Medical Detection Dogs trains dogs to save lives.
We train specialist dogs to detect the odour of human disease, providing life-saving alert assistance dogs to people with complex health problems across the UK and collaborating with NHS Trusts and other researchers and Universities both in the UK and internationally to advance the early diagnosis of disease.
We have an exciting new opportunity to join this innovative charity that is a world-leader in its specialist field.
JOB TITLE:Regional Assistance Dog Instructor Scotland
LOCATION:Scotland (Central belt, between Glasgow and Edinburgh)
SALARY:£24K - £29K per annum, depending on experience
JOB TYPE: Part time and full time hours considered, with occasional evening and weekend work required
REPORTS TO: Instructor Manager
The Job
We are looking for a passionate and driven person who ideally has previous experience and skills working as an Instructor within an Assistance Dog organisation, who has worked with clients and partnerships. The role includes supporting both clients who have had a MDD dog placed with them and also our own dog applicants with their puppies and young dogs to ensure they receive the highest standard of socialisation and early training in terms of obedience, public access and developing an alert to the applicant’s condition, with the aim to reach an accreditable assistance dog partnership status. It is also will include carrying out client specific and odour training for MDD own dogs, placing these dogs with their new clients and looking after a number of established partnerships. This role would suit somebody residing in the central belt of Scotland, between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Duties that encompass the role of an Instructor include:
- Be the first point of contact for the allocated partnerships in your area, covering all areas of Scotland. To provide guidance and instruction to applicants who have applied to the charity to have their own dogs considered for the training programme guidance and instruction on handling, behaviour and obedience and odour training as well as newly placed partnerships.
- Alongside the Instructing team, to run puppy classes, public access training, recall sessions in small groups for applicant own dogs that are in line with the charity’s quality standards and in accordance with timescales and targets.
- To also carry out support visits and home interviews for applicants and clients that have been allocated to you.
- Regularly monitor progress of the puppies and partnerships in training in your area and provide detailed, evidenced feedback to Instructor Manager and Head of Assistance Dog Programme.
- To carry out client specific training with any MDD owned dogs that have been matched, including the required odour scent training.
- Instructing, guiding and supporting new assistance dog clients in managing and handling a Medical Alert Assistance Dog effectively, via pre training, placement training and aftercare visits.
- Supporting partnerships in training in successfully reaching an accreditation standard and in maintaining this
- standard throughout the life of the partnership.
- To support a number of established partnerships in the form of aftercare, refresher training and yearly re-accreditations, assisting further afield on occasions as required.
Responsibilities
- To escalate issues and problems to the Instructor Manager as appropriate.
- To assist the Dog Supply Team with carrying out scent assessments on any MDD dogs in socialising as and when required with the support of the Instructor Manager and rest of the Instructing Team.
- To plan, organise and deliver practical and theoretical training to clients, meeting their individual needs in line with agreed standards to include areas such as dog welfare, appropriate handling, commanding and overall management. This will involve working with the parents as Team Leader and child as Client and working with adult clients.
- Assess the team dynamics of the family & balancing the needs of all family members as well as those of the dog.
- Assess the individuals preferred learning style and amending as relevant to aid a client.
- To accompany the client into all regular environments that they will take the dog to, ensuring the dog behaves in an acceptable manner and that the client and others are aware and clear in terms of where they dog should reside and behave for eg public transport, place of work. To complete a check list of environments for any applicant own dogs in training who are on the programme to be assessed within.
- To support and advise clients in transferring the odour training from pot training and recognising alerting behaviours to establish real life alerting.
- To monitor the correct and false alerting percentages of allocated partnerships via data analysis, advising where necessary until the correct alerting levels are achieved.
- To complete comprehensive reports and paperwork for any time spent with applicants or partnerships in training or established. Maintain accurate records by providing verbal and written information with agreed timescales about clients, dogs, applicants and apprentices as appropriate.
- To work alongside allocated partnerships with the aim of the partnership reaching an accredited standard and feeding back to the Instructor Manager and Assistance Dog Programme Manager if there are any concerns that the accreditation cannot be achieved.
- To provide clients with appropriate aftercare services at regular intervals in their own homes in the form of annual visits, support visits or at refresher workshops run at the Centre to agreed standards. This will include continual re-assessment of the dynamics of family and dog, formulating and training on appropriate solutions, as well as offering additional dog training advice.
- To deliver handling days as part of an applicant’s pre training to include ‘Introduction to Assistance Dog’ ‘Advanced Handling’ and Family Handling.
- To scent train and seizure proof advanced dogs in preparation to be partnered with an adult or child client and ensure that applicant own dogs have received this at the earliest opportunity.
