Deputy Nursery Manager and SENDCO

About the post

Are you an experienced early years professional with a passion for inclusive practice and supporting children with additional needs to thrive? We are seeking an enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and compassionate Deputy Nursery Manager & SENDCO to join our leadership team.

This is an exciting opportunity for a dedicated practitioner who can combine strong leadership skills with expertise in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), helping to ensure every child receives the highest quality care, education, and support. Do you have Knowledge of relevant legislation and guidance including current education developments, for example the Early Years Foundation Stage, SEND & Disability Act 2014, local child protection and safeguarding issues and procedures, Knowledge of relevant procedures and legislation (e.g. health and safety and work, food hygiene), Experience of working with other professionals. Experience working with, and providing care and education to children from a wide range of backgrounds, including those with special educational needs.

About the Role

As Deputy Nursery Manager & SENDCO, you will play a key role in the day-to-day leadership of the nursery, working closely with the Nursery Manager and Early Years Teacher to deliver outstanding early years provision. You will champion inclusive practice across the setting, lead on SEND support, and contribute to the strategic development of the nursery.

You will act as a positive role model for staff, promoting excellence in teaching, learning, safeguarding, and child development while building strong partnerships with families and external professionals.

The starting salary for this role is equivalent to £17.17 per hour. The full time Salary is starting at £33,119 (full time salary, this would be pro-rata to 23 hours per week).

This position is initially for 1 year contract to cover a secondment.

We would welcome candidates to visit our setting to meet our staff team, see our learning spaces and hear about our ethos.

There is full information about the role below and attached but, if you would like an informal discussion, please contact Becky Mounter (Nursery Manager) on 01273293980 or email us at acornnursery@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Key Responsibilities

Leadership and Management

• Support the Nursery Manager in the effective day-to-day running of the nursery.
• Act as Nursery Manager in the absence of the Nursery Manager and Deputy Manager/EYT, undertaking all associated responsibilities.
• Contribute to the strategic direction of the setting and support the development and review of nursery policies and procedures.
• Help coordinate and support the staff team, including bank staff, agency staff, students, and volunteers.
• Mentor, coach, and support staff development, helping to create a culture of continuous learning and professional growth.

SEND and Inclusive Practice

• Lead on SEND provision within the nursery, ensuring children with additional needs receive appropriate support and intervention.
• Work closely with SEND Lead Practitioners, families, and external professionals to identify, assess, and support children's individual needs.
• Carry out observations, referrals, and assessments, attend multi-agency meetings, and contribute to support plans.
• Develop strong partnerships with professionals including Health Visitors, Speech and Language Therapists, BHISS, and EMAS to promote a multi-disciplinary approach to children's development.
• Act as a champion for inclusive practice and ensure all children can access and benefit from the curriculum.

Quality of Education

• Support the implementation of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), ensuring a rich, engaging, and child-centred learning environment.
• Model outstanding pedagogy, including sustained shared thinking and high-quality interactions.
• Support colleagues with observation, assessment, planning, and tracking children's progress.
• Assist with coordinating the key person system and monitoring outcomes for individual children and groups.

About the Nursery

Acorn Nursery is one of Brighton and Hove City Council’s Family Hub Nurseries. We pride ourselves on plenty of space to play and learn both indoors and outdoor. Each room has its own separate outdoor space with access to the main large garden where children join together to climb and slide, play in the mud kitchen, enjoy the sandpit and tend to our vegetable patches or check that the worms are doing their job in our compost bins . We have a play based approach to learning in a fun, happy and calm atmosphere.

We are proud of our staff team, many who have been at Acorn for over 20 years. The team are qualified to level 3 or above or working towards a higher qualifications. Together the team share the same passion for delivering a high standard of care to the children and provide exciting opportunities for the children to learn, grow and develop into confident young people.

Applicants must have:

• a minimum level 3 qualification in early years and childcare, or a full and relevant equivalent
• experience of working with young children in an early year's environment
• experience of delivering the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
• passion to learn and develop own knowledge and experience
• experience and commitment to meeting the individual needs of young children and their families.
• demonstrate a passion and commitment for providing high quality care and learning opportunities
• excellent communication skills

The role involves

• being a key person for a group of children
• building relationships with children and their families, and supporting attachment building
• being an inspiration and role model to the children
• supporting learning and development
• carrying out observations and completing assessments
• supporting the settings commitment to safeguarding children, and adhering to child protection procedures

We will provide

• Paid days holiday every year plus bank holidays
• a full induction and training programme
• encouragement and support to further your education and continued professional development
• Generous pension scheme
• loans available to support with bus travel, or buying a bike and deposit loans for rental properties, these are paid back straight from your salary.
• staff discount scheme that can be used in local shops/cafes as well as national stores, including discounted cinema tickets, and discounted gift cards
• ongoing support in the form of regular supervisions and appraisals
• the opportunity to work as part of a dedicated team
• a setting that is child and family centred, not for profit.

Encouraging a diverse workforce
Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.
Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Why work for us?
As a council, we want to:
• be connected
• be confident
• be innovative and creative
• be diverse and inclusive
• be healthy and psychologically safe
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.

How to apply
Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.

As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

AI advice for candidates
We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.
We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.
All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process.
Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.

Additional information
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.