Nursery Manager

Job content

passionate Nursery Manager to join our wonderful Bright Horizons Southborough Springfield Road Day Nursery and Preschool. Our nursery is situated in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

Our 40-place nursery is proudly Ofsted rated ‘Outstanding’. Our newly refurbished facility features a fantastic outdoor garden, complete with a cycling track, tepee and all-weather areas!

As a Nursery Manager working with us, you can expect a competitive salary, excellent training and development as well as a caring and passionate place to work.

Key Tasks And Responsibilities

• Working with HR ensure the nurseries are fully recruited with suitable qualified people, encouraging a diverse workforce, who are comprehensively inducted, trained and supported; the workforce plans are in line with occupancy, and all nursery teams are fully compliant with their regulatory training, company induction and required development programmes at all times.
• Lead and role model best practice and high standards of behaviour with the staff team, deliver relevant training to practitioners, and continually reflect on practice to identify and drive continuous improvement to deliver high quality care and education for all children and staff.
• Provide exceptional organisational leadership of nursery teams – promote HEART culture, values, and behaviours, to drive improvement in customer and client satisfaction and employee engagement, retention and performance in the nursery, making a positive contribution to service excellence
• Support the implementation of the Quality, People and Growth action plans across all nursery setting, to ensure alignment with company strategic objectives and ensure all routine practices, procedures and policies are implemented securely and consistently across the nursery setting.
• In line with Bright Horizons UK standards for pedagogy, implement the Bright Beginnings, Bright Horizons curriculum to ensure a child-centred approach to operating all aspects of the nursery, and ensure the observation and planning process meets the needs of all children in line with the Quality Assurance Framework
• Implement and manage Keeping Everyone Safe policies and procedures and continuously demonstrate, monitor and improve the practices and behaviours that underpin a high performing safety culture
• To be the lead Designated Safeguarding Lead at the nursery and hold overall responsibility for the day to day management of safeguarding and child protection policies in the nursery.
• To lead by example and drive the culture of Safeguarding Children and promoting professional staff behavior.
• In collaboration with HR and RD, complete effective annual appraisals for all staff, and contribute to succession planning, identification and delivery of relevant training, and additional requirements for personal development plans including coaching and mentoring for all staff
• Working with HR, identify succession plans for the nursery team and nurture, create and continuously develop a pipeline of high performing practitioners and room leaders, building the strongest talent pool in the sector
• Working with the RD, Finance and Marketing, identify and implement commercial plans and strategies to deliver FTE growth in the nursery
• Commercial delivery of the nursery performance, optimising revenue generation and costs efficiency in line with staff ratio requirements to deliver and exceed the annual nursery budgeted EBITDA
• Engage with the Local Authority and understand the local offer to support the practice in all areas of the nursery
• Actively promote and support charities including the Bright Horizons Foundation for children
  

Responsible For

• Providing strong and clear line management for a Nursery team. Work in collaboration with RD, EC Specialists, HR, Finance and Marketing colleagues throughout the business, to ensure cohesion and execution of the UK strategic goals.
• Plan, manage and account for the monthly performance and comparison to the Nursery budget, and demonstrate a clear understanding of efficient staff deployment, matching staff hours to FTE bookings, and managing the rostering in line with regulatory standards.
• Ensure high quality leadership. Deliver, implement and manage strong and effective performance management and monitoring processes, with the ability to demonstrate impact and show improvements in performance, leading to the highest quality provision as set out in the Quality Assurance Framework, improved inspection ratings, full regulatory compliance, high levels of customer and employee satisfaction and growth.
• Develop the required capability and efficiency of the nursery teams to consistently deliver the required standards of performance and achievement of Nursery targets.
• Create the environment for nursery managers to focus on customer and practitioner engagement and provide guidance to practitioners. Undertake regular 121/supervision meetings with staff to plan and provide suitable professional development activities and opportunities for personal growth within a culture of self-driven development, to promote individual and team expertise in all aspects of nursery development and learning, to secure a highly effective, motivated and innovative team.
• Take responsibility for own personal and professional development, accessing high level improvement activities that inform general and nursery based on national and international perspectives of ‘best practice’.
• Delivery of highest quality Early Childhood practice and experiences for all children in the setting, including those with Special Educational Needs and/or Disability, promoting emotional wellbeing by embedding the Bright Horizons early years curriculum.
  

Essential Experience

• A strong record of on-going training and/or professional qualifications since qualifying
• Proven experience of working in early years education settings with successful management leading to ‘Good or better’ regulatory inspection outcomes
• Demonstrable track record of driving leadership strength and development of successful ongoing performance management and impact measurements, in close partnership with HR
• Strong decision-maker, with the proven ability to support change; a secure understanding of the complex relationship between business/commerce and service excellence within regulated setting, with the ability to follow guidelines and work with others to achieve success
• Experience of developing high performing teams, with a successful record of accomplishment of supporting effective regulatory compliance, quality improvement, delivering high quality pedagogy, innovation and service excellence.
• Experience of proving support and leadership to a staff team to enable staff in fulfil their roles, responsibilities and legislation duty in relation to safeguarding children.
  

Experience Desirable

• Experience of budget preparation, efficient staff deployment and rostering programmes, and managing commercial performance and reporting metrics
• Knowledge of Local Authority and Regulatory requirements and inspection processes across the UK
  

Qualifications

• Full and relevant level 3 qualification (essential)
• 12 hours paediatric first aid and first aid at work (essential)
• Relevant safeguarding/child protection training undertaken and a willingness to update training regularly (essential)
• Evidence of continuous professional development
• Undergraduate or Foundation Degree in Early Childhood Studies or other relevant subject (Desirable)
• EYPP/EYTT or QTS post graduate status (Desirable)
• Full, clean driving licence and flexibility to travel as necessary
  

Personal attributes

• Able to communicate clearly with adults and children using a variety of techniques (oral and in writing)
• Ability to lead organisational change and transformation whilst retaining staff engagement
• Highly motivated and driven, achieving positive impact and meeting deadlines
• Ability to build trust and develop cohesive teams – strong empathy to understand child and parents view, clear expectations and fair-minded
• High energy and thrives in a fast-paced, dynamic environment - calm approach and ‘can-do’ attitude
• Able to reflect on the quality of own performance respond positively, respond positively to direction and improve
• Encourages colleagues to realise their potential and empowers high performers
• Able to manage workload and manage time effectively to deliver the desired results
• Able and competent user of company ICT systems and have the willingness to learn and develop ICT skills