- To maintain the ongoing public access training with any advanced dog in scent training that has been allocated to them.
- To provide local support to the growing puppy socialisation scheme, based in and around Perth.
- To provide support to the Charity’s public relations and fundraising functions as required, specifically in your area.
- To act as the ‘contact’ person for the assistance dog programme in relation to training policy procedures with clients and their families, other professional service providers and members of the public. This will include on-going research and development of the project.
- To liaise with and provide support for Volunteers who may operate as part of the aftercare programme provided by the charity.
- To ensure all partnerships are in line with the ADUK regulations with regards to behaviour, obedience and welfare and branding.
- Due to the nature of the role, flexible working hours may be required in some instances to facilitate the effective delivery of the work e.g. working during the school holidays with school age clients.
Other
- Share best practice with colleagues across the charity.
- Any other duties or tasks that are required to ensure the successful running of the Medical Alert Assistance Dog Department and the Charity overall.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
SKILLS AND ABILITIES
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
- High level of preparation, organisational and co-ordination skills
- Strong and clear teaching and instructing skills
- Experience of running puppy classes and carrying out public access training and recall sessions
- High level of self – motivation and planning
- Approachable, calm and empathetic to children and adults with debilitating and life threatening conditions
- Happy to travel alone within the UK to visit any clients as necessary.
- Happy to be on call at all times for partnerships as and when required.
- Happy to stay away from home and stay in local hotel when the client’s location is too far from your home to travel back.
- Happy and able to have Medical Alert Assistance Dogs in training to reside in their home.
- Good team worker, but equally able to work alone.
- Positive, empathetic and calm attitude
- Able to embrace a constantly evolving organisation
- Flexible
KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE
Essential
- Previous Assistance Dog Instructing or Dog Training with puppy socialisers experience
- Knowledge of AD(UK) and ADI regulations
- Law in relation to dogs.
- Knowledge of medical conditions relevant to puppies between 8 weeks and 2 years of age.
- Dog and human psychology.
- Proven evidence and experience of dog handling and training skills
- Previous experience of teaching and instructing
- Sound dog training and dog behaviour knowledge
- IT literacy and report writing skills
- Experience of using Microsoft based programs such as Outlook, Word,
- Excel, Internet Explorer and Power Point, teams, zoom and Microsoft
- Share point for data etc
- Full UK driving licence
- Pass a DBS (CRB) check due to regular contact with children
Preferable
- Knowledge of debilitating medical conditions and understanding of how they can impact people, both physically and psychologically, particularly when they are unstable and fluctuating.
- Previous knowledge of odour/scent training.
PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
- High level of preparation, organisational and co-ordination skills
- Strong and clear teaching and instructing skills
- High level of self – motivation and planning
- Approachable, calm and empathetic to children and adults with debilitating and life threatening conditions
- Happy to travel alone within the UK to visit any clients as necessary.
- Happy to be on call at all times for partnerships as and when required – to include outside standard working hours.
- Able and willing to stay away from home and stay in local hotel when the client’s location is too far from the Centre to travel back.
- If able, possibility of having Medical Alert Assistance Dogs in training to reside in their home through the 6 – 8 week training phase.
- Good team worker, but equally able to work alone.
- Positive, empathetic and calm attitude
- Able to embrace a constantly evolving organisation
- You should be supportive of the charitable aims of Medical Detection Dogs and capable of working as part of a team, as well as able to motivate yourself.
- You should be adaptable and positively embrace change by not only being flexible towards the ideas of others but also putting forward ideas to colleagues. This will involve creativity in problem solving and making appropriate responses to new ideas and unexpected situations.
DIVERITY, EQUALITY & INCLUSION
We are a welcoming, diverse and inclusive charity. Medical Detection Dogs thrives when everyone feels comfortable bringing their best self to work. We celebrate difference, whilst striving to create an environment where colleagues feel respected and valued for their unique potential. We are committed to our values on equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Values & Behaviours
Working at Medical Detection Dogs will be a richly rewarding experience.
Our Values & Behaviours encapsulate who we are, what we stand for and what it will feel like to be part of our team:
- We are respectful.
- We stay positive.
- We strive for excellence.
- We communicate and listen.
- We are ambassadors.
- We are one team.
And of course, we advocate for Medical Detection Dogs whenever we get the chance, and we pride ourselves on our role as ambassadors for the charity.
Finally, the successful candidate will also be expected to:
- Hold a full UK Driving Licence
- Provide proof of identity and eligibility to work in the UK.
- Undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check
- Work some evenings and weekends
- Be willing to travel to the Centre based near Milton Keynes
Registered Charity 
51 - 100
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
About Us
Harris Academy Battersea is a mixed state secondary school serving a truly comprehensive community in the heart of London. We are an Ofsted ‘Outstanding' school with a track record of delivering fantastic outcomes year on year for our students. In 2023, Ofsted visited the academy and judged us as remaining ‘outstanding', commenting on our “highly ambitious curriculum”, the “exceptionally high quality of education” provided and noted that “behaviour in the school is very strong”. Nevertheless, we are extremely ambitious for our school and as we seek to continue to grow and develop, we are looking for more brilliant people to join us.
Our Academy is centred on the values of Knowledge, Integrity and Resilience and these underpin the way we work for both students and staff. Our staff are inclusive, diverse and committed to our mission: we develop aspirational young people to thrive in a changing world.
HABS offers a broad, academic and challenging curriculum founded on six key curriculum aims:
- To develop deep, long-lasting knowledge
- To develop students into accomplished readers, writers and orators
- To provide experiences within and beyond the classroom that enrich learning and ensure students can make informed choices about their futures
- To equip students to challenge injustice in all its forms
- To enable students to understand how they learn
- To support students to reflect on their choices and values to improve themselves and their community
These aims underpin all elements of our curriculum, and we see our core academic curriculum and wider personal development curriculum as intrinsically linked. All staff at the Academy contribute to the personal development of our students through their roles as tutors and through their contributions to the wider life of the academy.
A thriving school can only function with fantastic staff, and our vision is to make teaching at HABS both enjoyable and sustainable. The wellbeing of staff underpins every decision we make, and we seek to ensure that every member of staff can enjoy a work-life-balance enabling them to bring their best to work each day.
At HABS, professional growth and development is central to our mission. Our professional development motto is ‘improve, not prove' and leaders are relentlessly focussed on supporting staff in getting even better through a wide range of internal and external training opportunities.
As a part of the Harris Federation, all staff in the Academy benefit from being part of our network of more than fifty primary and secondary academies across London. Vibrant networks of subject experts meet regularly and teachers can access bespoke support from our central teams of consultants.
For more information about what we do and who we are, we encourage you to visit our website here as well as our careers page here and explore!
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Summary
We are currently looking to appoint a Home Academy Liaison Officer (HALO) to oversee educational welfare across the academy.
At Harris Academy Battsersea, you will join a dedicated team of staff supporting our excellent students. If you are looking for an opportunity to grow, inspire and develop, this may be the role for you.
The actual salary for this role will be £29,641-£30,516 (39 weeks per year, 37.5 hours per week)
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Main Areas of Responsibility
Your responsibilities will include:
- Overseeing Educational Welfare across the academy.
- Managing a caseload of ‘at risk’ students, where attendance falls below 85% and implement strategies to improve attendance
- Monitoring and improving the attendance of most vulnerable students
- Ensuring compliance with statutory duties, including reporting persistent and severe absenteeism
- Conducting home visits to engage families and address barriers to school attendance
- Maintaining accurate attendance records and preparing reports
- Representing the academy at external meetings e.g. Social Services Case Conferences, Child in Need Meetings, LAC Reviews
- Communicating effectively with all external agencies including possible alternative providers
- Ensuring effective communication/consultation as appropriate with the parents of students
- Leading on legal interventions for non-attendance where necessary
- Co-ordinating appropriate and tailored alternative provision for students unable to thrive in mainstream education
- Supporting the school’s inclusion strategy
- Maintaining the alternative provision tracker and monitoring student progress
- Building and maintaining partnerships with external providers, agencies, and support networks
- Ensuring safeguarding and health and safety standards in alternative provision settings
- Acting as a liaison between the academy, external providers, students, and families to ensure seamless support and transition to alternative placemen
- Ensuring compliance with local and national policies related to alternative provision. as well as safeguarding protocols
- Regularly reviewing alternative provision placements and providing feedback to stakeholders.
- Maintaining confidential records of support
- Preparing of reports and maintaining records relating to student referrals and subsequent counselling or support
- Providing support to the attendance team
- Providing administrative support to coordinate internal seclusion
Qualifications & Experience
We would like to hear from you have:
- Qualifications to degree level or equivalent
- Knowledge of behaviour for learning policies
- Knowledge of the range of barriers to learning that students face
- Training in child protection and safeguarding procedures
- Basic knowledge of first aid (e.g. emergency first aid course)
- At least three years’ experience of working in an inner city school or educational establishment in a pastoral capacity
- Experience of dealing successfully with a range of issues influencing poor attendance
- Experience of working with staff to ensure excellent standards of attendance and punctuality
- Experience of working with families
- Experience of working with challenging students and parents, and finding ways in which we can meet their needs more successfully
For a full job description and person specification, please download the Job Pack.
