Early Childhood Specialist - Richmond

Job Title: Early Childhood Specialist

Contract Type: Full Time / 40 Hours per week / Field based /
* Travel to HO and to our nurseries

* Regional travel required around Hounslow, Heathrow, Richmond Upon Thames areas *

Salary: From £45k per annum plus £4k car allowance (If required)

The Early Childhood Specialist is a regional leadership role within Bright Horizons UK, providing hands‑on pedagogical guidance and quality assurance across nurseries. The role involves regular nursery visits, close collaboration with Regional Directors, Nursery Managers, and central teams, and direct coaching, mentoring, and training of practitioners to ensure high‑quality care, education, and safety.

The Specialist drives best practice in teaching and learning, leads pedagogical change, supports regulatory compliance, and helps secure Good or Outstanding inspection outcomes. Working closely with the Pedagogical Research & Development (PR&D) team, the role supports the implementation of the Bright Horizons curriculum, Quality Improvement Framework (QIF), and Nurture Approaches, including SEND/ASN and Thrive, to ensure continuous improvement and service excellence across nursery settings.

• Our benefits include but are not limited to.
• Flexible working and holiday entitlements
• Discounted childcare in one of our nurseries
• Fantastic range of discounts on high street retailers, grocery stores, cinema tickets, holidays and more
• Wide range of wellbeing resources, supporting our teams for the ups and downs of daily life

• Provide pedagogical and organisational leadership to nursery managers and teams, promoting a strong HEART culture, values, and behaviours to drive quality improvement, pedagogical excellence, and service excellence across the region.
• Support the implementation of the Quality Improvement Strategy and action plans, ensuring alignment with company strategic objectives across all nursery settings.
• Implement and develop the Bright Horizons UK Nurture Approach, including the Nurture Model, SEND/ASN excellence, Thrive, and Bright Beginnings Curriculum across the region.
• Drive continuous improvement and secure excellence in early childhood pedagogy, training, and nursery support, contributing to high operational standards, strong nursery management, and regulatory compliance.
• Deliver and manage regional initiatives, projects, and pedagogical innovations in collaboration with PR&D and Operations teams, ensuring consistency and cohesion.
• Act as an advocate for children, championing a Children First approach to physical and emotional wellbeing, safeguarding, child protection, SEND/ASN, and regulatory compliance, working with external agencies where required.
• Provide high‑quality advice, coaching, and mentoring to nursery managers and teams in pedagogy, safety, and compliance, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with Operations and HR to support succession planning for nursery managers.

• Provide excellent pedagogical and nursery management advice and hands‑on support to nursery practitioners across the region, working collaboratively with ECSs, Regional Directors, PR&D, Operations, Safeguarding, HR, Health & Safety, Local Authorities, and regulatory bodies to ensure cohesion and consistency across UK early childhood provision.
• Ensure high‑quality evidence informs reporting of Early Childhood (EC) quality measures, using agreed systems and tools to drive improvement, support effective monitoring, and demonstrate measurable impact, leading to improved inspection outcomes.
• Develop capability, confidence, and efficiency within regional nursery teams to secure the highest quality pedagogy, through innovative guidance, manager support, and contribution to professional development, training delivery, and career pathways, fostering expertise, motivation, and innovation.
• Support HR, People Development (PD), and Operations teams to ensure high‑quality recruitment of nursery managers and the delivery of effective induction programmes for new talent.
• Provide expert guidance and advice on EC regulation and inspection readiness, in collaboration with…