Early Years Expert at Hand Advisor in Leicester

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: County Hall, Glenfield, LE3 8RA

Salary: £41,259 - £44,109 per annum (pro-rata for part-time)

Working Hours: 37 hours per week

Contract Type: Fixed term until March 31st 2029

Closing Date: 12th November 2026

Interview Date(s): TBC

We have an exciting opportunity for you to join our Early Years, Inclusion and Childcare Service as an Early Years Expert at Hand Advisor.

About the Role

The post will allow you the opportunity to join and work with a highly skilled, enthusiastic team. This is a new role created to support early years and developmentally young children as part of the SEND reform, Expert at Hands. You will be supporting the work of settings and schools in promoting the education, development, welfare and inclusion of developmentally young children. If you are passionate about supporting children with additional needs this is the perfect job for you.

Key Responsibilities

• To model strategies and give advice for settings and schools to support developmentally young children.
• To support schools and the childcare sector to develop high quality inclusive provision and appropriate curriculum.
• To offer advice and guidance to parents and professionals in meeting the special education needs of children and signpost to other support agencies including the family hubs.
• To keep records as required by the Senior SEND Advisors.
• The nature of the work may involve the jobholder carrying out work outside of normal working hours.
• The post holder may be required to attend training courses, conferences, seminars or other meetings as required by your own training needs and the needs of the service.
• An enhanced with barred list DBS check is required for this post.

About You

To apply for this post, you must be able to evidence in your application how you meet the following criteria:

• Hold a relevant level 6 qualification in Early Years (e.g. Qualified Early Years Teacher, Early Years Professional) with evidence of further appropriate SEND professional development.
• Excellent knowledge of school readiness and ways to support settings, schools and families to help children who are developmentally young by advising and implementing effective strategies to support their learning and development.
• Experience of observing and evaluating the quality of learning and providing feedback to staff to help children’s learning.
• Well developed personal organisational skills, with the flexibility and willingness to travel to appointments and a range of venues as required.
• Excellent communication, listening and relationship-building skills, with the ability to engage and support schools and settings during challenging circumstances.
• Ability to promote inclusion by modelling best practice, sharing expertise and providing guidance to Early Years settings and schools.
• The ability and willingness to travel to various locations.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and to delivering accessible and inclusive services which meet the needs of all of our residents. You will be asked to demonstrate your understanding of these commitments as part of the selection process. Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability. We are a Disability Confident Employer.

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are open to discussions about flexible working, which may include part time working, job sharing, term-time working, flexible start and finish times, and hybrid working, depending on the requirements of the role and the service. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:

Ruth Melluish - Team Manager (Early Years SEND Inclusion Team)
Telephone: 07508002985
Email: Ruth.melluish@leics.gov.uk