Nursery Manager

Bright Horizons Family Solutions, LLC.; Hedge End; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 47,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Childcare discount

Bonus up to £6,000

Enhanced parental leave

Annual leave

Pension

Wellbeing benefits

Job summary

Bright Horizons is seeking a Nursery Manager to lead a team and deliver outstanding care and education. You will act as Designated Safeguarding Lead, manage safeguarding policies and partner with support offices to recruit and develop high-performing colleagues.

You will identify commercial plans to grow revenue and optimise cost efficiency. We are an inclusive employer welcoming all backgrounds and experiences.

Qualifications

• Experience in leading Early Years teams and driving performance.
• Experience participating in regulatory inspections resulting in Good/Outstanding outcomes.
• Ability to build high-performing teams with regulatory compliance and high-quality pedagogy.
• Confident decision maker with ability to support change in a regulated setting.
• Strong safeguarding knowledge and compliance with child protection requirements.
• Ability to build trust with colleagues and parents/caregivers.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team to deliver outstanding care and education.
• Serve as Designated Safeguarding Lead and manage safeguarding policies.
• Collaborate with support office to recruit, nurture and develop staff.
• Implement commercial plans to drive nursery growth and efficiency.

Skills

Leadership experience

Regulatory inspections

Team development

Decision making

Safeguarding knowledge

Parent partnerships

Education

Level 3 Early Years qualification

Job description

Salary – Starting from £40,993 per annum (dependant on qualification/s and experience) Location – Hedge End, Southampton

• Childcare discount of 100% for first child*
• Competitive bonus of up to £6,000, awarded in line with Ofsted inspection outcomes
• Enhanced parental leave 25 days
• annual leave, plus bank holidays and paid Christmas closure.
• Ability to also purchase additional leave*
• Pension
• Financial and wellbeing benefits including 24/7 virtual GP appointments, early access to wages, and more
• Professional development programme access for every stage of your career, including access to a careers coach *Subject to T&Cs

The Role

As a Nursery Manager, you will lead a team to deliver outstanding care and education to all the children in your setting, and through inspirational leadership drive employee engagement, retention and performance. You will act as Designated Safeguarding Lead, holding overall responsibility for the day to day running of the nursery, and management of safeguarding policies. You will work in partnership with support office teams to recruit, nurture, and continuously develop high performing colleagues, as well as identify and implement commercial plans and strategies to deliver FTE growth. You will optimise nursery performance, revenue generation, and cost efficiency in line with staff ratio requirements.

What we’re looking for

• Full and relevant Level 3 or above Early Years qualification
• Experience within an Early Years leadership role (ideally as a Nursery Manager, Deputy Manager, Assistant Manager or similar)
• Experience of participating with a regulatory inspection, leading to a ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ outcome
• Experience of developing high performance teams, with effective regulatory compliance, quality improvement, delivery of high-quality pedagogy, innovation and service excellence
• Confident decision maker, with ability to support change and understanding of complex relationship between commercial and service excellence within a regulated setting
• Strong knowledge and understanding of Safeguarding, Child Protection, and the wider legislative requirements for working with children
• Ability to develop trust and strong working partnerships with both colleagues and parents/ carers

We are an inclusive employer and welcome people from all ages and backgrounds to apply. We will consider reasonable adjustments required by applicants.

Proud to be a Great Place to Work for 20 years.

Bright Horizons is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. This post is subject to safer recruitment practice and pre‑employment checks, including an enhanced DBS check, which will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed.

At Bright Horizons, our culture is built on our commitment to Keeping Everyone Safe and providing world‑class care and education, delivered by a world‑class workforce. We believe our people’s potential is endless and with this in mind, we aspire to create an environment where our colleagues can thrive and accomplish the things they thought impossible. Bright Horizons has been recognised as a Great Place to Work by our employees and the Great Place to Work Institute for the last 13 years. We care passionately about what we do, and our HEART values and principles help us support one another in the work that we do each day. These are quite literally at the HEART of our organisation’s ethos and culture as it helps us to provide a working environment that supports professionalism, growth and diversity. We are passionate about our people’s ongoing learning and development. Our learning and leading with HEART framework supports each Bright Horizons colleague on the first steps of their leadership journey, whether that includes our ‘World‑Class Welcome’ induction or our extensive ongoing training programme. Either way we want you to feel valued and invested in!

Celebrating in the accomplishments of our people is an essential part of our culture. We believe in the power of “thank you” and throughout the year, in ways big and small, formal and informal, we show our appreciation for employees at all levels. We have many ways to acknowledge and celebrate our people, including our very popular “employee appreciation month”. This is a chance for everyone to share their gratitude to one another, across the whole company. Whether it is a “thank you” placed on our website, a chocolate pizza, team lunch or an ice cream van visit, it is our way of showing each other we care and appreciate everything we do. Each year, we have our annual 'Awards of Excellence' events; whether you are an award winner or cheering on a fellow team member, these formal award occasions are opportunities to come together and celebrate one another.