About Scottish Community Safety Network
What is the Scottish Community Safety Network?
The Scottish Community Safety Network (SCSN), now operating publicly as SC Scotland or Safer Communities Scotland, is a Scottish charity (SC040464, OSCR-regulated; company limited by guarantee SC357649) established in 1997. It describes itself as "the national network for community safety" — the sole national advocates for community safety in Scotland, an apolitical, evidence-led intermediary organisation that hosts events, shares research, builds relationships, and creates opportunities for inter-disciplinary, cross-agency exchanges and collaboration across all 32 Scottish local authorities. The remit of "community safety" is broad: home safety, road safety, water safety, online safety, substance misuse, child protection, and community justice all sit within scope. A big part of the work is supporting Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) — collaborations between local-authority departments, Police Scotland, emergency services, courts, prison services, and local community groups, all working under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. SC Scotland published its Annual Report 2024/25 covering 32 local authorities through evidence-based learning, national policy contribution, and innovative tool development.
Where will I work?
SC Scotland is currently based in Glasgow (rebranded from its earlier Edinburgh-based form). The team is small and remote-first — the About page is explicit: "Our staff team may be small, but we're driven by big ambitions. Working remotely as a close-knit team, we lead the delivery of SC Scotland's projects, partnerships, and strategic work." This is a Scotland-based hybrid role — staff work remotely with travel to partner sites across all 32 Scottish local authorities for events, research convening, and partner engagement. Newsletter inbox: [email protected].
What is the SC Scotland team like?
Three named staff lead the day-to-day work: Dave Shea (Chief Officer), Dawn Exley (National Development Officer), and Malie Hasni (Communications Officer). Strategic governance comes from a volunteer board of trustees: Amanda Coulthard (Chairperson), Claire Gillespie (Vice Chairperson), and Wayne Mackay (Treasurer). The staff-trustee model means the operating team can be small (~3 people delivering national-scale work) while the volunteer board provides oversight, governance, and additional expertise. The /about-us page lays out the values verbatim: "SC Scotland focuses on prevention, evidence and partnership as its core doctrine. At SC Scotland, our greatest asset is our people. We empower and trust our staff, offering flexible, remote working within a four-day working week, encouraging innovation, creative thinking and personal responsibility. We believe in learning from failure, not punishing it, and we strive to lead with compassion, recognising that everyone has priorities beyond work. Life happens. A happy workforce rewards faith. For us, it's about people before process." The work itself draws on Christie Commission (2011) thinking: "A collaborative culture throughout our public services" — joint-working, innovation, prevention, community participation, and the maximisation of scarce resources. Sector-wide austerity is named explicitly: "In days of prolonged austerity, financial restraint and dwindling resources, the value of effective partnerships, co-creation, and shared learning becomes more essential and pronounced."
Work-Life Balance
The four-day working week is named verbatim on the About page in the Values section — applied alongside "flexible, remote working" and a culture of "learning from failure, not punishing it." The compassion-led framing — "everyone has priorities beyond work. Life happens." — is rare on a public charity website and signals that the policy is lived rather than aspirational. The remote pattern lets staff balance the demands of partnership work across 32 local authorities without requiring a Glasgow commute, and the small-team scale means meeting overhead is naturally low.
Perks and Benefits
What's verified from the published Values section:
- Four-day working week ("flexible, remote working within a four-day working week" — verbatim)
- Flexible, remote working — Scotland-wide, no commute requirement
- Compassionate-management culture — "learning from failure, not punishing it"; "recognising that everyone has priorities beyond work — Life happens"
- High trust, low meeting overhead — "people before process"; small team (~3 staff)
- Mission-driven work delivering national-scale impact across 32 Scottish local authorities through partnership, prevention, and evidence-led policy work
- National public-policy access — apolitical intermediary, Christie Commission framework alignment, Annual Report contributions to national community-safety policy debate
- Trustee-board governance providing expert volunteer oversight
Note: standard UK statutory benefits (pension auto-enrolment, statutory parental leave) almost certainly apply via charity-sector norms but specific figures are not disclosed on the website; verify with HR at application stage.