Pre-school Area Manager - Working for Essex

About the role

Pre-school Area Manager

Fixed Term, Full Time

Up to £38,951 per annum

Location: Countywide

Closing Date: 25th September 2023

Please note this opportunity will be offered as a 2 year fixed-term contract.

Adult Community Learning (ACL) is Essex County Council’s (ECC) provider of lifelong learning experiences for Essex residents. ACL offers Pre-school places to children of learners via multiple pre-schools across North and Mid Essex, as a means of overcoming barriers to adult learning, and to children within its local community. The settings are registered with Ofsted and rated as Good.

This role will ensure the smooth running of the day-to-day business and people management of the settings. They will strive to become a flagship of good practice for the sector. The focus of this role is to ensure a child centred environment with high standards of physical, emotional, social, and intellectual education and care for all children in the settings. The postholder will supervise, support, and lead the professional development of pre-school staff regarding the standards of quality and practices required by EYFS and Ofsted, acting as the Ofsted nominee. They will lead and support the setting managers in having better oversight, direction, and performance any ensures all settings can achieve and exceed their experiential and financial/commercial expectations.

They will be responsible for driving the review of the pre-school business models to implement a sustainable Preschool business for each setting, through both knowledge and understanding of the early years sector and the effective management of finances and staffing ratios in relation to the occupancy levels.

Accountabilities

Responsible for undertaking regular visits to the settings to provide leadership, practical advice, support and guidance to the setting managers and teams to ensure the highest quality early years provision is in place.

Accountable for ensuring the development, implementation and maintaining a financially sustainable business model that meets both the Ofsted regulatory requirements and ECC financial requirements and vision.

Accountable for overseeing and ensuring the management quality and performance of operational aspects of the settings, including, health and safety, safeguarding, setting management, administration, CPD and Training. Overall accountability for overseeing the quality, monitoring, assessment, and development of the settings.

To support setting managers, establish, develop and maintain highly professional working relationships with relevant Local Authority Departments, regulatory bodies and other agencies, for example Health Visitors and Special Education Needs (SEN) services and schools to develop high quality service delivery.

Engage in proactive efforts to enhance teamwork and cultivation of an environment of transparent and open communication across the settings and across the broader Essex County Council, to enable a consistent and viable business and operational model.

Accountable for overseeing and leading the quality assurance of the settings so that reflective practice and a self-evaluative culture drives improvement.

Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

Qualified at least to Level 6 in Early Years or related subject, with a minimum 5 years’ experience working at Nursery Manager level or above.

Extensive knowledge of the Early Years sector, the EYFS framework and experience of delivery of successful outcomes in Ofsted inspections. Show strong understanding and knowledge of relevant Safeguarding and Compliance frameworks.

Evidence of continuing professional development and expert knowledge in relevant professional area

Sound knowledge and understanding of the factors that lead to improvement in positive outcomes for pre-school aged children.

The ability to identify priorities and meet outcomes to work effectively at a senior managerial level under a variety of circumstances and develop skill within the role.

Confident to provide clear financial leadership to the pre-schools.

Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to produce reports to inform strategic planning.

Energetic and enthusiastic with a can-do attitude and a real focus on EYFS and customer service.

Please note that the job role requires you to be mobile throughout an operational area. Therefore, the post holder will need to have a driving licence and access to a vehicle, or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means.

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Why Essex? Essex County Council has a location to be proud of. Our 1,300 square miles stretch from Constable Country to the Thames Estuary, from the dynamic M11 corridor to the traditional seaside resorts of Clacton and Walton. England’s oldest town, Colchester, and two of its newest – Basildon and Harlow – are right here. Along with the City of Chelmsford, the county town, they form our major population centres. It means real choice and makes Essex the ideal place for your career. Read more about us here.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process.

We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

What you should do next

If you are interested in finding out more about this role, please apply via the Working for Essex website.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community here.

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email resourcing.team@essex.gov.uk

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