Early Year's Services Lead

An Cosán
An Cosán (Irish for “The Path”) is Ireland’s largest community education organisation. The mission of An Cosán is to bring about social equality and an end to poverty through the provision of early years’ supports, wrap around family supports and counselling services, community bases adult education and empowering social enterprise development. An Cosán is at the forefront nationally in the provision of high quality and inclusive early childhood education and care. The Early Years team in An Cosán has grown significantly to provide seven
services in total across Dublin city. There are three services in Tallaght, three in Cabra, and one
in Whitehall. Services are consistently recognised by external evaluation for their achievement
of quality standards and the use of Highscope curriculum.
The Role
The role of the Early Years Services Lead is to work directly with the Early Year’s services, to
oversee their day-to-day management and to build their capacity to deliver high quality,
inclusive early childhood care and education for children and families.
Primary Responsibility
The Early Years Services Lead will be responsible for the overall management and leadership of
our high-quality early years’ services. The post holder will ensure all good practice standards are
met in the delivery of the Early Years education and care programme. The practice in the
services should be regularly reviewed and evaluated to ensure standards are continuously
developed and maintained. The Early Years Services Lead will also be responsible for the
efficient financial management and operations of the services.
Key Responsibilities
• Collaborate, mentor, and liaise with Early Years Managers to support the successful
management and leadership of the early year's services in line with An Cosán’s ethos
and mission.
• Ensure all services are effective in supporting children’s wellbeing, learning and
development.
• Enhance and support the development of quality early year’s provision in each service
through collaborative working with managers and staff.
• Support Early Years Managers with the development of the curriculum, ensuring that the
activities and programmes are linked to Highscope, Aistear, the National Curriculum
and Síolta, the National Quality Framework.
• Play an active role in supporting Early Years Managers in the Tusla, Pobal and
Department of Education inspection processes. Ensure that all elements of the services
are delivered in compliance with the Childcare Act 1991 (Early Years Services)
Regulations 2016, and the National Standards for Preschool Services and any other
legislative or best practice standards.
• Ensure accurate and up-to-date records are kept for all aspects of the service necessary
to the running of the full day service in accordance with the Child Care Act 1991 (Early
Years Services) Regulations 2016, the Child Care Act 1991, the Department of Children,
Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Children First: National Guidance for the
Protection and Welfare of Children and the Department of Health and Children ‘Our
Duty to Care’.
• Oversee the development of quality improvement strategies within the Early Years
services to enhance the quality of experiences for all children, families, and staff.
Staff Management
• Lead on the recruitment, and induction of Early Years Managers.
• Oversee staffing requirements as set out in the Childcare Act 1991 (Early Years Services)
Regulations, 2016.
• Provide leadership and mentoring to Early Years Managers in relation to all elements of
practice and provision.
• Ensure that quality standards are maintained and further developed in relation to the
professionalism of Early Years staff as set out in the relevant standards.
• Support Early Years Managers in the recruitment, induction, mentoring, supervision,
training and development of staff.
• Ensure all legislative and in-house HR policies and procedures are actively managed.
o Identify training and staff development opportunities.
o Provide professional supervision for Early Years Managers through regular
meetings.
o Ensure Early Years Managers keep staff up to date with all mandatory training as
appropriate to the position (First Aid, Fire Safety, Food Hygiene, Manual
Handling, Child Protection and HACCP).
Child Protection
• Act as Designated Child Protection Liaison Person in the Early Years service in line with
Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children.
• Ensure all Early Years Managers and staff understand their roles and responsibilities in
relation to child protection concerns in the service and that they act appropriately if they
have a child protection concern.
• Lead on the development, review and updating of Early Years policies as necessary.
Financial
• Collaborate with the Finance and Communications teams to achieve full capacity at
each Early Years' service including the use of creative engagement solutions to maintain
financial breakeven.
• Have a sound knowledge and understanding of various funding schemes.
• Support all Early Year Managers in delivering services in line with requirements under
our contracts to DCEDIY/Pobal.
Working in Partnership with Parents
• Ensure an effective communication system with parents/guardians is developed and
maintained.
• Oversee the organisation of parent information evenings/events.
• Oversee the management of seasonal and family/social events.
Health & Safety
• Work with Managers and staff to ensure that services are compliant in meeting
legislative and good practice requirements as outlined in:
✓ Safety, Health, and Welfare at Work Act 2005.
✓ Childcare Act (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016,
✓ Fire Safety Act 1997 and Childcare Act 1991 (Early Years Services) 2016/and all other
obligations.
• Ensure all accident and incident forms are appropriately completed and maintained by
Early Years Managers.
• Ensure regular risk assessments and health and safety audits – external and internal –
are implemented by each Early Years Manager.
Meeting and Reporting Responsibilities
• Meet with the Deputy CEO on a weekly basis.
• Prepare monthly board reports.
• Attend An Cosán’s Early Years Working Group monthly meetings.
• Attend full staff meetings in An Cosán.
• Ensure that all policies and procedures are implemented and updated as required.
• Keep up to date with new developments within the Early Years sector.
Policy Development
• Liaise with Policy and Communications Manager on all policy issues.
Other Related Duties
• To take on other responsibilities as reasonably requested by An Cosán.
Other Desirable requirements for the role
• Knowledge or qualification in HighScope curriculum
Application Process & Deadline
To apply for this role, please send:
- a comprehensive, up-to-date CV; and Cover Letter (max two pages) outlining your
motivation for applying for this job, your skills, knowledge and experience under the
competencies required for this role, and your salary expectation.
The candidate should include the name and contact details of two referees who will be in a
position to provide professional references for the candidate. One of the referees should be the
candidate’s current or most recent employer. Referees will not be contacted without the
candidate’s expressed permission.
All documents must be submitted in Word or PDF format. For security reasons, files sent by email
as links to documents in shared cloud-based servers will not be accepted.
All candidates must have a clean driver’s license and access to their own transport.