Council seeks new staff to ensure Highland's children get the best start in life

6th September 2018

The Highland Council is looking for experienced staff or existing managers to drive the Early Learning and Childcare initiative forward, to ensure our youngest children get the best start in life and are ready to succeed.

The Council will be almost doubling the provision of early learning and childcare over the next two years. This process has already started, with 1140 hours of childcare now available to 3 and 4 year olds in 7 designated nurseries in Inverness, Fort William, Alness and Kyle.

This significant, government funded initiative will help provide additional support for families, help children to achieve their developmental milestones, and enable parents to access work or further education.

Highland Council has a significant number of providers of early learning and childcare, including primary schools, partner centres and child minders. It will be a major exercise to co-ordinate all of this provision, to ensure the new entitlement to children and families in towns and villages across the authority. The Council is therefore advertising three new important posts, in the north and west of the authority and in Ross-shire - in order to ensure this provision is in place, and that it provides quality care to children.

Reporting directly to the local Area Manager, the each ELC Commissioner post will play a key role in ensuring the requirements of the expansion are clearly met including the full implementation of the new National Standard.

Sandra Harrington, Senior Manager for Early Years, said: "These new staff will become senior members of our early years team, working as part of the expansion programme, with the drive and enthusiasm required to be a leader of change and innovation. A clear and in-depth understanding of the early learning agenda, and knowledge of local opportunities and challenges will be needed, in order to help deliver the expanded provision. We are looking for people who can demonstrate strong leadership and an ability to work in challenging situations with a wide variety of stakeholders."

There are 3 positions currently available in the West, Mid and North Areas of Highland. The bases can be in Wick or Golspie, Fort William or Portree, and Dingwall. Advertisements for the post, which attracts a starting salary of £33,160, can be found at:

https://www.myjobscotland.gov.uk/councils/highland-council/jobs