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Professional Development & Benefits
Our people are at the heart of our success. We have developed a strong culture of collaboration and best practice, with professional development and career planning at its centre. We invest in our staff with support, coaching, mentoring, and a wide range of top-quality training programmes delivered at every level.
In addition to the opportunities for career development and progression, we also offer a competitive rewards and benefits package which includes a Performance and Loyalty Bonus, Pension Scheme with generous employer contributions, a Wellbeing Cash Plan, electric car scheme, 26 days' annual leave (plus bank holidays) for staff who work across the full year, and many other benefits. Learn more about on our website.
Safeguarding Notice
The Harris Federation and all our academies are committed to ensuring the highest levels of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, and we expect all our staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All offers of employment are subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, references, an online search, and where applicable, a prohibition from teaching check will be completed.
Equal Opportunities
The Harris Federation is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all suitably qualified candidates.
We value the diversity of our staff and students, and everyone at the Harris Federation is equally valued and respected. We aim to be an inclusive employer that reflects the communities we serve. We are committed to providing a fair, equitable and mutually supportive learning and working environment.
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Next Steps
If you have any questions about this opportunity, please send us an email, or call to arrange a conversation.
Before applying, please download the Job Pack for full details on the job responsibilities and person specification. This will be helpful for you when completing your application, and throughout the recruitment process.
We encourage you to apply as soon as possible as we may interview and offer to a candidate before the closing date. Please note that we only accept applications submitted before the closing date via our careers website.
Thank you!
Premises Officer/Maintenance Person – Oasis St Martin’s Village
Fixed Term 1 Year Contract, full-time post, 40 hours per week (1 FTE), inclusive of breaks
Working Pattern: Some shift work may be required (across 7.30am until 9pm)
Salary: £30,766 per annum (including London Weighting)
Premises Officer/Maintenance Person – Oasis St Martin’s Village
Oasis’ mission is to build stronger communities. Oasis St Martins Village is a new and exciting project, working in partnership with other organisations in an integrated way, to provide opportunity and pathways for children and young people.
Our vision is to transform the life-chances of children, who are struggling in or not coping with mainstream education, by offering them and their families support and opportunity.
Our work is based around the principle that “it takes a village to raise a child”.
This role will help deliver the Oasis St Martins Village aims and mission by ensuring the provision of an efficient and effective site and facilities service, aligned with the ethos and values of Oasis St Martin’s Village.
What will you do?
This newly formed role will be embedded within the site management team. To be successful in this role, applicants will be required to:
- Assist the Senior Premises Officer with maintenance tasks as required to ensure a safe and effective working environment. Must be able perform basic repairs (plumbing, carpentry, painting, changing locks etc.)
- Assist with water testing, testing of alarms and other routine tasks as directed.
- Set and un-set the site alarm systems when required.
- Assist with the opening and closing, unlocking and locking of the site gates and buildings, including evening and weekend use.
- Be responsible for the security of the site when on duty including the locking of all doors and windows.
- Assist the events manager with delivery of events, particularly during evenings and weekends.
- Assist with the cleaning of the site as and when needed.
- Assist with room setup and moving of furniture safely. This includes preparing spaces to host events and functions, packing down and cleaning afterwards. And to service ongoing regular lettings.
What will you get in return?
- A network of peers and partners all sharing the same vision and an environment set up to ensure everyone is supported and included.
- A package of reward that includes a 7% employer contribution pension scheme, annual leave allowance starting at 25 days (plus Bank Holidays) increasing over time, eligibility to join the Green Commute cycle to work scheme and cash benefit health plan.
- Be part of an international network of Oasis charities offering opportunities to develop your career in new directions and locations.
To apply, please send your CV and a Supporting Statement (no more than two A4 pages) to the email address provided on our website or via Charity Jobs.
Please expand on your CV to tell us about relevant skills, experience and qualifications you have that relate to the job description and person specification.
Completed applications should be returned by 12 noon on Friday 23rd January 2026.
We actively encourage applications from people of all ethnic backgrounds and underrepresented groups. If you require any assistance to overcome potential barriers during the recruitment process, please let us know.
Oasis is committed to making a difference to the lives of the communities it works in, and as such you must show a willingness to demonstrate commitment to the values and behaviours which flow from the Oasis ethos. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff to share this commitment and to undergo appropriate checks, including enhanced DBS checks.
The successful candidates must have the right to work in the UK. Oasis cannot assist with sponsorship or visas.
Oasis supports Equal Opportunities. Registered Charity No. 1026487
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.