Early Years Practitioner/ Nursery Nurse

Northumbria Group.; Cramlington; Remote; GBP 26,000 - 27,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Wellbeing programme

Staff networks

Flexible working

Annual leave & pension

Car lease scheme

Training programmes

Salary sacrifice scheme

Job summary

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Nursery Nurse/Early Years Practitioner for the Children’s Unit at NSECH. You will deliver age-appropriate activities for inpatient children and support families throughout the day.

You will also provide distraction techniques during procedures and assist with paediatric clinics. A CACHE Level 3 Diploma or equivalent is required.

Qualifications

• Must have CACHE Level 3 Diploma or equivalent in Early Years care.
• Relevant qualifications in child care and education are essential.
• Experience or strong interest in nursery settings is desirable.

Responsibilities

• Initiate age-appropriate activities for inpatient children.
• Support families and assist nursing staff daily.
• Provide distraction techniques during procedures.
• Offer distraction support at paediatric blood clinics across sites.
• Follow Safeguarding and infection control procedures.

Education

CACHE Level 3 Diploma in Child Care and Education

Early Years Practitioner

BTEC National Diploma in Children's Care, Learning & Development

NVQ Level 3 Children's Care, Learning and Development

Tools

IT skills

Job description

Site Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital Town Cramlington Salary £25,760 - £27,476 Per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 03/11/2026 23:59

Do you want to work in one of the best performing NHS organisations in England? Work for an organisation that was voted the best acute and combined acute and community trust in the country, based on the experience of its staff (NHS Staff Survey 2022). Work in an organisation that supports its staff and focuses on staff experience as much as it does the experience of its patients? You can live and breathe in an area that has the cleanest air, cost effective living, great nightlife, some of the best schools with a wealth of history available on your doorstep. Sound too good to be true? Well it isn’t, this is what you get when you work for Northumbria Healthcare and, this is…the Northumbria Way!

What the Northumbria Way means for you:

• Extensive staff health and well-being programme including access to our specialist Wellbeing Hub
• Support and connection through a variety of Staff Network groups
• A range of flexible working opportunities
• Generous annual leave and pension scheme
• Access to lease car and home electronics scheme (qualifying criteria applies)
• Opportunities to improve your professional development through our vast training programmes
• Access to savings scheme via salary sacrifice with Northumberland Community Bank

We work closely with Kids First Nurseries that are based within our trust grounds at Wansbeck, North Tyneside and Hexham hospitals to care for our Trust family's children, they offer care for children from 6 weeks old up to 4 years. There are a number of funding options run by the government to help working parents, including Early Years Funding and Tax Free Childcare.

Flexible working offers choice in where, when, and how we work, ensuring patients remain at the heart of all we do. It’s open to everyone, and we aim to find solutions that work for both you and the organisation. All arrangements must be reasonable and balanced to maintain safe and effective patient care.

We are proud to be one of the country’s top performing NHS trusts – rated ‘outstanding’ overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). We provide a range of health and care services to support more than 500,000 people living in Northumberland and North Tyneside across the largest geographical area of any NHS Trust in England. Our teams deliver care from hospitals, a range of community venues and people’s homes. Our hospitals include a specialist emergency care hospital (the first of its kind in England), three general hospitals and community hospitals. In the community we deliver a wide range of community and public health services.

We lead in innovation and quality, having opened the Northumbria Healthcare Manufacturing and Innovation Hub during the Covid-19 pandemic and have recently launched our Community Promise – a pledge to make a real impact not just in healthcare but on the wider factors that affect people’s lives, such as education, employment and the economy.

Whilst Northumbria Healthcare are a highly innovative organisation, the use of Third Party Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a risk to the integrity of our Recruitment & Selection processes. If you use AI, and it poses a risk to the integrity your individual recruitment process, we may withdraw your application at any stage of the process.

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for the role of a Nursery Nurse/Early Years Practitioner on the Children's Unit at NSECH which provides Emergency Care and Inpatient Care for children from birth to 15 year old.

As a valued member of the team you would be responsible for providing activities for the inpatient children, supporting parents of babies/children and providing distraction techniques during procedures.

The Nursery Nurse role also provides distraction support at the paediatric blood clinics that run at North Tyneside and Wansbeck hospitals.

Please note we reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the closing date once the required number of suitable applications have been received

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate must have CACHE Level 3 Diploma in Child Care and Education, Early Years Practitioner, BTEC National Diploma in Children's Care, Learning & Development or NVQ Level 3 Children's Care, Learning and Development.

Experience in a Nursery Nurse/Early Years Practitioner Role or similar environment would be desirable, along with confidence in planning activities for a variety of ages of children.

Confidence with IT skills is also desirable.

Working for our organisation

We manage three major locality hospitals at North Tyneside, Wansbeck and Hexham, plus a number of smaller community hospitals and clinics from Tynemouth to Berwick on Tweed, covering one of the largest geographical areas of any NHS trust in the country. Leading in innovation and quality – opening a state of the art Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, the first of its kind in England. Do you want to work in one of the best performing NHS organisations in England?

Work in an organisation that supports its staff and focuses on staff experience as much as it does the experience of its patients? You can live and breathe in an area that has the cleanest air, cost effective living, great nightlife, some of the best schools with a wealth of history available on your doorstep. Sound too good to be true? Well it isn’t, this is what you get when you work for Northumbria Healthcare, this is the Northumbria Way!

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

As the Nursery Nurse on duty you will be responsible for initiating suitable age appropriate activities for the inpatient children on the unit, support families and the nursing staff with babies and children on the unit on a daily basis.

You will be directly involved in health promotion for children such as our mini mouths matter campaign to promote health mouths in children, and healthy eating.

You will work with the other nursery nurses to help plan and create a child friendly atmosphere and appropriate displays for the unit.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Level 3 Early Years Qualification or equivalent i.e. NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma for the Early years workforce

Experience & Knowledge

• Knowledge and understanding of child development
• Knowledge and understanding of Child protection issues and reporting mechanism
• Ability to develop appropriate play strategies

Applicants who are members of the Armed Forces, those who have a disability that requires support in the work place (two ticks pledge) and those who have been looked after by the care system as a child or young person (for example, in foster care, children's homes, kinship or local authority care) who meet the essential criteria will be interviewed under the Trust's interview guarantee scheme.

We recognise the positive value of diversity and inclusion and are committed to a workforce that is diverse, equal and inclusive. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as BAME people are currently under-represented in our workforce as well as other under-represented groups such as LGBT+ and disabled candidates. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, we have a Gold award from the Defense Recognition Scheme, and we are delighted to support Apprenticeships, Age Posi+ive and are a mindful employer.

If you require any reasonable adjustments to attend interview please make the recruitment team aware as soon as possible by calling our HR Recruitment Team on 0191 203 1415 option 2.

Applicants who meet the Fit and Proper Person Requirements (FPPR) will require additional pre-employment checks in line with CQC and NHS England statutory guidance.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust proudly hold a sponsor licence. In order to provide sponsorship you and the role you are applying for must meet UKVI eligibility requirements. Please check your eligibility prior to submitting an application. Skilled Worker visa: Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Please note that it is a requirement of this Trust that all successful applicants pay for their own DBS certification if a DBS check is required for the post. The method of payment is a salary deduction from your first monthly pay.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Name Wendy Smith Job title Ward Manager Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 0191 6072005