Early Support Adviser

About the role

We are looking to appoint a Early Support Advisor to work in the Early Years SEND team.

The Early Years SEND team promotes high quality inclusive practice across the Early Year's sector. The team provides a comprehensive SEND offer and supports childcare providers in Cambridgeshire to work with children with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities. The Early Years SEND team manages the Early Support pathway, which is a multi-disciplinary approach to meeting the individual needs of children who have a disability or significant and complex additional needs.

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a small friendly team, and your role would be to liaise regularly with families and relevant professionals to provide advice and support to professionals when making a referral to Early Support to achieve the best possible outcomes for both children and families in Cambridgeshire.

You will provide in-person advice to families to help them support their child and decide if they need to be on the Early Support Pathway. You will work closely with colleagues in Family Hubs to support children and families on their journey along the pathway.

You will provide high quality advice and support around individual children who are on the Early Support Pathway and monitor, track and evaluate the Early Support journey for individual children and their families. You will be triaging referrals to the Pathway to ensure all the information required is needed and presenting cases at our Multi-Agency Meeting.

The successful candidate will have significant experience, skills and a passion for working with children and their families in the early years with SEND. You will have an understanding of the Early Years Statutory framework and how the SEND Code of Practice relates to early years. You will have excellent interpersonal skills combined with the ability to represent the Service in a positive and professional manner, including communicating with a wide range of internal and external customers.

You must have strong problem-solving skills and the ability to take a hands-on role and work independently. You will ideally have good working knowledge of Windows & Microsoft packages (although training can be provided).

This role would suit someone who has extensive experience meeting the needs of children with a wide range of special educational needs and disabilities who is working within or supporting the early years sector.

• Wellbeing package covering all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

• Salary £31,537 pro-rata
• Occupational pension scheme with employer contribution
• Employee Assistance Programme - access to free support 24 hours a day
• Employee Benefits scheme with lifestyle and shopping discounts
• Generous annual leave entitlement increasing with length of service and ability to buy more
• A supportive management team that will champion your learning and development
• Work-life balance and flexible ways of working, including WFH (work from home) when the role allows

For more details, please see the job description and person specification. If you would like to discuss the role in more detail, please contact Chris Barton : chris.

The closing date for applications is Monday 27 July 2026 and interviews will be scheduled shortly after.

We are proud to serve diverse communities in Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to reflect this diversity, which benefits our employees, the organisation and the communities.

We are committed to building an inclusive, respectful and empowering workplace. We are a Disability Confident Leader and fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process and beyond. Candidates who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria will be offered an interview under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme. You may request adjustments such as additional assessment time or larger-font documents.