Nusery People and Practice Manager

People & Practice Manager

Creative Explorers Day Nursery | North London

Salary: £40-45.000 per annum | 4 days per week (38 hours)

Are you an experienced Nursery Manager ready for your next challenge? Would you like to use your early years leadership experience across a group of settings, helping managers develop their teams and ensuring high standards of practice?

Creative Explorers Day Nursery is looking for an experienced and people-focused People & Practice Manager to join our central leadership team.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who understands the realities of managing a nursery and is ready to step into a broader, multi-site role, overseeing practice, developing leaders and strengthening the quality of provision across our settings.

About the role

Working closely with the General Manager and our Deputy Managers, you will have overall oversight of practice across our North London nurseries, alongside leading on people management and staff development.

You will be responsible for ensuring that high standards of early years practice are understood, embedded and consistently maintained across all settings.

You will support our managers to build confident, capable teams, strengthen leadership skills and ensure that staff feel supported, developed and accountable.

You will be part of a collaborative central team, working alongside colleagues responsible for parent engagement, curriculum and SEN, and projects and infrastructure.

Each nursery has an on-site Deputy Manager, so your focus will be on overseeing practice and developing people and leadership across the group, rather than managing the daily running of one individual setting.

What you will be doing

Practice and quality oversight

• Overseeing the quality and consistency of early years practice across all nursery settings.
• Undertaking regular setting visits, observations and practice reviews.
• Monitoring standards and identifying areas for development and improvement.
• Working closely with Deputy Managers to ensure agreed standards are embedded and maintained.
• Supporting the implementation of improvement plans and monitoring progress.
• Promoting reflective practice, professional curiosity and continuous improvement.

People management and leadership

• Supporting and coaching Deputy Managers to lead their teams confidently and consistently.
• Overseeing recruitment, induction and probation processes across the group.
• Supporting staff performance, employee relations and the consistent application of people policies.
• Leading staff training, development and leadership support.
• Developing leadership capability across the organisation.
• Promoting positive staff engagement, wellbeing and retention.

Safeguarding and compliance

• Working in partnership with our Designated Safeguarding Leads to strengthen safeguarding culture.
• Monitoring staff safeguarding training and compliance.
• Ensuring staff understand their responsibilities and that concerns are escalated appropriately.

About you

We would love to hear from you if you:

• Have strong experience in early years leadership, ideally as a Nursery Manager.
• Have a strong understanding of the EYFS, safeguarding and what high-quality provision looks like in practice.
• Enjoy overseeing quality and developing practice across teams.
• Are passionate about developing people and helping other managers grow in confidence.
• Are confident supporting performance and having constructive, sometimes challenging, conversations.
• Can build positive relationships, influence others and work effectively across several settings.
• Are organised, approachable, fair and committed to continuous improvement.

Why join Creative Explorers?

You will have the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution across a group of nurseries, working with an experienced leadership team and helping shape how we develop our people, strengthen leadership and deliver consistently high-quality practice.

Our benefits include:

• 50% childcare discount.
• Increasing annual leave entitlement with length of service.
• Birthday leave.
• Paid Christmas closure.
• Employee referral bonus.
• Wellbeing fund.
• Opportunities for professional development and progression.

The details

Location: North London, working across our Crouch End, Harringay and Hornsey settings, with a central Head Office.

Working pattern: 4 days per week (38 hours).

Salary: £40-45,000 per annum Plus Bonus

If you are an experienced early years leader who is passionate about people, leadership and quality of practice, we would love to hear from you.

Pay: £40,000.00-£45,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Casual dress
• Childcare
• Company pension
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee discount
• Free flu jabs
• On-site parking
• Referral programme

Education:

• A-Level or equivalent (required)

Work Location: In person