The Department for Children, Schools and Families have provided guidelines to Local Authorities as to how central government funding may be used to support and sustain the provision of Childcare. In Essex one way in which we have sought to do this is through the provision of a recruitment service that offers professional support to facilitate the recruitment and retention of quality staff on behalf of childcare settings.
The Recruitment Service
The Recruitment Service is currently based at the Early Years and Childcare Resource Centre in Broomfield and consists of Terry Hollingsworth, Recruitment Manager, Emma Hamilton-Taylor, Recruitment Officer, and Janet Bailey, 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 can support you to recruit staff and in other areas of HR 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 can be accessed via the 'job search' tab above or through the JobCentre Plus website. Any new, amended or closed vacancies are updated daily on these sites. A paper-based bulletin is also published fortnightly and is predominantly distributed to public information points such as JobCentres, libraries and colleges.
Promoting childcare and early years as a career
If you would like further examples of people working in our sector please ask us for a CD-ROM which is part part of an Information Pack. This includes footage of some of the national award winning settings in Essex. A number of jobs are profiled too with individuals explaining how they embarked on their career journeys. Initial feedback on how this has informed choices has been excellent. The recruitment team is also very proactive working in partnership with Job centre staff, schools and careers advisors.