The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) have issued various guidelines to Local Authorities advising how they may support and sustain the provision of Childcare. In Essex one of the ways we have sought to achieve this is through a recruitment service that offers professional support to facilitate the recruitment and retention of quality staff on behalf of childcare providers.
The Recruitment Service
The Recruitment Service is based at the Early Years and Childcare Resource Centre at County Hall Chelmsford and consists of Stuart Rowe, Recruitment Officer and Dee Hallam, Recruitment Assistant.
For information on our business hours and contact details please refer to the 'contact us' page.
What advice do we offer?
The team provides information, advice and guidance to individuals seeking employment or wishing to find out more about working in the Childcare sector. For employers we facilitate the recruitment of staff as well as offering technical advice on HR issues such as salaries, job roles and contracts. We will signpost individuals to the training opportunities available, but appreciate how difficult it can sometimes be making those first steps into the sector. We are the first point of contact for prospective Childminders. If you are interested in becoming a Childminder or would like more information about support or the process you can now do this online. Please refer to our Careers Information section to register your interest and to view or book onto a briefing session.
Job vacancies are advertised free of charge on behalf of Childcare providers and are circulated through a variety of media. These may be viewed from the 'job search' tab above or via the JobCentre Plus website. New, amended and closed vacancies are updated daily on these sites. A vacancy bulletin is also published fortnightly predominantly as an information resource in public information centres such as JobCentres, connexions, libraries and colleges.
Promoting Early Years and Childcare as a career
If you would like further examples of people working in our sector please contact us for a CD-ROM which is part of our Information Pack. This includes film footage from a number of Essex Providers who have achieved national recognition. A number of job roles are profiled too with staff explaining how they have embarked on their career journey. Feedback to date has showed that this has been really helped choosing a career. This resource is our equivalent to the 'Making Choices' orientation programme promoted by Surestart and delivered in a number of smaller Local Authorities. The recruitment team is also very proactive working in partnership with Job centre staff, schools and careers advisors.