Position: Deputy Nursery Manager

Location: Blaydon, Tyne and Wear

Salary: Up to £29,000 per annum

Contract/Hours: Fixed Term Contract until 30th May 2026 – 40 hours a week.

Closing date: Midnight on 28th August 2025

Benefits:

25 days annual leave PLUS bank holidays
60% discount on childcare within our nurseries and clubs
Gain professional qualifications and excellent training/development opportunities.
Flexible maternity, adoption, and paternity packages
Pension with up to 7% employer contribution with included life assurance cover
Blue Light Card eligibility with 15,000 national retailers’ discounts

We're thrilled that you're considering a career with Spring. Spare us five minutes, and we'll tell you what you need to know…

About Spring

Spring offers award-winning childcare services, as part of the national charity Action for Children. It's our mission to be the best provider of outstanding quality early education to children throughout the UK, that is accessible to all. We are focused on enabling young people to learn, have fun and make friends in our bright, engaging settings. That starts with creating a happy environment for our team. Join us and you can look forward to:

A kind, caring culture with an emphasis on wellbeing, both physical and mental.
Flexible working – wherever possible we offer flexibility on hours and/or hybrid working.
Lots of opportunities for training, learning, development, including gaining qualifications.
Excellent benefits that compare favourably to other employers in our sector.

A bit about the role

Spring Blaydon is a 54-place stimulating, caring and nurturing nursery, which provides high-quality care and education for children from 0 months to 5 years, situated in Park Head school with outstanding views over the surrounding rural area of Winlaton. We are a dedicated and highly qualified team who are passionate about children's well-being. We are looking for a confident candidate to join our nursery, it goes without saying that you need to love being around children and will have the ambition to make a direct and positive impact on their young lives.

What sets us apart is our passionate staff team, who bring that outside interests such as football and gardening into daily activities enriching the children's learning experiences.

At Spring Blaydon, we believe in the importance of healthy work-life balance and prioritise the well-being and enjoyment of our staff. If you have a genuine love for working with children and a desire to make a direct and positive impact on their young lives, we encourage you to apply.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and proactive Deputy Manager to assist in leading our team at Spring Blaydon to provide a safe, caring, fun and stimulating environment. Our Managers provide the highest standard of leadership to their teams and are supported to develop their leadership skills and abilities throughout their career with us.

Your Leadership Journey

We value our people and as a leader in our family you will be supported to be the best leader you can be. You will follow our 12-month flagship leadership development programme and also have access to funding to complete a management and leadership qualification while you are working with us – helping you to fulfil your potential and develop your leadership career with us. See our career progression map for more information on our roles.

What we need from you

Our successful candidate will have an enthusiastic and pro-active mindset with a positive attitude and have the ability to assist in leading a team to form strong and supportive relationships with the parents, children and the team. Our Job Description outlines the requirements of the role, but the ‘must haves' are:

Minimum level 3 qualification in Childcare or Early Years.
Leadership or management experience, in a childcare setting.
Experience of working in a senior role within a nursery setting or centre working with children aged 0 to 5 years and their families.
Knowledge and understanding of the EYFS, Ofsted requirements and relevant current legislation.
Understanding of child protection processes, safeguarding and working with vulnerable children.
Commitment to inclusive and non-discriminatory working practice with children, families, colleagues and the community.

Whether this is a career change for you or the next step in your journey, we'd love to hear from you.

We work together to reach our mission to give children a healthy start in life.

Good luck! We can't wait to hear from you.

Contact: If you need support with your application, please contact our Recruitment Team at RecruitmentService@actionforchildren.org.uk quoting the above Reference 11785

We'll be happy to give you any support you require.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion

At Spring Oscars we're dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. We actively encourage applications from Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic and disabled candidates as they are under-represented within the organisation. We want to take deliberate and purposeful action to ensure equal opportunity to all groups.

Male staff are often under-represented within this sector, and we would like to encourage more male applicants for our roles.

We are committed to safer recruitment practices to protect our service users; therefore, all applicants are expected to have an understanding of and commitment to safeguarding best-practice.

Don't meet every single requirement?

If you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't align perfectly with the job description, we'd love you to apply anyway. You might just be the perfect person for this role, or another role within the Action for Children family.

Application Process

Please note we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.

There are 5 sections for you to complete - Personal Details, CV, Supporting Statement & Information, Equality & Diversity, Submission & Declaration – please refer to the Job Description when applying.

We also want to know what unique qualities you can bring to help us reach our vision for children and families. 

Talent Pool: We're sure you've got what it takes to join our ambitious team. If you're unsuccessful this time around, we'd like to hold your details in case similar jobs come up that you might be better suited for. But feel free to let us know if you'd rather we didn't do that.

Want to know more about Spring and Oscars?

Check out our socials on X (Twitter), Linkedin, Facebook or Youtube.

See below for further information about working with us:

Employee Reward Booklet

Spring Early Years Career Pathway

Job Description