Senior Nursery Practitioner; Room Leader

University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust

The closing date is 24 February 2026

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust is delighted to offer a fantastic opportunity to work with us.

Below is the detailed job description of the role.

You will be based at Western Community Hospital at Trust Taplins nursery in our Purple room (children aged 2.6–3.6), working as a key person and room leader.

What you’ll do:

You’ll role model, motivate, lead, coach, support and manage our teams to provide high standards of childcare and education. You’ll be responsible for leading specific areas of practice or completing specific management tasks.

• Hold an appropriate Early Years qualification (Level 3 or above).
• Be calm, kind and caring, with a sense of humour.
• Have a knowledgeable, enthusiastic and inspiring approach to leading a team and working with children and their families.
• Be committed, reliable and flexible.

Attached you will find the person specification document which provides more detail about the essential and desirable skills and experience needed for this role. We highly recommend you review this document and use it when completing your application as these criteria are used by hiring managers as guidance during shortlisting.

For an overview of the main duties of the role please see the Job Description and Main Responsibilities section below. To understand the day‑to‑day responsibilities in more detail please read the full job description document attached.

• Good standard of secondary education with literacy and numeracy skills demonstrable to GCSE pass level or equivalent standard
• Current food hygiene certificate
• To hold a full and relevant Level 3 Early Years Qualification (in accordance with  ) or above. If level 3 qualified post June 2016, to also hold a full paediatric first aid (PFA) or an emergency PFA certificate.
• Experience as a Senior Nursery Practitioner or experience gained through acting up or relevant equivalent experience
• Able to provide relevant activity ideas and ability to care for children
• Demonstrates enthusiastic approach to working with children and learning practically within nursery
• Recent previous experiences of working with 3 months - 5-year-olds within a childcare setting.
• Current paediatric and/or first aid at work certificate if qualified pre
  - June 2016, or if candidate holds a qualification higher than level 3
• Experience in supervising students and/or colleagues.

• Patients First
• Always Improving
• Working Together

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust