Early Years Practitioner

Role:
Early Years Practitioner.
Salary:£25,949.00 per annum pro rata.
Contract/

Hours:

Permanent, Part Time - 30 hours per week (Monday to Friday 9-5pm)
Location:

Waterside, Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
Benefits:

• 29 days annual leave PLUS bank holidays pro rata.
• Gain professional qualifications and excellent training/development opportunities.
• Flexible maternity, adoption, and paternity packages
• Pension with up to 7% employer contribution with included life assurance cover
• Staff discounts and Blue Light Card eligibility with 15,000 national retailers discounts.

Wherever you work in the Action for Children family, you'll be helping to change the lives of the most vulnerable children in the UK.

Last year, we helped more than 687,000 children and families across the UK. From direct work in communities to national campaigning, we are focused on making sure every child has a safe and happy childhood, and the foundations they need to thrive.

Working here is more than a job. Everyone in the Action for Children family is passionate about protecting and supporting children. It's the sense of purpose that drives us every single day. Because we know that, when we work together, we can make a huge difference to bring lasting improvements to vulnerable children's lives.

Our Waterside Sure Start service plays an essential role in giving children and families the early support they need. As a universal service we work in partnership with other agencies such as health visitors, midwives, and local schools.

To help 0-4-year-olds get ready for school our services include: child and family health services; parenting programmes and antenatal support; early year's education services, such as 'stay and play' sessions; speech and language support and family learning.

Core working hours for the service are usually between Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.

As an Early Years Practitioner, you'll be:

• Working as part of a team within the creche and developmental Programme for 2-3-year-olds to support children's personal, social, emotional, cognitive and SLC skills.
• Using a range of tools to monitor and assess the children's progress and development.
• Providing support within group play sessions as well as undertaking a range of home visits to support with the development of play skills.
• Developing successful relationships with children and their families.
• Observing and tracking children's development and sharing this with parents/ carers and other professionals.
• Being responsible for the planning, development, and delivery of individual and group-based services, which support families in providing their children with the best start in life.

Our job description for theEarly Years Practitioner  outlines therequirementsof the role but the 'must-haves' are:

• A minimum Diploma Level 2 in Childcare or equivalentrelevantqualification.
• Experience of workingwithchildrenaged under 4years.
• A genuine interest in childcare and a true passion and love for children.
• A thoroughunderstandingof
  
  Child
  
  Protection and Safeguarding.
• Excellentcommunicationskills and the abilityto engagewithpeople of all ages and backgrounds.
• Anunderstandingof the physical,intellectual, linguistic, social andemotionalgrowth as part ofchilddevelopment.
• Access to a car. Thejobrequires the abilityto travel according to the needs of thejob,withreasonableadjustments, if required, according to the Equality Act.

Closing Date
:
Thursday 6th August 2026.

Please note: Interviews are planned to be held week commencing 10th August 2026 at Waterside.

Please note we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.

To be eligible for this position you must complete an Access Ni Enhanced Disclosure

A copy of the Access Ni Code of Practice can be found here.

Diversity, equality and inclusion

At Action for Children, we're dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace.

Weactivelyencourageapplications from Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic and disabled candidates as they are under-represented within Action for Children. We want to take deliberate and purposeful action to ensure equal opportunity to all groups in society and for Action for Children.

Male staff are under-represented within our Children Service roles. We would like to encourage more male applicants for our Children Service roles.

Don't meet every single requirement?

If you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't align perfectly with the job description, we'd love you to apply anyway. You might just be the perfect person for this role, or another role within the Action for Children family.

Want to know more about Action for Children?

Find us on Linkedin,Facebook or You Tube to get to know us better.

Job Description

See below for further information about working with us:

Action for Children Employee Benefits

AfC Commitment Statement

Action for Children Northern Ireland Booklet