Early Years Co-ordinator

BARNARDO'S

31,512 - 38,340 per year

Horizon Surestart

Full-time

20th November 2025

🌟 Join Our Team at Horizon Sure Start! 🌟

Position: Early Years Co-OrdinatorContract Type: Fixed Term to 31 January 2027 (Maternity Cover)

Hours: 20 hours per week - Term TimeLocation: Horizon Sure Start Carrickfergus (Sunnylands Primary School and Larne (St. Anthonys Primary School) - across both sitesSalary: EY (DEY2) – £31,512–£38,340 FTE (Hourly rate £16.37)

🧒 About Horizon Sure Start

Horizon Sure Start is a vibrant, multidisciplinary service that supports children aged 0–4 and their families across Carrickfergus and Larne. With a dedicated team, we deliver a range of early intervention programmes designed to improve outcomes for young children and their families.

🎯 Role Overview

As Early Years Co-Ordinator, you will play a key role in supporting and supervising crèche and Developmental Programme staff for 2–3 year olds. You will:

Support the staff in the setting with action plans, observations, planning, and all the paperwork in the setting
Hold regular supervisions with the Early years staff
Support staff with strategies and new ways of working in the rooms
Contribute to service planning, review, and development
Support the Children's Services Manager in overall service management
Develop and facilitate new programmes
Oversee all the early years rooms ensuring good practice and high-quality play

✅ Essential Criteria

To be considered for an interview, you must demonstrate that you meet the following:

Completed or working towards NVQ Level 5 in Childcare Learning and Development or Advanced Practice in Working with Children and Families (or above)
Experience of preparing, planning, observations, action plans, Individual learning plans in an early yearssetting
Experience working within multi-disciplinary teams
Experience supervising staff, volunteers, or students (1:1 or group)
Experience applying safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures
Experience working directly with children aged 0–4 and their families
Hold a full UK driving licence, business insurance and access to a car for work purposes (this criteria will be waived for candidates with a disability who can demonstrate alternative means of meeting the mobility requirements of the post).

🔒 Pre-Employment Requirements

Enhanced Access NI with Child Barred List Check
‘Fit person' interview with Social Services

⏰ Additional Information

Flexibility is essential. Applicants must be willing to work hours that meet the needs of the service.

Closing Date: Midnight, 20th November 2025

Contact: Recruitment.support@barnardos.org.uk

Ready to make a difference in the lives of young children and their families?
Apply now and become part of a passionate team committed to early years development

A waiting list will be held in the event that similar vacancies arise for a period of up to 12 months

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values.  We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours.  More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.

Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
Service related sick pay from day 1
Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
Cycle2work scheme
Interest free season ticket loans
Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
20% discount at Barnardo's stores
Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

Reference number:21990
Job Title:Early Years Co-ordinator
Location:Horizon Surestart
Contract type:Fixed term
End date:31 January 2027
Hours:20
Salary:31,512 - 38,340 FTE
Closing Date:20 November 2025

Benefits

Vacancy Alerts

Additional Info