highly skilled and experienced in the ‘art of inspection’.
- Experience of planning assurance and improvement programmes, including those delivered in partnership with others.
- Significant experience in social work/social care in children’s services.
- Experience of stakeholder engagement at both a strategic and operational level, particularly during the inspection process, delivering feedback and dealing with challenges to the inspection processes and findings.
- Experience in quality assurance, self-evaluation, performance management and the recruitment, training, development and support of staff.
- Significant experience operational scrutiny activity and professional regulatory practice within the health and social care, or other relevant sectors.
- Demonstrable evidence of embedding sustainable transformational change.
Desirable:
- Direct experience of developing and applying quality frameworks to support self-evaluation, scrutiny and improvement.
Education, qualifications and training
Essential:
-
Educated to Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SQCF) Level 9 or above, for example degree level or equivalent
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Appropriate professional qualification.
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Commitment to own CPD.
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Register with a professional body (NMC, GTCS, HCPC, SSSC, etc).
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Gain a secondary officer qualification within 3 years of registration (only applies to SSSC registration).
Desirable:
A secondary Authorised Officer qualification - either PDA (Professional Development Award), RoCA (Regulation of Care Award), EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) or PSIF (Public Sector Improvement Framework).
Skills and knowledge
Essential:
- The ability to provide leadership and direction to a diverse, multi-disciplinary team of professional staff.
- Demonstrate significant knowledge and direct first hand experience of inspection/regulation of care in an early learning and childcare setting
- Demonstrate significant skills and knowledge of quality assuring inspection processes and reports
- Demonstrate commitment to the principles of the Public Service Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 and the principles of better regulation
- Be adept at challenging traditional thinking in a positive and constructive way
- Excellent communicator, both verbally and in written form
- Politically astute
- Ability to translate plans into action
- Excellent negotiation and influencing skills
- Demonstrate broad knowledge of working with inspection/regulation of care
- Knowledge of trends and changes within social work and social care with an understanding of Equality and Diversity issues
- IT literate, using the most effective methods to communicate and manage information.
Desirable:
- Knowledge and understanding of health/social care practice, theory, policy and research.
- Demonstrate understanding of corporate social responsibility, whereby social and environmental concerns are voluntarily integrated to business operations and stakeholder interaction.
- Understanding of, and ability to demonstrate, the management of complex projects.
Key performance outcomes
Leading others
Essential:
- Ability to provide credible and authentic professional leadership, with a clear sense of purpose and direction to effectively lead a key professional function within the Care Inspectorate.
- Ability to effectively deploy staff and other resources to achieve performance objectives.
- Ensure that staff working in inspection in respect of children’s services conduct themselves in accordance with the highest standards of integrity, probity and openness through the implementation of robust corporate governance.
- Demonstrate ability to provide leadership and strategic management direction for multi disciplinary, professional teams and bring together groups from different disciplines/bodies.
Management of resources
Essential:
- Ability to bring together the overall work of a multi-disciplinary team of staff.
- Ability to manage resources in achievement of the Care Inspectorate’s objectives.
- Ability to bring together the overall work of a team of staff, determining the “tone” for a significant area of the organisation’s work and promoting a corporate vision.
- Ability to manage resources in achievement of the Care Inspectorate’s objectives.
Desirable:
- Ability to drive continuous improvement and manage business planning and performance processes.
Effective communication
Essential:
- Articulate and positive communicator both in verbal and written communication skills.
- Ability to engage, influence and lead the development of a wide range of key stakeholder relationships, both internally and externally.
Desirable:
- The ability to build and guide key stakeholder strategies and manage relationships to secure or improve delivery of key programme or service outputs.
Impact and influence
Essential:
- Evidence of building positive relationships, engaging and collaborating effectively with others internally and externally.
- Demonstrate personal resilience, being able to work flexibly under pressure to deliver tangible results.
- Demonstrates ability to influence at all levels.
- Ability to promote, lead and implement strategies and change programmes to improve the development and quality of services.
- Evidence of building positive relationships, engaging and collaborating effectively with others internally and externally.
- Demonstrates personal resilience, being able to work flexibly under pressure with stamina and tenacity to deliver results.
Desirable:
- A proven track record of promoting, leading and implementing strategies and change programmes to improve the development and quality of services
- Ability to take account of wider political and organisational sensitivities to deliver strategic objectives.
Objective decision making
Essential:
- The ability to assist the Chief Inspector Early Learning and Childcare Services to set, in consultation with others, the overall agenda, long term objectives and performance standards for the Directorate.
- Demonstrate analytical and systematic approach to problem solving.
- Ability to make appropriate and realistic judgments, based on relevant, up to date and verifiable information.
- The ability to take responsibility for difficult decisions and to remain resilient against possible criticism.
Please note – these are key performance outcomes to be used to recruit into the role. Successful applicants will be assessed against all the performance indicators used in the Performance Development Review System once established in the role.
