Early Years Lead Practitioner

Hours: Part time, 33.3 hours per week

Are you committed to transforming life chances by holding children and young people at the heart of everything you do? Our ambition in Solihull is for all our children and young people to have access to a high quality inclusive education which empowers them to lead independent and successful lives. We want you to help us make this happen.

About The Role

We are looking for an Early Years Lead Practitioner to join our Early Years Team to support settings to include children with SEND. We need people with a real passion and enthusiasm to help shape the future of our services and the lives of young children.

The Early Years’ Service brings together the statutory and non-statutory duties in relation to improving outcomes and reducing inequalities for all young children aged 0-5 into a single team. Our service is committed to enhancing the quality and capacity of early years provision across the maintained, private, voluntary, and independent sectors. We deliver a graduated approach, promoting early help and supporting higher levels of intervention for children with the most complex needs through targeted support.

Key responsibilities include:

• Ensuring children in early years’ settings achieve positive outcomes and transfer effectively into statutory education.
• Empowering educational settings to develop inclusive practice and environments and confidently support children with additional needs (including SEND).
• Taking a lead role in ensuring individual children have their needs identified and assessed early by settings and receive the holistic support they need to respond to these.

About You

You will have:

• A relevant professional qualification in education (B.Ed, PGCE, Cert Ed), health, social work or other related field equivalent to Level 5.
• Evidence of continual professional development such as a SEND qualification or training, early years SENCO training.
• Experience of holistic assessment, planning and review of support for children with additional needs/SEND.
• Experience of multi-agency working and working across organisational boundaries.

This rewarding role will challenge you and your ability to support staff and communicate and explain complex decisions and processes to settings and parents.

Our Offer To You

Our team work core hours from 8.45am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, to meet service needs. This part time role (33.3 hours per week) may be worked on a ‘9 day fortnight’ basis, where preferred. Our offices are based in central Solihull within walking distance of shops and local amenities, however, the majority of your time will be spent working in early years settings, including schools. You will also have the option of working from home when completing report writing, visit notes and preparing for training or visits.

We also offer:

• Flexible working, including flexi leave up to 24 days per year
• A comprehensive training and development programme
• Generous annual leave entitlements with opportunity to buy up to 10 days additional leave per year
• Access to our Employee Assistance Programme – a 24 hour independent, free and confidential advice and support service
• Family and carer friendly policies
• Access to the Local Government Pension Scheme
• Employee benefits including subsidised travel passes, Cycle 2 Work Scheme and staff discounts.

Contact Us

To apply, please click on the link. Your application should be in your own words and reflect your own personal experiences. For further information or an informal discussion regarding this role, please contact Lisa Morris, Early Years Team Manager on Tel: 0121 704 6150 or Mobile: 07786277292 or via e mail at lmorris@solihull.gov.uk

The closing date for applications is 16th February 2026. Interviews will be held on 23rd February 2026.

Further Information

This post will require a Disclosure and Barring check for regulated activity with children. An online search will be carried out for all shortlisted candidates. This post is covered by the Fluency Duty, as outlined in the Code of Practice on the English language requirements for public sector workers. Solihull Council has a responsibility for, and a commitment to, safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and requires all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Solihull Council is proud to be an Equal Opportunities Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees - a place where we can all be ourselves and succeed on merit.