We put people before profit: work for a family of nurseries with heart
London Early Years Foundation, LEYF for short, is the UK’s largest childcare social enterprise with a family of 40 nurseries across London. Together with families and communities, we give London’s children ? especially those most in need ? the best start in life, by providing access to high-quality Early Years Education and care.
What’s in it for you?
“I am excited about our new Health, Safety and Environment Manager role as bringing this in-house will enhance the team who look after our buildings, gardens and outdoor spaces” – Marion, Compliance Manager.
- Significant opportunity to create and shape this role as it’s brand new for LEYF
- You get to do your specialism in a purpose-driven organisation
- Flexible locations within London - field based working between home, central office, and mostly in our nurseries
- Opportunity to work with all levels in the organisation; our Executive Management Team, budget holders, Finance & lead the H&S committee
- Generous pension for our sector at 7% from us (1% from you)
- 70% discount on childcare fees for your children or grandchildren
- Up to 35 days off a year, including 8 bank holidays, 3 days off between Christmas and New Year, and your birthday
- Sector-leading parental leave
- Many other benefits that take care of you, including access to the Wellbeing app, shopping discounts, annual conference, and budget for team celebrations
A bit about the role
“This role is a fantastic opportunity to drive health and safety improvements at all levels of our growing social enterprise.” Mike, Director of Operations.
We have c900 employees across 40 settings who work hard to make a difference to children and their life chances. 75% of our nurseries are in deprived areas of London with a large social purpose agenda. Our Health, Safety and Environment Manager role is pivotal to LEYF as you will create and drive the Health & Safety strategy, ensuring a positive and safe environment for all employees and our children across all our sites. The position is an excellent opportunity to combine your expertise in Health and Safety with a wish to contribute to a meaningful cause.
LEYF is expanding, and we're looking to bring our Health & Safety strategy and implementation in-house. We're seeking an experienced and pragmatic professional with the credibility to lead this important function. Your ability to influence change, drive the agenda, and engage stakeholders in a personable, effective manner will be crucial to your success. You’ll report straight into the Director of Operations (our nurseries) and should feel confident working across all levels of the organisation. From executive and board leaders to the dedicated teams on our sites, you all work together to improve children's life chances. For this role you will require, either a IOSH or NEBOSH qualification as your work will directly affect the health, safety and wellbeing of employees, children, and the broader LEYF community. This role is particularly varied as you get to drive the H&S agenda and culture of safety for both our current and future sites. Ideally, this person also brings some knowledge of H&S and building regulations for new or refurbished sites.
You will work across all 40 nursery sites, leading, coaching and collaborating with all levels of the business and external partners, ensuring that best practices are consistently applied. You will chair the Health & Safety Committee, leading key discussions and driving improvements that will shape the future of our health and safety policies.
Key Responsibilities
- Oversee and manage all aspects of H&S within LEYF, from risk assessments and fire safety to emergency planning and reporting, ensuring our locations remain safe and compliant
- Collaborate with teams at all levels to champion a culture of Health & Safety (H&S), focusing on safety behaviours and individual responsibility
- Develop and implement H&S plans, ensuring legal compliance, drive strategic development and delivering impactful training to staff at all levels
- Conduct regular site visits to assess compliance with H&S procedures and identify areas for improvement
- Support with the due diligence process for acquisitions, ensuring premises meet building regulations
- Organise and lead quarterly Health and Safety Committee meetings, preparing data, delivering key insights and reports to the Executive Management Team & our Board of Trustees
- Meet quarterly with H&S officers across the organisation, sharing key updates and changes to legislations
- Ensure that all our people comply with H&S legislation, creating a safe and thriving environment for everyone
What we’re looking for
- You need to be highly credible and passionate so worked in Health & Safety Management
- Ideally you have already worked in a purpose-led organisation – or this be a passion of yours
- You hold either a IOSH or NEBOSH qualification
- You like taking ownership as you will be the H&S department here at LEYF
- Your ability to collaborate and be a friendly team player will also be key
- Adaptable, pragmatic and solutions focused
- Strong stakeholder business partnering skills with the ability to influence all levels of the organisation
- Highly organised and maintains spot-on attention to detail even when working to tight deadlines
- Ability to analyse data and then convert and communicate it simply
- You love being field based, flexing between our sites and if you wish working a day a week from home.
- You need the permanent right to work in the UK.
Interested? Please apply.
If you have the qualification, worked at this level in Health & Safety before and have some of the above and a lot of ability to learn quickly, we would also like to hear from you.
To be consider for the role, please send your cv and ideally a covering statement of motivation for the role & LEYF to [email protected] Please note, we will run interviews on a rolling basis as and when applications come in. So don’t delay, apply now!