Download the person specification in PDF format here.
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Service Manager (early learning and childcare)
Job title: Service Manager (Early Learning and Childcare)
Salary: £72,159
Hours: 35 hours per week
Location: Flexible (Any Care Inspectorate office)
Contract: Permanent
Please note a revision was made on 22 July 2025 to the About You section of this advert.
About us
We are the national regulator and scrutiny body responsible for providing assurance and protection for people who experience care services, their families, carers and the wider public, as well as supporting delivery partners to improve the quality of care for people in Scotland. Our vision is that people across Scotland experience high quality care that meets their needs, rights and choices.
We are a scrutiny body that supports improvement. We inspect individual care services and we also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in their local areas.
Our desire is to achieve an effective and balanced way of working, that enables us to meet organisational needs and achieve a work-life balance that promotes wellbeing and collaboration opportunities. Our hybrid working policy gives you the flexibility to mix working from home with attendance at your base office and other work locations, spending no more than 60% of your working time working from home, measured over a 4-week period.
About the role
We are recruiting a service manager to join our ELC team.
You will support the assurance and improvement directorate to ensure that the Care Inspectorate meets its responsibilities as defined by the Public Services Reform Act 2010 and other relevant legislation.
The role supports or conducts regulatory or strategic scrutiny activity by exercising ‘authorised person’ functions in terms of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act or secondary legislation made thereunder are ancillary to the Care Inspectorate’s primary authorised officer role and are defined as secondary authorised officers. This role supports or conducts regulatory or strategic scrutiny activity; however, the role purpose is broader than simply exercising the organisation’s inspection powers defined in the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 and secondary legislation made thereunder.
This role will oversee the work of team managers, who manage inspectors to carry out scrutiny activity of early learning and childcare services including shared inspections with Education Scotland. Team managers and inspectors also play an important role in supporting quality assuring care services and providing professional advice to assist in developing the quality of service delivery. Acting as relationship managers, they provide support and challenge to local authorities, and providers of multiple services with the aim of supporting continuous improvement.
The successful candidate will manage projects and support the work of the directorate including overseeing the quality assurance of our scrutiny work. The role also involves liaison with external stakeholders, promoting the work of the organisation and contributing to national policy and initiatives.
The role holder will be expected to support the assurance and improvement directorate to ensure that the Care Inspectorate meets its responsibilities as defined by the Public Services Reform Act 2010 and other relevant legislation.
This senior role works with other leaders and colleagues to support significant cultural change, consolidate excellence in the Care Inspectorate’s activities and continue to invest in our competent, confident workforce in a way that puts collaboration at the core of our work.
About you
You will have significant experience in services for early learning and childcare, and experience of assurance and improvement activity, including inspection. You must be able to work well with colleagues to achieve shared aims, support innovation, and make the best use of resources. You will demonstrate the ability to provide leadership and direction to a diverse, multi-disciplinary team of professional staff and be highly effective in working creatively and collaboratively across organisational and professional boundaries.
Adept at challenging traditional thinking in a positive and constructive way, you will be an articulate and positive communicator, both verbally and in written form, with the ability to engage, influence and lead the development of a wide range of key stakeholder relationships, both internally and externally.
You will also be politically astute and demonstrate a broad knowledge of trends and relevant issues within health, social care, and education. To apply:
- You will be educated to SCQF level 9
- You will be registered or have the ability to register as a secondary authorised officer.
We are looking for someone who has:
- proven track record of effective management and leadership of staff in the area of health, social care, or education.
- demonstrable experience of strategic planning and delivery of services and supporting and embedding sustainable business and transformational change.
- extensive experience in collaborative and values-based leadership, including working with partners.
The professional registration process
The successful applicant must be registered with a professional body (this can be NMC, GTCS, NMC, HCPC, SSSC).
For SSSC registration, there is a specific registration category for Care Inspectorate Authorised Officers (AO). There will be two levels of AO registration (Primary AO and Secondary AO), and identification of types of work undertaken (Social Care and Children and Young People).
On appointment as a service manager ELC you will be required to register with SSSC as a Secondary AO under both types of work (Social Care and Children and Young People) or be registered with another appropriate registration body (NMC, GTCS, HCPC).
We would expect non-SSSC staff to hold or gain the appropriate AO qualification (in this case EFQM would be the minimum qualification).
Next steps
You’ll find more information in the job profile and person specification.
If you would like more information or an informal chat about the role, please contact Audrey Donnan (Chief Inspector – Early Learning and Childcare) at Audrey.Donnan@careinspectorate.gov.scot, please include a contact telephone number and times that would be best to reach you in your email.
If you believe that your skills, experience and motivation make you a suitable candidate for this post, please complete the online application form by 08:00 on Monday 4 August 2025.
It is anticipated that interviews will be held no sooner than Monday 18 August at our Dundee office.
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