How you'll make a difference:
The Early Years Team is part of the Education, Learning and Skills division within the Department for People. The team is responsible for the council's legal duties relating to education, including the sufficiency of early year’s places.
By joining the Early Years Team, you will play an important role in ensuring children and families can access the provision and support they need. Your work will help improve access to early entitlement funding and ensure sufficient early years and childcare places are available, contributing to positive outcomes for children and young people across South Gloucestershire.
What you will be doing:
- It will be your responsibility to ensure that all early years settings are compliant in their use and administration of funding entitlements, including reviewing new provider policies. Where policies are found to be non-compliant, you will liaise with setting leaders to ensure necessary changes are made to achieve compliance.
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It will be key for you to develop and administer the annual compliance monitoring programme.
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By collecting and analysing data required by the Early Years team, including sufficiently and safeguarding data, and maintaining records, you will ensure that information is accurate, accessible and available when requested.
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By ensuring providers fulfil their safeguarding compliance responsibilities through the annual safeguarding audit, you will ensure the collation of information is gathered ready for presentations and future improvement implementation.
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You will develop systems and maintain accurate records to ensure that all members of the team complete mandatory training and annual refreshers, and that risk assessments are in place for them to carry out their duties safely and effectively.
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Using your excellent communication skills, you will gather information to support the effective resolution of complaints from stakeholders.
What we need from you:
- You must hold GCSE maths and English at grade 5 (or equivalent) and have (or be working towards) a relevant further education qualification.
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It is essential you have worked in a similar service area, such as for a council or in a compliance role, and have a good understanding of local government and the impact of working within statutory frameworks.
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Given the elements of this role, you will have well developed interpersonal and communication skills, enabling you to build relationships and engage effectively with contacts and customers, including facilitating difficult conversations with tact and professionalism.
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We require you to have experience of working flexibly within a team and across a range of activities, including the ability to take the lead when required. You will be able to manage competing demands, deliver to deadlines, and use your own initiative to prioritise urgent tasks and respond effectivity to changing priorities.
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You will have good numeracy, literacy, report writing, presentation and IT skills, including proficiency in spreadsheets and the ability to learn and use appropriate specialist in-house software packages.
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It is essential you can undertake effective research and present data, facts and findings in a clear and concise format, including where this is needed to effect change.
What you need to know:
- Your salary is pro-rata to hours worked.
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This role is hybrid, with a mixture of working at our office in Yate and from home.
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Please note that due to the nature of this role, it is a requirement of employment that an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is obtained.
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You will be expected to travel throughout the authority and surrounding area so you must have a full, valid driving licence with regular access to a vehicle or have an alternative means of travel.
Interviews will be held on 18th and 19th August 2026.
How a career at South Gloucestershire Council is different:
- As part of our benefits package, you will receive generous annual leave (pro rata), employee wellbeing support and you will have access to a range of staff discounts, including eye tests, travel, shopping and leisure activities.
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We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and developed on the basis of their merits and abilities.
- We know our team work best when they have balance in their lives, and we offer genuine flexibility to help them achieve that work/life balance.
- We invest in the careers of our people, and we are recognised for the quality, breadth and depth of our training and development offer, which helps our people make the greatest long-term difference in their work.
Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here.
- We're building and shaping communities which people are proud of.
- We're working with the most vulnerable in our community to help them achieve what they want in life.
- We're investing in our schools to ensure every child and young person in South Gloucestershire achieves their full potential.
We've achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference.
We’re making a difference, be part of it!
To view the full job description, please click this link: Compliance Officer - Early Years Team
