Early Years Improvement and Inclusion Lead (South)

Are you passionate about giving every child the best start in life?
Staffordshire County Council is looking for an inspiring leader to join our Early Years leadership team as an Early Years Improvement and Inclusion Lead (South).

This is your opportunity to make a real difference by empowering the Early Years team to shape inclusive, high-quality early years provision across the county.

This role will cover the South of the county. (South Staffs, Cannock, Lichfield, Tamworth)

You will:

• have a lead role within the early years leadership team, facilitating continuous improvement.
• have a passion for early years with a drive to succeed and be highly committed to leading and supporting a great team.
• lead a motivated and experienced team who provide guidance and support across the early years sector.
• work closely with partners and settings in Staffordshire, supporting all children to thrive.

You will be focussed on improving outcomes for children through:

• high performance, leading a culture of continuous improvement
• empowering a team to provide effective support to meet the changing needs of the early years sector
• strategic thinking with an ability to implement effective, creative solutions to service delivery
• developing and disseminating new policies, processes, and practices involving all key partners
• undertaking project planning, management and evaluation to develop evidence-based practices and priorities

You will have:

• the skills and experience to lead and and develop high performing teams
• excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• substantial knowledge of changing national policy and agendas affecting early years
• demonstrable experience of working with partners to co-produce change

Shortlisting is scheduled for the week commencing 2nd February 2026.

Interviews will be held the week commencing 16th February 2026.

For an informal chat about the role please contact Helen Gibson, Head of Early Years: Helen.Gibson@staffordshire.gov.uk

Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role.

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

Our benefits:

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Our recruitment process:

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.