Who we are
Treehouse Nursery Schools is an award-winning early years provider with settings across Redbridge and Essex. We are growing, ambitious, and unapologetically values-led. Our H.E.A.R.T values sit at the core of everything we do, and our Children's Voices Curriculum reflects our belief that early education is where the foundations of global citizenship are built.
We hold UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools Gold accreditation. We are proud of what we have built and even prouder of the people who make it work every day.
We are now looking for someone to own our people and culture agenda at the most exciting point in our journey, as we open new settings and invest in becoming the best employer in our sector.
The role
As Head of People and Culture, you will shape how Treehouse shows up as an employer. You will lead our HR function, manage a small team, and work directly with the CEO to embed people strategy into every aspect of how we operate. You will be the person who makes sure our values are not just words but embedded into the day to day practice.
What you will do
- Lead the people and culture strategy across all Treehouse settings, working alongside the CEO and senior leadership team.
- Build on our H.E.A.R.T values by embedding them into how we recruit, develop, recognise, and retain our people.
- Own our approach to employee relations, including complex casework, trade union engagement, and employment law compliance.
- Oversee our safeguarding and compliance obligations, ensuring the HR Generalist maintains accurate records, a robust SCR, and full right-to-work compliance across all sites.
- Champion EDI across the organisation, turning commitment into practice.
- Lead on staff wellbeing, engagement, and the mechanisms that give our people a genuine voice.
- Support the organisation through a period of growth, including the cultural integration of new sites and teams.
- Line manage the HR team, developing their capability and holding them to high standards.
- Keep the organisation ahead of employment law changes and advise leadership with confidence and clarity.
What we are looking for
You are CIPD Level 7 qualified and have built your career in senior HR roles. You have handled difficult things: complex employee relations cases and trade union engagement. You do not shy away from hard conversations and you know how to bring people with you.
You have worked across multiple sites or locations and understand what it takes to maintain consistency and trust in a dispersed organisation. Experience in education, early years, or another regulated sector is a real advantage. You will understand safeguarding responsibility.
You care about culture, you think about the employee experience, and you believe that how an organisation treats its people is inseparable from what it achieves.
Essential:
- CIPD Level 7 (Chartered Member, Fellow, or working towards)
- Significant experience in a senior standalone or leadership HR role
- Strong employment law knowledge with the confidence to advise at executive level
- Experience managing complex ER casework and employment tribunal preparation
- Experience of trade union engagement or collective consultation
- Multi-site people management experience
What we offer
- A competitive salary reflective of your experience and seniority
- Three days per week with real flexibility in how you structure your time
- A values-led organisation that takes culture seriously, not just at recruitment
- A competitive salary
- Access to EAP
- Access to Virtual GP services
- High street discount vouchers.
This role is subject to an Enhanced DBS and satisfactory references.
