Early Years & Childcare Service Manager
Gloucester
This is a Gloucestershire County Council job.
- Job Title: Early Years & Childcare Service Manager
- Job Location: Shire Hall, Block 3, 3rd Floor
- Salary: £63,132 - £68,342 per annum
- Hours per Week: 37.00
- Contract Type: Permanent
- Closing Date: 25/02/2026
- Job Requisition Number: 13291
- This post is not open to job share
About the Team & Role
Are you passionate about making a difference and improving outcomes for children? If so, our exciting new role in the Early Years and Childcare Service may be the role for you.
The Operational Service Manager role offers an excellent opportunity to bring your leadership and managerial expertise and skills to the next level.
The Early Years and Childcare Service provides business, funding, quality and inclusion support to the early years and childcare sector. Working alongside the Head of Service and Service Managers across the Education Service, this role combines line management responsibility with the operational planning, delivery and development of the service. You will collaborate with a range of partners and stakeholder to ensure that all children have access to high quality, inclusive and sustainable provision that supports positive outcomes, developmental progress and successful transitions.
The post is based at Shire Hall in Gloucester. We offer flexible working arrangements with a mix of office and home working.
About you
Our ideal candidate is an experienced manager, that is an organised and proactive professional with a passion for improving outcomes for children and an understanding of how early education and childcare contribute to this.
To be successful you will be skilled at building effective relationships with system partners and evidence resilience and political awareness to deliver within an increasingly challenging landscape.
Please read the job profile which provides further information on the experience and attributes sought of our ideal candidate.
About us
For all your hard work, you will receive the following:
Flexible and agile working opportunities
30 days annual leave in a full year
An option to purchase 10 days of additional leave per year (pro rata for part-time staff)
Family friendly employer offering benefits to help support you and your family
Career development and qualification opportunities
Supportive and positive working environment with regular, robust supervision
Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
Access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides free, confidential, counselling and advice for employees, available 24 hours a day, online and by telephone.
An in-house Occupational Health service
Employee discount scheme nd Cycle to Work scheme
Gloucestershire Salary Sacrifice Green Car Scheme (T&Cs apply)
Links to employee networks such as Prism (LGBT+) network and the Young Employees Network.
How to apply
If you feel you have the skills, desire and experience required to make a positive difference then please submit your application and personal statement today by clicking the “Apply Now” Button.
For an informal discussion about the role please contact Sarah Hylton via email at Sarah.HYLTON@gloucestershire.gov.uk
Closing date 25/01/2026
Short-listed candidates will be contacted by e-mail and invited to interview week commencing 16/02/2026
Additional Information
To access the Job Profile for this role, please follow the link below:-
Early Years & Childcare Service Operational Manager - Job Profile
The council is not currently able to offer sponsorship in this role. Candidates will need to have right to work that enables them to commit to at least 6 months employment. Right to work is not transferable from a sponsored role held with another employer.
If you are an Internal applicant and consider yourself to have a disability* as per the Equality Act (2010), please declare this in an email to recruitment@gloucestershire.gov.uk, as this is NOT currently covered in the application due to a technical error.
By providing this information, you can choose to be considered for a guaranteed interview under our Disability Confident pledge if you meet all essential criteria. It also enables the recruiting manager to arrange any reasonable adjustments you may need during the process.
*a disability is defined as: a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial and long-term (more than 12 months) adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
Gloucestershire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
We want to be an employer of choice, attracting and retaining excellent people to work for us, so that we can best serve all of Gloucestershire’s diverse communities. Our promise to you is that we will provide an inclusive and supportive working environment that enables you to bring your whole self to work and realise your full potential.
It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English.
Hybrid working arrangements are available for the majority of our roles, giving teams the opportunity to work in a way that suits them, balancing service need and individual choice, with a mix of both remote and office working.