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Start Well Early Years Senior Consultant

Bolton Council

Shaw Street, Bolton, BL3 6HU£54,398Closes: 12/09/2026

Grade Soulbury scp 9 £54,398 to scp 12 £58,691, essential car user allowance up to £963 pay award pending
Contract: Permanent
Hours: 37 per week
Essential requirement: full driving licence, DBS
Essential qualification: Qualified Teacher Status with Early Years Specialism
Interview date: TBC
For further information about this role, contact: Laura.Wright@bolton.gov.uk


Unfortunately, we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.

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The Role

Are you an experienced and ambitious Early Years leader ready to shape strategic developments across Bolton? Do you have the expertise, vision and passion to drive high-quality practice, improve outcomes, and help children and families achieve their full potential?
Bolton's Start Well Service is seeking an exceptional Early Years Senior Consultant to join our leadership team during an exciting period of national and local transformation.
You will play a key role in delivering Bolton's Best Start in Life Plan, strengthening partnerships and extending the reach of our Best Start Family Hubs.
A key member of the Start Well leadership team, you will providing leadership and expert guidance to the Early Years and Childcare sector and contributing to strategic developments that support children and families across Bolton.
You will work collaboratively with schools, nurseries, childminders, out-of-school providers and multi-agency partners to develop inclusive, high-quality learning communities that drive continuous improvement and better outcomes for children.
You will undertake, coordinate and quality assure Start Well Quality and Outcomes activity with providers to ensure consultancy and CPD are effective and making a difference by the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).


About You

You are an inspirational Early Years leader with a strong track record of improving practice and outcomes for all children.
You understand the pace and challenge of the wider Children's Services landscape, national reforms and education policy developments affecting children and families and providers.
You will have a sound understanding of EYFS statutory requirements, inspection frameworks, SEND, safeguarding and the local authority's statutory duties for early education and childcare.
A confident communicator and relationship-builder, you can influence, inspire and collaborate effectively with partners across the sector to deliver the very best outcomes for children and families.
If you are an outstanding Early Years leader with the ambition and expertise to drive borough wide improvement, we would love to hear from you.

About Us

This is your opportunity to join us at an exciting time as we have strong ambitions for the borough.

Bolton is a great place to work. We are a welcoming organisation that wants to contribute to a place where people feel active, connected and prosperous. We are passionate about improving the outcomes and experience of Bolton people. We want Bolton to be a vibrant place built on strong cohesive communities, successful businesses and healthy, engaged residents.

As an employer we want to thank our employees for their hard work and commitment, by giving them the opportunity to access a range of exclusive rewards and benefits, including discounts and exclusive gym membership prices and salary sacrifice schemes. In addition, we offer a generous annual leave allowance, flexible work opportunities, access to a Pension Scheme, as well as a range of employee wellbeing and support services.

Our Values are really important to us, read all about them below, along with all our great staff benefits, the job description/person specification for the role and the important legal bits, and our Top Tips too.

Ready to apply? Then please click Apply and upload your anonymised CV and supporting statement discussing your relevant skills and experience and explain how you believe they make you a strong fit for this role.

Within Greater Manchester, local authorities have made a commitment to improve the employment opportunities for people with disabilities, care leavers, carers, and ex-military personnel. Please see greater.jobs for further information before you apply.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable adults and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) clearance - this post is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (amended in 2013). Employment offers are conditional subject to satisfactory clearances. For roles where a criminal records check from the DBS is required, this includes satisfactory clearance of this check. The possession of a criminal record will not necessarily bar an individual from working with us. This will depend on the nature of the position and the circumstances and background of an individual’s offence/s. Information provided by you or the DBS will be dealt with in a confidential manner and in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice which can be viewed here. Bolton Council’s policy on the Employment of Ex-Offenders is available here.

This post is a designated customer facing role under the fluency duty and requires a specified level of spoken English as per the person specification.

This organisation has signed up to the Greater Manchester Continuous Service Commitment. That means we will recognise your continuous or ‘unbroken’ service in any Greater Manchester local authority or NHS organisation that has signed the commitment, Transport for Greater Manchester, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service or Greater Manchester Combined Authority, giving you access to our service-related benefits. Please see the home page of greater.jobs for more information.

For more information about working for Bolton Council, please see greater.jobs; for advice and support with your application, contact recruitment@bolton.gov.uk



Supporting Documents

Job description and person spec
Documents for Right to Work
DBS ID Guidelines
Top Tips
Our Values & Behaviours
Privacy Notice
Staff Benefits