Early Years Workforce Development Advisor

This role has a starting salary of £43,923 per annum, based on a 36 hour working week. This is a 24-month fixed term contract/ secondment opportunity.

We are excited to be hiring a new Early Years Workforce Development Advisor to join our fantastic Early Years Educational Effectiveness team. The team is based in Fairmount House, Leatherhead. The role involves hybrid working, supporting early years providers across the county, working remotely (sometimes from home) and combining this with working from any of the Council's offices.

Rewards and Benefits

• 26 days' holiday (prorated for part time staff), rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 30 days after 5 years' service
• Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
• An extensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
• Up to 5 days of carer's leave per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependents leave
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, shopping and many more
• 2 paid volunteering days plus 1 team volunteering day per year
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources

About the Team

The Early Years Educational Effectiveness team sits within the Children, Families and Lifelong Learning Directorate. The team provide support and challenge to a range of early years providers including full daycare, pre-schools, maintained nurseries, childminders and out of school provision to promote quality improvements and maintain high quality provision. We will provide advice and guidance on quality of provision and the implementation of the Early Years Foundation Stage as well as supporting setting to meet the requirements set out by Ofsted and other relevant legislation. We also support owners and managers with recruitment and retention of staff and provide advice and guidance on suitable qualifications in line with the Department for Education requirements.

About the Role

As the Early Years Workforce Development Advisor, you will be instrumental in ensuring that mangers, owners and school leaders are provided with the most up to date information and advice regarding the development of their workforce. You will work with schools and colleges to ensure that qualification pathways are clear and promote qualifications that the Department for Education as approved as full and relevant.

You will work with the team and early years providers to understand the early years qualification standards and to ensure that settings fully embedded qualification requirements of the Early Years Foundations Stage Framework. You will support settings with effective recruitment and retention of staff and will be key in the delivery of workforce initiatives. You will lead on the development and delivery of training across the sector to support the development of the early years' workforce in Surrey.

As an Early Years Workforce Development Advisor, you will act as an expert lead to the team, providing advice and guidance to enable the advisory team to carry out their duties and ensure that the early years' sector in Surrey has the most up to date advice, regarding workforce requirements and are supported to improve outcomes for children.

Shortlisting Criteria

To apply, alongside your CV, you will be asked to answer the following questions:

1. What professional qualification do you hold relating to early years, education or HR?
2. Please tell us about your experience of working with partners and other agencies to bring about change.
3. Describe you experience of developing communications tools and resources to raise the profile of specific projects.
4. Please tell us about your experience of developing and delivering training programmes.
5. What are the current key challenges facing early years managers and owners in relation to workforce?

Contact us

Please contact us for any questions relating to the role. This could be to discuss flexible working requests, transferable skills or any barriers to employment.

For an informal discussion please contact Philippa Gray by telephone at .

The job advert closes at 23:59 on 02/04/2024 with interviews planned for 11/04/2024.

Our Commitment

Surrey County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. A guaranteed interview will be offered to all disabled applications where:

• The candidate has evidenced the minimum criteria for the role through their application
• The candidate has chosen to share that they have a disability on the application form

Our application form and onboarding process will provide an opportunity to request any reasonable adjustments for the interview and/or the role.

We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all underrepresented groups.