Are you an experienced nursery manager with a passion for leadership, mentoring, and driving operational success? Happy Days Nurseries is looking for a Nursery Support Manager to work across our growing group of settings in the East Sussex and Kent area.

This full-time, permanent role is an exciting opportunity to make a meaningful impact by guiding nursery teams, ensuring compliance, and supporting managers in all aspects of daily operations.

What you will be doing:

As Nursery Support Manager you will provide short, or long-term cover while maintaining high standards of care and education. You will ensure your designated settings comply with company policies, EYFS standards, Welfare Requirements, OFSTED guidelines, Health and Safety regulations, and other legislative requirements. Your expertise will be invaluable in assisting managers with various aspects of nursery operations, including debt management, parent concerns, investigations, disciplinary procedures, and grievance meetings.

Beyond management cover, your role will focus on mentorship and development. You’ll support managers with OFSTED preparation, staff induction, probation reviews, and training plans, ensuring teams are equipped to provide outstanding childcare. You’ll help nurseries build strong and stable teams by supporting staff retention and succession planning. Additionally, your business acumen will play a vital role in sales and marketing activities, admissions, cost management, and financial planning to keep settings thriving.

You will collaborate with all departments and contribute to key ad-hoc projects alongside the Early Years Operations Manager, offering invaluable expertise and guidance. A key part of this role is championing our SHINE Values, fostering a positive and professional environment across all settings.

Who we’re looking for:

We are looking for candidates with management experience in a nursery group, a track record of supporting teams, and budget management skills. A Level 3 Early Years qualification is essential, along with a strong understanding of childcare operations, financial considerations, and business decision-making. You should be highly organised, proactive, and confident in implementing company policies while ensuring compliance. Strong IT skills, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities are also vital.

Why work for Happy Days:

We offer a competitive salary of up to £45,000 per annum, plus a car allowance, alongside an evolving range of employee benefits.

Our already generous annual leave is topped up with gifted days over Christmas.

We invest in your professional development with ongoing training and career advancement opportunities, and our teams help create an innovative culture with a strong growth mindset.

Our teams, whether in our nurseries or our support centre SHINE, they ensure we are delivering outstanding childcare to every child in our settings every day, this helps to make Happy Days a great place to work. By ensuring we are always recruiting, retaining and promoting a diverse mix of colleagues, who are representative of the communities within which our nurseries sits gives us the best opportunity to continue to deliver outstanding childcare

“Happy Days Nurseries are committed to the safety and wellbeing of the children in our care, as such the successful post holder will be required to undergo a robust vetting process, including an enhanced DBS Check and Reference History Checks”