The Pilotlight scheme, which transfers senior executive skills to projects working with disadvantaged people in Scotland, has parachuted a top-level team into the Jeely Piece Club in Castlemilk, Glasgow.

The Pilotlight scheme, which transfers senior executive skills to projects working with disadvantaged people in Scotland, has parachuted a top-level team into the Jeely Piece Club in Castlemilk, Glasgow.

The club works with vulnerable families on re-inforcing parenting skills, and provides a nursery, after-school clubs and an all-age learning centre.

Jeely Piece was formed 30 years ago and its recently-appointed (and only second) director Tracey Black asked Pilotlight to help it draw up a new business plan.

The club is now taking advice from a commercial property developer, an operations specialist, an IT expert and an accountant-turned-entrepreneur, who started working with Black at the start of the year. Acting as mentors, they are looking closely at the organisation, its costs and structure, and by the autumn a measurable action plan is expected to be in place.

One of the Pilot- lighters, Brian Gillies, managing director of Alchemist Estates, says he got involved because he wanted to work with a smaller charity "where I can have greater direct input and where my experience and knowledge is likely to make a difference". He goes on: "It's taken us a while to get to know the charity and understand how it operates, but we are now starting to see changes."

Over the next two years the scheme aims to benefit up to 40 carefully-screened charities, helping plug a skills and resources gap that prevents them from building a sustainable service.