Crèche Manager + Founding Early Years Lead - Work+Play Hub - 18578

Employer

Work+Play Hub is a charity dedicated to removing barriers to employment for parents, especially mothers, by integrating flexible coworking space, high quality childcare, and mental health support — all under one roof. Rooted in equality of opportunity, our mission is to create an inclusive, family-friendly work environment that supports career progression, financial stability, and children’s holistic development. We offer affordable, high-quality childcare inspired by Froebelian principles, ensuring that children learn through play while parents/carers focus on work, career growth, and well-being.

We are now recruiting a Crèche Manager & Founding Early Years Lead to help establish and lead the early years offer at Work+Play Hub. This is a rare opportunity to shape a new, community-based model from the beginning, combining high-quality play provision with practical support for parents returning to work, training, education, freelancing or employment.

The role will play a critical part in ensuring that children thrive in a nurturing, play-rich environment, while supporting parents/carers in balancing work and family life.

Location: Work+Play Hub, 225 Gilmerton Road, EH16 5UF Edinburgh

Benefits:

• Workplace pension scheme
• 30 days paid annual leave per year, inclusive of public holidays, for this 30-hour role
• Protected non-contact time each week for leadership, planning, supervision and compliance
• CPD support, including support towards SCQF Level 9 Childhood Practice where this forms part of the agreed professional development plan
• Salary review as the organisation grows

Role overview

As the Crèche Manager & Founding Early Years Lead, you will lead practice within our play environment, ensuring that children experience high-quality early learning and childcare. You will work directly with children while guiding and supporting Practitioners, Volunteers and students with varied experience. Your role is to embed an approach inspired by Friedrich Froebel, where play, creativity, respectful relationships, and holistic learning are central.

This is a working-manager role in a small, community-based service at an exciting stage of development. The postholder will spend much of their time on the playroom floor, especially in the early stages, while also having protected leadership and non-contact time for planning, records, quality assurance, supervision, governance and Care Inspectorate-related responsibilities.

You will not be expected to carry the full organisational burden alone. You will be supported by the Founder/Director and Board of Trustees on governance, finance, HR, payroll, policies, strategic planning and wider organisational administration. Your core leadership focus will be the quality, safety and development of the early years and crèche provision.

You will contribute to a positive, equitable workplace culture where all people feel valued, included and supported, and where diversity of background and experience is recognised as a strength of our organisation.

Key duties and responsibilities

• Froebelian leadership and practice
• Lead by example in delivering a Froebelian approach that values each child as a capable, curious learner.
• Support practice that recognises play as the foundation of learning, promotes creativity, and enables freedom with thoughtful guidance.
• Ensure learning experiences are rooted in real materials, opportunities for exploration, connection with nature, and an understanding of the interconnectedness of children’s development.
• Help shape the culture, routines and ethos of a new early years environment from the start.

Curriculum and play environment

• Design, implement, and review child-led, play-based experiences that reflect children’s interests and needs.
• Oversee the daily organisation of the play environment, ensuring it is welcoming, enabling, and responsive to children’s needs.
• Use observation, reflection, and discussion with the team to support continuous improvement in practice.
• Support the development of the indoor playroom and outdoor garden as rich, inclusive and developmentally appropriate spaces.

Working with children and families

• Work directly within the play environment to support children’s wellbeing, learning, and emotional security.
• Build warm, trusting relationships with families, offering clear communication and a welcoming presence.
• Respond sensitively and appropriately to family concerns, championing an inclusive and accessible service for all.
• Understand the wider mission of Work+Play Hub: supporting parents, especially mothers and carers, to access work, training, education, enterprise and wellbeing support.

Safeguarding, health and wellbeing

• Act as the designated Person in Charge during operating hours, ensuring safeguarding, health, and safety responsibilities are consistently upheld.
• Maintain compliance with the Health and Social Care Standards, SSSC Codes of Practice, and Care Inspectorate expectations.
• Oversee daily crèche routines, transitions, environment setup, and session flow.
• Ensure policies relating to safeguarding, behaviour, nutrition, infection control, and medication are implemented with care and consistency.
• Promote a calm, respectful culture where children feel safe, secure, and valued.

Operational management and quality assurance

• Maintain accurate and up-to-date records, including registers, incident reports, medication logs, and risk assessments.
• Support service evaluation and contribute to self-evaluation and improvement planning.
• Ensure policies and procedures are regularly reviewed and embedded in daily practice.
• Participate confidently in inspections and support the development of action plans where required.
• Use protected leadership and admin time to support planning, compliance, reflection and quality improvement.

Expectations and requirements

Priority will be given to candidates who already hold a Childhood Practice qualification at SCQF Level 9, such as:

• BA Childhood Practice
• Graduate Diploma in Childhood Practice
• PDA Childhood Practice (SCQF Level 9)
• Or another award accepted by SSSC as equivalent

Candidates who do not yet hold an SCQF Level 9 award will be considered if they are willing to undertake the qualification, or are already taking it, and a clear professional development plan will be agreed with us. In this case, the candidate must already hold a relevant qualification such as:

• Practitioner-level qualification in Early Learning and Childcare at SCQF Level 7
• HNC Childhood Practice
• SVQ3 Social Services (Children & Young People)

Priority will be given to candidates who already have strong knowledge of Froebelian and play-based education principles. Recognised qualifications and training may include:

• Training through Froebelian Futures, University of Edinburgh
• CPD with the Froebel Trust
• Courses from the Erskine Childcare Organisation
• Froebel Scotland workshops
• Relevant modules in BA Childhood Practice or Early Learning and Childcare degrees

Candidates must be eligible for registration with the SSSC for Daycare of Children, or already be registered. 

What makes this role different

This is more than a standard nursery post. Work+Play Hub is building a new kind of family-friendly work and childcare model for Edinburgh. The successful candidate will have genuine influence over how the early years offer develops, including the play environment, routines, family relationships, quality assurance systems and future growth of the service.

The hours are compact and family-friendly: 10am to 4pm, Monday to Friday. No early starts and no late shifts: designed to work alongside life outside the role.

As Work+Play Hub grows, this role is expected to develop in scope, with increasing responsibility for quality assurance, governance, and potentially overseeing our early years offer across future locations.

Additional information

The Crèche Manager & Founding Early Years Lead will provide a service compatible with good practice in the education and care of children and young people, in line with the Health and Social Care Standards, the Care Inspectorate requirements, and Work+Play Hub’s policies. They will work as an effective member of our team and promote a stimulating environment which meets children’s individual needs and those of their families, enabling everyone to achieve their potential.

Dedicated time away from the playroom floor for management, governance, planning and compliance responsibilities is built into the role structure, in line with Care Inspectorate expectations.

This post is regulated work with children and/or protected adults under the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007. The preferred candidate will be required to have, or join, the PVG scheme. Where an individual has spent a continuous period of 3 months or more away from the UK in the last 5 years, an Overseas Criminal Record Check will be required. You will be required to provide this check. An unconditional offer of employment and commencement in the post will be subject to the outcome of both these pre-employment checks being deemed satisfactory.

How to apply

Apply now 

For an informal conversation about the role before applying, candidates are welcome to contact Work+Play Hub directly.