Sufficiency Officer
Team: School Readiness and Childcare Team
Job Family: Enabling - CBG9
Salary: £34,811 - £37,562 per annum, pro rata
Hours: 37 hours per week
Location: You will be expected to attend a CBC office location as often as needed to carry out your role, which will be no less than once per month.
Contract Type: Hybrid – Secondment until 31st March 2027
Closing Date: 16th August 2026
Interview Date: w/c 24th August 2026
About the role
Come and join us on our journey to expand Early Years and Wraparound provision, to enable all children to access high quality childcare and early education provision close to home. Become part of our 0-12’s Family Service working alongside our Children’s Centres and Early Years SEND Team as well as a whole range of partners to ensure all children have the best start in life and make progress in early education.
We are seeking a Childcare Sufficiency Officer to support us in achieving accessible childcare, early education and wraparound places for all children, including those with SEND, in our area.
You will be a confident communicator and have experience of gathering and collating information. Day to day you will be responsible for monitoring of available places and working with the wider team to create places in areas where there is demand. As part of your role you will lead on our annual Childcare Sufficiency Assessment, collecting data from early years/wraparound providers and parents/carers and working with the wider team to support us in planning for the future.
You will need strong self-organisation skills and be able to think creatively in relation to problem solving around supply and demand of childcare and early education places. You will be joining an established and stable team of childcare development officers and early years professionals and will have the opportunity to develop and lead on areas of interest relating to the role.
Join us, and you'll enjoy attractive benefits plus excellent in-house training. This includes specialist courses covering specific areas of interest. Even better, you'll find your greatness by ensuring that every child is happy, safe and well.
At Central Bedfordshire we're passionate about having a workforce that reflects our community. It's why we're committed to creating equal opportunities, so that we always embrace diversity.
Our Offer
We have a number of rewards and benefits available to our staff, to view these please visit our Rewards and Benefits page
Our aspiration is to be a truly flexible employer. We welcome discussion on location, hours and working pattern as part of the application process.
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You will be expected to demonstrate how you meet the key accountabilities and competencies in this Recruitment PRecruitment Pack.ack.
Our Competency Framework and Qualification Guidance are to be read in conjunction with our Recruitment Pack.
For an informal discussion about this position please contact: Fiona Greatorex, School Readiness and Childcare Manager email: fiona.greatorex@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
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Safeguarding:
Central Bedfordshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all employees, volunteers and contractors to share this commitment. This post is subject to the disclosure of criminal records.
To maintain a fair and consistent approach for applicants, it is Central Bedfordshire Council's policy to only consider applications made via our online application system and we therefore thank you for not submitting your application offline.
Our National Careers Service team offer a free monthly workshop covering CV writing and how to complete the statement sections of the Central Bedfordshire Council online application form. This MS Teams workshop is open to anyone from the UK and lasts around 1.5 hours. Please book your place here.
More information about this service can be found here: Support getting into work or learning | Central Bedfordshire Council
Please note we are unable to offer sponsorship for our roles. Successful applicants that may require a visa will need to consider the options for obtaining and/or maintaining the legal right to live and work in the UK for the duration of the contract offered.
All new starters will join us on a four‑month probationary period. During this time, if you are offered a Hybrid role you will be required to attend a Central Bedfordshire Council office location more frequently to support thorough and well‑supported onboarding into your role. Please keep this in mind if you anticipate extensive travel to Central Bedfordshire.