Contract: Permanent
Hours: 37 hours PW
Location: Four roles available, one based in each of our four main Family Hubs:
Best Start Family Hub -Tarner, Best Start Family Hub – Whitehawk, Best Start Family Hub - Moulsecoomb, Best Start Family Hub - Hangleton
Help Every Child Get the Best Start in Life
Are you passionate about improving outcomes for babies, young children and their families? Do you have experience supporting children with additional needs and working collaboratively with families and professionals? If so, we'd love to hear from you.
Brighton & Hove City Council is seeking four dedicated and compassionate Best Start in Life Inclusion Practitioners to join our Best Start In Life Family Hubs team. This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in ensuring all children, including those with emerging or identified additional needs, can access and benefit from high-quality early years services and support within their community.
For an informal discussion please contact Helen Cowling – Service Manager for Family Hubs, 07795 335868 [email protected] orBrittany Schultz - Community Manager [email protected]
About the Role
As a Best Start in Life Inclusion Practitioner, you will work alongside families, Family Hub teams, health partners, early years settings and community organisations to promote inclusion and support children's development during the critical early years.
You will provide practical advice, targeted interventions and specialist support to children and families, helping to reduce barriers to participation, improve developmental outcomes and strengthen family resilience.
The role will involve:
- Supporting children aged 0–5 with emerging or identified special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and developmental differences.
- Working directly with families to understand their strengths, needs and aspirations.
- Delivering targeted interventions and guidance that promote children's learning, development and inclusion.
- Supporting Family Hub practitioners and early years providers to develop inclusive practice.
- Contributing to early identification and assessment processes, ensuring families receive the right support at the right time.
- Working in partnership with health, education, social care and voluntary sector colleagues.
- Maintaining accurate records and contributing to outcome-focused planning and reviews.
About You
We are looking for someone who:
- Has experience of working with young children and families, particularly those with additional needs or disabilities.
- Has a strong understanding of child development and early intervention.
- Is knowledgeable about inclusive practice, SEND and family-centred approaches.
- Can build positive, trusting relationships with families from diverse backgrounds.
- Is confident working in partnership across services and agencies.
- Has excellent communication, organisational and problem-solving skills.
- Is committed to reducing inequalities and improving outcomes for all children.
A relevant qualification in early years, child development, family support, SEND, health or a related field would be desirable.
Why Join Us?
At Brighton & Hove City Council, we are committed to creating a city where every child has the opportunity to thrive. Our Best Start In Life Family Hubs offer services to all families with children aged 0-19 and 25 with SEND. We have a range of organisations working from our sites including NHS services and strong working relationships with the Community and Voluntary sector.
We offer:
- A supportive and inclusive working environment.
- Opportunities for professional development and training.
- Regular supervision and reflective practice.
- Flexible working opportunities where service needs allow.
Encouraging a diverse workforce
Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.
Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).
Why work for us?
As a council, we want to:
- be connected
- be confident
- be innovative and creative
- be diverse and inclusive
- be healthy and psychologically safe
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.
How to apply
Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.
As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.
AI advice for candidates
We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.
We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.
All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.
Additional information
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.
Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.
We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.
