City Centre jobs in Leeds

Job title: Nursery Assistant and Nursery Officer

Hours: up to 37 hours per week (pro rata for part-time)

Contract: Permanent

Location: Little Owls Nurseries

Are you passionate about working with children? Are you ready to kickstart your childcare vocation? If so, we could have a brilliant opportunity for you. Leeds City Council are currently recruiting Nursery Officers and Nursery Assistant to their Little Owls nurseries.

Working at a Little Owls nursery is incredibly rewarding. You get to support young children during their most important years of development and see their progress every day. It’s a role filled with joy, creativity, and meaningful relationships, where you can make a positive, lasting impact on children and their families.

As our next nursery Officer or Assistant, you’ll be part of an excellent team who have your wellbeing and development at heart. Most of our nursery managers started their journeys as Assistants and Officers.

We’re committed to the ambition of Child Friendly Leeds. We want Leeds to be a city where all children are safe, happy and healthy, do well at school and fulfil their potential. Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region with over 14,000 employees. We seek to recruit talented individuals who embody our council values and ambitions.

You will:

• provide high quality care and education for all children and support for families
• be responsible for ensuring that the day-to-day childcare provision in your assigned room is of a high standard
• work with the wider leadership team to ensure a broad and balanced Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum is provided

About you:

We are looking for qualified, enthusiastic, adaptable candidates with personal qualities to care for and develop young children. You must have:

• ability to build relationships and communicate effectively with a wide range of people individually, in groups and at all appropriate levels
• ability to safeguard children and support them to develop their resilience
• able to effectively use the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) to lead planning and evaluation of activities to aid children’s learning
• able to oversee the production of reports and plans to support children’s learning, development and wellbeing

Essential experience and qualifications:

• minimum of level 2 qualification in childcare for Nursery Assistant and a minimum of Level 3 qualification for Nursery Officer. To check if your qualification is relevant, please go to: www.gov.uk/guidance/early-years-qualifications-finder
• good standard of literacy and numeracy
• recent experience of working with young children and families

What we offer you

We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:

• a competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays
• membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions
• flexible and hybrid working arrangements subject to service requirements
• a clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities
• a range of staff benefits to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further

How to apply

Please complete the online application form on the Leeds City Council job site.

Read our guidance for further advice on completing your application.

Please be aware that successful applicants will be employed by Leeds City Council and not a particular centre and could be asked to work at any of the city-wide Little Owls Nurseries.

If you have any queries or would like an informal chat about the role, please contact Kirsty McHugh. Tel: 01135350753 Email: Kirsty.McHugh@leeds.gov.uk

A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check against the Children’s or Adults’ barred list as applicable will be carried out on preferred candidates. Read our recruitment of ex-offenders policy.

We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled and care experienced people.

This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.

If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visa route before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Please ensure you are eligible before applying.

Work Location: In person