“Scotland has an incredibly vibrant charity sector. With roughly 25,000 organisations across the country, charities provide vital services supporting communities. MCR Pathways dedicated 103,000 volunteering hours in the last year, translating to over £1.3M in social value.

Despite its vital role, the sector faces significant challenges such as a lack of sustainable funding, skills shortage and declining volunteer numbers. Real change is needed to ensure the third sector’s longevity and community presence.

The primary role of public affairs in the third sector is to translate an organisation’s mission into the public consciousness and influence political support. Currently, we are doing this through our 2026 manifesto. 

Career progression can be influenced by several factors such as; organisation size, cause and established influence. 

Although firmly established as an organisation, we are at the start of an ambitious chapter in influencing, creating a Policy and Public Affairs Team in late 2024. This has positioned us at the forefront of a growing movement to centre lived-experience in policymaking, enabling us to shape, debate and drive change for young people across Scotland. Furthermore, our cultural values of trust and growth have allowed the team to accelerate learning and development, preparing them for the next stage of their careers.

Personal development is also a key factor in career progression. The ability to be curious and connected to lived-experience at all times is vital. Robust networking, collaboration skills and regular CPD also helps attract additional opportunities to enhance skills such as voluntary trustee positions.

It is all about mindset – seize opportunities, see the best that could happen!

My career has been dedicated to relational practice and change across Scotland’s public and third sector organisations. Having held a Board Commissioner role at Scottish Commission on Social Security, led national operations at Skills Development Scotland and developed MCR Pathways nationally, I have relished navigating the intersectionality of national policy, local politics and community impact to go some way to supporting an inclusive, poverty-free and socially-mobile society.

My leadership approach is, like many, values-driven. I relentlessly advocate for long-term interventions in policy that focus on the ambition of social equity. In my experience, that is only possible if we work as one. Unity across the third, public and private sectors is the bridge to social and economic equality. I am feverish about building alliances to develop a more co-operative eco-system across sectors for communities to flourish.”