Best Start in Life Practitioner

We are looking for Best Start in Life Inclusion Practitioners to join Portsmouth's Best Start Family Hub network. This is an exciting role supporting babies, young children aged 0-5, and their families to access early, practical and inclusive support when children may have emerging needs, developmental differences or additional needs.

The Role

The role is about providing support early, building trusted relationships with families, and helping children and families access the right help at the right time. The support offered will be needs-led rather than diagnosis-led, meaning families can receive advice, guidance and practical help without needing to wait for a diagnosis or meet a referral threshold.

You will help ensure children with emerging or additional needs can access the full Best Start offer through Family Hubs, community settings and partner services. This will include supporting inclusion, identifying barriers to participation, strengthening access for underserved families and helping children make progress towards positive early outcomes, including communication, development and school readiness.

The postholder will work in partnership with existing services and will complement the established inclusion offer across Early Years, Family Hubs and community settings., The successful candidate will be committed to family-centred, strengths-based practice, promoting inclusion, reducing inequalities, and supporting families from diverse communities in a respectful and culturally responsive way.

Please ensure that you read the full job profile attached below for the details and expectations of this role, paying particular attention the section 'Who is the person' as you will need to refer to this when completing your Personal statement.

Working Arrangements:This role will be based in one of the city's family hubs, there is no hybrid working.

You will have a Level 3 qualification (or equivalent experience) and experience of working with children aged 0-5 and their families, including those with emerging or additional needs. You will have a good understanding of child development, safeguarding, inclusion, speech and language development, and early intervention.

The role requires strong communication and relationship-building skills, the ability to provide practical support and guidance to families, and experience of working collaboratively with partner organisations. You will be organised, adaptable, and confident working both independently and within a multi-agency environment.

We are a disability confident employer and have an Armed Forces Covenant. We are committed to offering an interview to all those candidates that qualify under one of our commitments and meet the minimum criteria, however, for roles that receive a large number of applications, this is not always possible, and we will select the candidates that best meet the minimum criteria.

You will need to demonstrate that you have the Right to Work in the UK. No post will be offered without it.

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Safeguarding

Portsmouth City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and young people, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Every post is subject to PCC and Portsmouth Safeguarding Children Partnership safer recruitment procedures.

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) at Standard/Enhanced level will be required prior to any offer of employment and this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Please read the relevant DBS