Best Start in Life Practitioner - Paulsgrove Family Hub

Portsmouth; Sunderland; Hybrid; GBP 26,000 - 34,000; Full time

Job summary

Portsmouth City Council is seeking an Best Start in Life Inclusion Practitioner based at Paulsgrove Family Hub to support babies and young children aged 0-5 and their families with emerging needs. The role focuses on early, practical and inclusive help, building relationships and enabling access to the full Best Start offer through Family Hubs and partner services.

You will work in a hybrid model, attend the office at Paulsgrove Family Hub, and collaborate with multi-agency teams to promote

Qualifications

• Level 3 qualification or equivalent experience.
• Experience of working with children aged 0-5 and their families, including those with emerging or additional needs.
• Good understanding of child development, safeguarding, inclusion, speech and language development, and early intervention.

Responsibilities

• Provide early, needs-led support to babies, toddlers and families.
• Build trusted relationships and help families access the right support.
• Collaborate with partner services across Early Years, Family Hubs and community settings to promote inclusion.

Skills

Communication skills

Safeguarding knowledge

Inclusion practice

Early intervention

Multi-agency collaboration

Child development knowledge

Education

Level 3 qualification

Job description

We are looking for Best Start in Life Inclusion Practitioners to join Portsmouth's Best Start Family Hub network. This is an exciting role supporting babies, young children aged 0-5, and their families to access early, practical and inclusive support when children may have emerging needs, developmental differences or additional needs.

This role will be based at Paulsgrove Family Hub

The Role

The role is about providing support early, building trusted relationships with families, and helping children and families access the right help at the right time. The support offered will be needs-led rather than diagnosis-led, meaning families can receive advice, guidance and practical help without needing to wait for a diagnosis or meet a referral threshold. You will help ensure children with emerging or additional needs can access the full Best Start offer through Family Hubs, community settings and partner services. This will include supporting inclusion, identifying barriers to participation, strengthening access for underserved families and helping children make progress towards positive early outcomes, including communication, development and school readiness. The postholder will work in partnership with existing services and will complement the established inclusion offer across Early Years, Family Hubs and community settings.

The Ideal Candidate

You will have a Level 3 qualification (or equivalent experience) and experience of working with children aged 0-5 and their families, including those with emerging or additional needs. You will have a good understanding of child development, safeguarding, inclusion, speech and language development, and early intervention. The role requires strong communication and relationship-building skills, the ability to provide practical support and guidance to families, and experience of working collaboratively with partner organisations. You will be organised, adaptable, and confident working both independently and within a multi-agency environment. The successful candidate will be committed to family-centred, strengths-based practice, promoting inclusion, reducing inequalities, and supporting families from diverse communities in a respectful and culturally responsive way.

Working Arrangements

Attendance requirements to the designated workplace for the role in line with the Hybrid - Working a minimum of 2 days in the office per week, based at Paulsgrove Family Hub

For informal enquiries, please contact Claire Mason at [e-mail].

Interview date

Monday 7th December 2026

Application process

We anonymise applications during application & shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered.

We strongly encourage candidates to add all Career and Education History to their application, as CVs are not reviewed as part of the shortlisting process.

As part of your application, we ask that you complete a personal statement, this statement is crucial and is where you must demonstrate how you meet the requirements of the job against each of the points described in the 'Who is the Person' points on the Job Profile using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work / personal experience.

We are a disability confident employer and have an Armed Forces Covenant.

We are committed to offering an interview to all those candidates that qualify under one of our commitments and meet the minimum criteria, however, for roles that receive a large number of applications, this is not always possible, and we will select the candidates that best meet the minimum criteria.

You will need to demonstrate that you have the Right to Work in the UK. No post will be offered without it.

Read more about working at Portsmouth City Council and our benefits on our career's portal homepage: Careers Portal - Find jobs with Portsmouth City Council

Safeguarding

Portsmouth City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and young people, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Every post is subject to PCC and Portsmouth Safeguarding Children Partnership safer recruitment procedures.

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) at Standard/Enhanced level will be required prior to any offer of employment and this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Please read the relevant DBS privacy notice before submitting any information.

You will need to explain any gaps in your career history within the last 5 years - this is essential for all safeguarding roles.

Should you require any support in completing the application form please contact [e-mail] or call the recruitment team on 023 92 616 800.