Operations Manager - Innovative Outdoor Nursery

Little Forest Folk are looking for an experienced Operations Manager to support the leadership team and partner with the existing Operations Manager.

The Little Forest Folk’s Operations Manager role is one for a passionate, organised and driven person who will take on assisting the managing directors and nursery management teams to ensure the ongoing provision of high quality outdoor early childhood education.

The ideal candidate will have worked in a similar style role before within the education sector, have a minimum Level 3 Early Years qualification (or equivalent) and ideally have outdoor learning/forest school experience. The successful candidate will be self-motivated and proactive in approach and must be passionate about working for a fast-growing organisation, as well as have excellent communication skills, effective priority management, and a friendly, approachable manner. It is desirable that the successful candidate has a full driving licence and owns a vehicle in order to fully support nurseries in this role.

The Role

To support and maintain the successful running of existing Little Forest Folk sites:

• Lead, manage, inspire and motivate nursery managers and leadership team to provide high quality care and education for children in each nursery.

• Visit and audit nursery sites, both pre-arranged and ‘on the spot’, as well as attending meetings/training at each site.

• Arrange and run management/leadership meetings.

• Oversee purchases, budgets and ordering for the nurseries.

• Work in partnership with the HR team to effectively manage staffing issues such as disciplinaries, absences, recruitment, performance management.

• Ensure all Little Forest Folk policies and procedures are understood and adhered to.

• Ensure the safety and wellbeing of children, families and staff is prioritised.

• Support managers with any queries/complaints from families or staff, ensuring they are dealt with in a timely manner.

To oversee the full cycle of new nursery site development:

• Working with the Senior Management Team in the scouting of potential new sites, including liaising with appropriate parties, risk assessments, costing, logistics.

• Liaising with Councils, Local Authorities and other land owners to negotiate the use of new sites.

• Support the management team with contract negotiations, Ofsted registration and inspections and integration with the Local Authority.

• To regularly review all policies and procedures relating to nursery management, amending and updating for new settings as appropriate.

• To set up all back office systems for new sites, including children and staff files, record keeping, risk assessments, DBS lists, training schedules, assessment on entry and two year checks.

• The recruitment, design of induction process, on-boarding and training of new staff teams: ensuring they are compliant with all policies and procedures, rota setting, able to use FAMLY and other online learning journey tools/IT in line with company policy and are clear on - and modelling the values of Little Forest Folk in everything they do.

• Working with the Administration team to ensure a smooth introduction to new nurseries for parents and children, including communications, organising Open Days, Orientation Days and Settling In sessions.

• To create and purchase other assets that aid the set up of new sites, such as welcome videos, resources etc.

• Any other activities reasonably required for the role.

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  Locations: 7 nursery sites across south west London, office location Morden

  Salary: £35,000 - £37,500, dependent upon experience

  To apply please send your CV and a covering letter explaining why you would like to join our exciting venture

  To learn more about what we do at Little Forest Folk, feel free to find us on Facebook www.facebook.com/littleforestfolk or try browse our website www.littleforestfolk.com. Should you have any questions about the role, we'd love to hear from you!