Early Years Improvement Adviser

Are you driven by improving outcomes for young children and able to succeed in a role where your expertise improves school performance in the Early Years? Then this is your chance to make a meaningful difference across primary education in Cambridgeshire. We are looking for a School Improvement Adviser (Early Years) who can fulfil this role.

What will you be doing? You will be predominantly working with schools and will undertake a variety of tasks, which include offering advice and training to Reception Teachers, Early Years Leads and Headteachers. As a School Improvement Adviser, you will support school leaders to drive rapid and sustained improvement, through targeted plans and support. You will challenge and offer guidance to raise pupil achievement across the Early Years. You will also lead a specialist area of school improvement and contribute to developing and delivering training to a wide audience. You will ensure that all schools/settings that you work with provide inclusive and apt education for children in vulnerable groups, including those children with SEND or in receipt of EYPP. You will contribute to local and national programmes, such as Best Start in Life (BSiL).

About you: You will have proven leadership experience in the Early Years. You will have strong communication skills, and the ability to work independently; be part of our highly effective school improvement advisers' team, as well as the wider Early Years team. You will bring strategic insight, a robust knowledge of primary education, strong partnership skills. You will have the skills and knowledge to advise, challenge, and support schools to help those children in the Early Years to achieve their full potential. You will need to be flexible to meet the dynamic needs of the role. You will also be willing to undertake necessary training so that you can deliver a high-quality service to schools, partners and colleagues.

This post is for 37 hours per week. The post is fixed term for three years - Grade P4. Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

For more information or to chat about this opportunity please contact Gemma Hope on gemma.hope@cambridgeshire.gov.uk. Interviews will be held on Thursday 28 May 2026 via Microsoft Teams.

Our benefits: We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage:

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family.
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme.
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances.
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings.
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth.
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day.
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network.
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards.
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes.

About us: Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes. Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do. We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities.

If you don't meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don't be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader.

We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.