Early Years Lead in London

We are seeking an experienced Early Years Lead to deliver our 0–5 programme at Sound Connections. You will shape a nationally significant offer, lead delivery, build partnerships, and respond to sector needs, supporting inclusive, high-quality, child-led music opportunities for young children.

About Sound Connections

Sound Connections exists to make change – our mission is to ensure that all children and young people can access music and creative opportunities that are relevant to them and responsive to their needs in a changing world. Based in London with national reach, our work is rooted in inclusion, equity, youth voice, participation, and social justice. We work to make the music sector more inclusive, child-centred and youth-led.

Our programmes support:

• Young people – championing a community of 1,250 creatives aged 16-25+, particularly those from under-represented and marginalised backgrounds, through our flagship youth programme Wired4Music.
• Practitioners – teachers, creatives and organisations who work with children and young people through music and creativity to be more inclusive, child-centred and youth-led in their approach.
• The sector – supporting and challenging emerging and established organisations working with children and young people to reflect, develop and evolve.

Early Years (0–5) is a key strategic priority area sitting across our Practitioners and Sector strands.

About our Early Years work

Established in 2010, the London Early Years Music Network (LEYMN) has grown from a small expert group to a large network of hundreds of practitioners and stakeholders, acting as a collective voice for early years music practice. The aim of the network is to:

• Champion high-quality early years music pedagogy and practice through networking, research, and CPD.
• Act as a key information hub for early years music in London, sharing best practice and resources.
• Bring together a diverse community of practitioners, organisations, and specialists working with children aged 0–5.
• Support ongoing professional development (CPD) through training, networking, and peer learning opportunities.
• Provide spaces for collaboration, knowledge-sharing, research, and sector debate.
• Advocate for the sector while fostering regional and national partnerships and collaboration.

About the role

The purpose of this role is to lead and deliver Sound Connections’ Early Years programme including managing timelines, outputs, and reporting, ensuring alignment with our organisational strategy, and identifying and responding to sector priorities and emerging needs.

With support from the Director, Programme Producer and wider team, key deliverables include:

• Learning and resources
• Curate and facilitate in-person and online network meetings and national sector conversations.
• Commission and deliver training sessions and digital learning resources (e.g. short films, toolkits) ensuring a strong focus on inclusive practice (including SEN/D, anti-racism, and trauma-informed approaches) and child-led music-making.
• Design and deliver the Emerging Early Years Music Leaders programme, including recruitment with a focus on under-represented groups, delivery of CPD sessions, mentoring, and placements, supporting leadership progression and reflective practice, overseeing bursaries and resource creation.
• Strengthen the London Early Years Music (LEYMN)’s national reach, influence, and connectivity.
• Lead research and mapping activity on early years provision and training.
• Build and maintain relationships with Music Hubs, early years settings, and national partners.
• Represent Sound Connections at events and sector networks.
• Contribute to advocacy, publications, and thought leadership.

Monitoring, evaluation & learning

• Capture data and insights across all programme activity.
• Contribute to evaluation and reporting processes.
• Support sector knowledge-sharing and dissemination.

About you

Your experience – we are looking for someone who has:

• Significant experience in, and passion for, Early Years music practice / education (0–5).
• Strong understanding of inclusive and child-led approaches.
• Experience designing and delivering training.
• Experience facilitating networks, partnerships or communities of practice.
• Strong project management and freelance delivery experience.
• Strong ability to engage a wide range of stakeholders, including experience supporting emerging practitioners and mentoring.
• Experience working with Music Hubs or national programmes.
• Research and evaluation experience.

Your way of working – we are looking for someone who is:

• Committed to our mission, values and inclusion, equity and social justice.
• Committed to reflective practice, co-creation and sector listening.
• Committed to safeguarding.
• Confident managing agreed milestones and outputs, on time and to budget.
• Collaborative in their approach.
• Flexible – the role is hybrid, and will include a mixture in-person London-based work and online national activity.

How to Apply

Please submit the following by 5pm on Thursday 9 July 2026:

• A short proposal either via writing (2 pages max), audio or video (2 minutes max) outlining your: a) Relevant experience b) Approach to the role c) Initial thoughts on priorities.
• Your CV, including two referees, in the format easiest for you, this could be in writing, a slide deck or via audio/video.

Pre-application

To get a feel for our work you are warmly invited to our London Early Years Music Network event on Tuesday 30 June – please note this is completely optional and will not sway invitations to interview.