Play Leader with Spring Oscars (Club Manager)
Location: Edinburgh (Midlothian)
Salary: £28,000 per annum
Contract/Hours: Permanent Full Time – 37 hours per week
Closing date: Midnight on the 5th of January 2026
Interviews to take place on the 7th and 8th of January 2026
Benefits:
* 20 days annual leave PLUS bank holidays
* Free childcare in our breakfast and after school clubs, with 50% discount in our holiday clubs
* Gain professional qualifications and excellent training/development opportunities
* Flexible maternity, adoption, and paternity packages
* Pension with up to 7% employer contribution with included life assurance cover
* Staff discount portal and Blue Light Card eligibility with 15,000 national retailers' discounts
We're thrilled that you're considering a career with Spring. Spare us five minutes, and we'll tell you what you need to know.
About Oscars
Join Oscars and step into a key role with our supportive, experienced team We provide friendly, high-quality out of school childcare for children aged 5-1, often based in local primary schools. Are safe, welcoming settings bend play, learning, and fun, helping children explore, grow, and thrive. People passionate team dedicated to creating engaging experiences, building strong community connections, and supporting your professional development through a clear career pathway.
The role
This is a fantastic opportunity to step into our leadership role where you'll truly shape the day-to-day experience of children and staff. As Play Leader, you'll lead a vibrant before and after school club, creating a safe, fun and welcoming environment where children feel happy, supported and excited to attend. You'll guide and inspire a small team, set the tone for each session, and ensure activities are well planned, engaging and organised if you enjoy leading by example, building strong relationships, and making a real impact in school-based setting, this role offers both responsibility and reward.
What you'll be doing
In the role of Play Leader, you'll be:
* Promoting the emotional, physical, social, psychological, developmental, and educational well-being of children as paramount.
* Leading and be responsible for the day-to-day management of a Spring OSCARS before and after school care.
* Preparing the club for the daily activities, including snacks or breakfast is prepared in line with healthy eating guidelines.
* Managing a team of Play Work staff providing inductions, supervision, team meetings, appraisals and training.
* Liaising and taking a lead role with relevant partners ensuring effective communication and completion/recording of company and regulatory documentation.
What we need from you
Our successful candidate will have an enthusiastic and pro-active mindset with a positive attitude and can lead the team to form strong and supportive relationships with the parents, children and the team. Our Job Description outlines the requirements of the role, but the 'must haves' are:
* Minimum level SVQ 3 or HNC qualification in Childcare or Early Years and willing to study further.
* Registration with Scottish Social Services Council.
* Experience of working in a senior/management role within a childcare setting or out of school setting.
* Experience of leading a staff team, including supervision, work allocation, assessment or training and professional development.
* A thorough knowledge and understanding of the Curriculum for Excellence, GIRFEC, Care Inspection requirements and relevant current legislation.
* An understanding of child protection processes, safeguarding and working with vulnerable children.
Whether this is a career change for you or the next step in your journey, we'd love to hear from you.
We work together to reach our mission to give children a healthy start in life.
Good luck We can't wait to hear from you.
Contact: If you need support with your application, please contact our Recruitment Team at quoting reference
We'll be happy to give you any support you require.
Diversity, Equality and Inclusion
At Spring Oscars we're dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. We actively encourage applications from Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic and disabled candidates as they are under-represented within the organisation. We want to take deliberate and purposeful action to ensure equal opportunity to all groups.
Male staff are often under-represented within this sector, and we would like to encourage more male applicants for our roles.
We are committed to safer recruitment practices to protect our service users; therefore, all applicants are expected to have an understanding of and commitment to safeguarding best-practice.
Don't meet every single requirement?
If you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't align perfectly with the job description, we'd love you to apply anyway. You might just be the perfect person for this role, or another role within the Action for Children family.
Application Process
Please note we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.
There are 5 sections for you to complete - Personal Details, CV, Supporting Statement & Information, Equality & Diversity, Submission & Declaration – please refer to the Job Description when applying.
We also want to know what unique qualities you can bring to help us reach our vision for children and families.
Talent Pool: We're sure you've got what it takes to join our ambitious team. If you're unsuccessful this time around, we'd like to hold your details in case similar jobs come up that you might be better suited for. But feel free to let us know if you'd rather we didn't do that.
Want to know more about Spring and Oscars?
Check out our socials on Linkedin, Facebook or Youtube.
See below for further information about working with us:
Employee Reward Booklet
Spring Early Years Career Pathway
Job Description