Childcare Sustainability Officer

• Employer: Wirral Council
• Salary: £27,709 to £29,071 plus benefits
• Location: Wirral, Mallory, 2 Alice Ker Square, Hybrid Working
• Contract: Temporary
• Working Pattern: Flexible Hours/Full Time
• Hours: 36 hours per week.
• DBS Check: No
• Closing Date: 11/10/2026 at 23:59
• Reference: CF&E/26/344892

Wirral Council is a place where your work truly makes a difference. Employees are empowered to "#BeTheDifference" and help improve life for residents across one of the happiest and most welcoming areas in the UK. With its stunning coastline, vibrant communities, and ambitious vision for the future, Wirral offers an exceptional setting to grow your career and feel valued every day. If you're looking for a role where you can thrive, develop, and make real impact, Wirral Council is the perfect place to apply.

Childcare Sustainability Officer - 2-year fixed term contract

Are you passionate about ensuring families have access to good quality sustainable childcare? This is an exciting opportunity to join Wirral's Early Years Entitlements Team.

The role provides an opportunity to work across a variety of areas including childcare sufficiency, family engagement, early years funding, provider sustainability, and service improvement. You will support the implementation of local priorities and national initiatives, contributing to programmes that make a real difference to children, families and communities. This is a varied and rewarding role that would suit someone who enjoys building relationships, solving problems, working with data and developing practical solutions to improve services and outcomes.

About the Role

Working as part of a supportive and ambitious team, you will contribute to the delivery of key local and national priorities, helping to improve access to childcare and early years services for families across the borough. Working collaboratively with schools, childcare providers, Family Hubs, Children's Centres and a range of partners, you will play a key role in supporting service development, delivering projects, analysing local need and helping to ensure children and families can access the support they need.

A key aspect of the role will be supporting the Council's childcare sufficiency responsibilities, helping to understand whether there is enough childcare available in the right places to meet the needs of local families. You will work with providers and partners to identify gaps in provision, understand barriers to access and support the development of sustainable childcare solutions. You will also work closely with childcare providers, schools and stakeholders to support the long-term sustainability of childcare provision. This may include supporting providers to understand statutory guidance, reviewing delivery models, and developing business plans.

About the Candidate

We are looking for a motivated, organised and collaborative individual who is passionate about supporting children and families. You will have experience of working within early years, childcare, education, family support or a related sector and will understand how childcare provision operates in practice. This may include experience of delivering, managing or supporting childcare services within the private, voluntary, independent or school sectors.

The successful candidate will understand the opportunities and challenges associated with delivering sustainable childcare provision, including awareness of different childcare delivery models, funding arrangements and the factors that influence parental demand. You will be confident building effective relationships with a broad range of stakeholders and capable of managing multiple priorities within a busy and evolving service.

You will be comfortable working with information and data, supporting projects and translating policy and guidance into practical solutions. You will have strong communication skills and a commitment to delivering high-quality services that meet the needs of children, families and providers. You will hold a minimum Level 3 qualification in Early Years, Business Administration, Business Studies or a related discipline and be committed to improving outcomes for children and families across Wirral.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a forward-thinking service and play a meaningful role in delivering Wirral's ambition for children and families.

If you would like to discuss the role, please contact: clairecoles@wirral.gov.uk

Working at Wirral

We believe in giving you the flexibility to work where you're most productive. This role offers a hybrid working arrangement, combining the benefits of remote work with the collaboration and connection of in-office days, twice a week.

We welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates. For this vacancy, candidates must have an existing right to work in the UK before commencing employment. Skilled Worker visa sponsorship is not available for this post. Eligibility to work in the UK will be verified in the final stages of the selection process.

We have a range of staff benefits including:

• staff discounts
• enrolment into the local government pension scheme (an excellent defined benefit scheme)
• immediate life cover
• ill-health protection

We have a strong flexible working approach, hybrid working, family-friendly employment initiatives and an annual leave package starting with 28 days leave plus public holidays.

• strong flexible working approach
• hybrid working
• family-friendly employment initiatives
• annual leave package starting with 28 days leave plus public holidays

We have an inclusive, engaged culture, everyone has a voice, everyone is valued for their contribution and understands the role they play in delivering our strategic priorities.

Each voice is heard, each contribution valued. We embrace diversity in our workforce and recognise it is critical to our success. We support an inclusive culture that champions differences and nurtures a sense of belonging. We encourage people from diverse backgrounds, who share our values and our commitment to inclusion to apply for roles with us.

We want you to be your best at work, we create the conditions to help you thrive and we mirror this in our recruitment process. If you'd like us to do anything differently during the recruitment process to make it barrier‑free and as accessible as possible please contact recruitment@wirral.gov.uk

Please note that in accordance with the Council's policy, employees who are in a formal redeployment situation will be considered in the first instance for all vacancies.

It is Council policy not to re-appoint any employee who has left under the terms of the Council's Early Voluntary Retirement (EVR) scheme or who have left with a voluntary severance (VS) package, unless in exceptional circumstances.

Applications will be accepted until midnight on the closing date.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier than the specified date should we receive sufficient applications.

Applications can only be accepted through the Jobs page following registration. Forms received via the post will not be processed.

All applicants invited to interview must evidence their right to work in the UK. Details of required documents can be found by clicking the link at the bottom of the Jobs page.

The job description and other supporting documents will not be accessible once the vacancy closing date has passed so if a copy is required you should download it now.

We do not accept applications or CV's from recruitment agencies, unless otherwise stated. Therefore, any candidates submitted via a recruitment agency will not be considered for this role.