Natasha takes on Practice Manager role

Natasha McInninie has become Bridges Project’s Practice Manager following the charity’s imminent expansion.

With several new services ready to launch and the practice staff team growing by 30% in the coming months, Bridges Project’s Board of Trustees have decided to designate funds for a Practice Manager role to meet the growing supervision requirements that come with the expansion. Having been the charity’s Transitions Service Coordinator since 2015, Natasha was a natural choice for the new post.

She had her first day in her new role, in which she will be directly managing seven practice staff, on 7 June.

“I am excited to become Bridges Project’s new Practice Manager. I am also a bit nervous but have an amazing, enthusiastic and motivated staff team around me who are all dedicated to working with young people,” said Natasha.

Until now, she has been supporting approximately 40 young people annually as a Transitions Service Coordinator. As a Practice Manager, Natasha will not work directly with young people but will mainly focus on overseeing staff. She will be responsible for the overall leadership and management of effective service delivery and practice within the organisation, including direct line management of staff, management of referrals into the service and first class partnership working.

The Practice Manager thinks her new role will make Bridges Project’s operations even more efficient and ultimately allow the charity to help even more young people.

“The Practice Manager role will help to ensure that staff feel supported within their roles at a crucial time of organisational expansion. It will also free up the Project CEO’s time to focus more on strategic planning.”

“As Practice Manager I will aim to strengthen our relationship with key partners, helping to ensure a steady flow of appropriate referrals into the organisation,” she said.

 “We are in a great place this year with existing and newly appointed staff starting in new, exciting posts. I am looking forward to seeing the team use their broad range of skills and strengths to develop these posts, which is ultimately going to ensure that a large number of young people from East Lothian and Midlothian are supported into positive destinations. “

Natasha brings an incredibly wide range of experience from various sectors into her new role. Having started her professional career as a nurse in Carlisle, Doncaster and then Guernsey, she travelled to Australia and worked in several short-term jobs for a year. Upon her return to the UK, she started working for an independent living organisation, decided to retrain and completed a Community Education degree at the University of Edinburgh.

Natasha’s new degree would take her to several different organisations and roles. She would go on to work with youth club activities, community health education, community regeneration for young people and coordination of a network for sexual health professionals. The new Practice Manager’s last two jobs before joining Bridges Project were with the family support organisation Circle and Penicuik YMCA.

Seven years have now passed since Natasha first started in her role as Bridges Project’s Transitions Service Coordinator in 2015 and she is excited about her next chapter with the organisation:

“It will be exciting to work with new staff, services and teams and make good use of our new GetConnected IT & Education Suite. I look forward to introducing new young people to Bridges Project and to work with such a brilliant staff team!”

Bridges Project’s CEO, Emma Scarcliffe, is also thrilled to see Natasha taking on the role of Practice Manager.

“Natasha has been a highly respected member of the Bridges Project team for years and is the ideal person to create and maintain an active and dynamic practice approach which encourages creativity, enterprise and positive thinking and places young people and their needs at the heart of service delivery. Natasha will ensure our high standards of working practice continue and I am excited about the future; our new services, growing staff team and, of course, Natasha being in this instrumental role. She will be fantastic!”