The Opportunity
Salary: NJC Grade 10 £38,626 to £41,511 per annum
Contract Type: Fixed Term/Secondment until 31 July 2027
Working Pattern: 37 hours per week, full time
Location: County Hall, Chichester
Please note:
1. You will need to be able to travel across the county to settings in both rural and urban areas. You will cover a geographical area but may need to travel countywide.
2. Internal candidates wishing to apply for this role will be considered for a secondment position. Please discuss and agree this with your manager before applying.
Closing date: 01 June 2025
Interview date: 11 June 2025
Are you passionate about supporting young children to have the best start in life?
Do you have experience leading early years and childcare practice?
If you enjoy creative solutions and sharing your ideas, we would love to hear from you.
As an Early Years and Childcare Advisor for Quality and Sufficiency, you will support early years and childcare settings to deliver sustainable, high quality, inclusive practice. Your focus will be to support providers across West Sussex to sustainably meet the provision needs of children and their families. This is crucial to ensuring young children have the best start in life and identifying additional support through inclusive practice.
You will collaborate and work in partnership with colleagues and a range of organisations, such as early years settings, childminders and out of school provisions, to support every child to achieve their full potential.
This role is varied, and the Early Years team are supportive and passionate about ensuring children receive the best experience in early years and childcare, enabling families to have access to childcare for 0–14-year-olds (or up to 18 for children with a disability).
Key responsibilities of this role include:
3. Reviewing the sufficiency of childcare places and providing business support.
4. Compliance of the Early Years entitlement and other funding streams.
5. Supporting early years settings to identify children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
6. Developing effective professional relationships with providers and customers.
7. Observing and modelling practice to staff in early years and childcare settings.
8. Reviewing sufficiency of places across a geographical area.
9. Keeping up to date with research, safeguarding, regulations, policies, practices, and procedures.
For more information on the Key Skills, Qualifications and/or Experience required, please refer to the Job Description attached. Please refer to the key skills in your cover letter.
About You
As an EYCA, you will need a high level of professional knowledge as well as significant experience of working within the early years and childcare sector.
We are looking for someone who has clear communication skills to offer advice and guidance, and who can adapt and re-prioritise work in response to changes. You will spend a significant amount of time working away from colleagues, so you will need to be organised and self-motivated.
Qualifications and/or experience required:
10. Degree level qualification in a relevant field.
11. Qualified Teacher Status with Early Years Specialism, Early Years Professional Status, Early Years Teacher Status or Level 6 Play Work qualification.
12. Significant experience working in the early years and childcare sector.
13. Experience of leading change by applying specialist knowledge and providing advice, guidance, and challenge to other professionals.
14. Experience of leading early years and childcare practice.
15. Evidence of working alongside a range of professionals, working collaboratively to achieve a common goal.
16. Evidence of the use of data, to identify and prioritise developments and projects to improve outcome for children. For example, assessment data.
17. Experience of working with childminders and the out of school sector.
About Us
Early Years and Childcare Advisors (EYCAs) work within the Children, Young People and Learning directorate, which groups all services including Early Help, Children’s Social Care and Education and Skills, that work together to put children first and improve outcomes for children and families across West Sussex.
Our Vision is: “From birth every child is nurtured, supported, and given the opportunity to develop well and achieve their full potential in inclusive, safe, inspiring environments. The voice and needs of children and their families is sought and acted upon with holistic needs being identified early and effectively met, enabling children and families to be healthy and thrive.”
Benefits
As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance, and are rewarded for the work they do.