Job title: Deputy Head for Early Years
Employer: Wandsworth Early Years and Childcare
Location: Tooting, south London
Duties
My role is to deputise for the head of early years. This is a large department that covers the statutory and non-statutory advisory team, Sure Start programmes, the Children's Information Service, childminding development and the Training and Development team.
In recent years the department has been at the forefront of the Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative, the Children's Fund, children's centres and extended school initiatives.
In my job I oversee European Social Funded-projects such as Cool2Care, which aims to qualify 100 men as childcare professionals across seven London boroughs - a partnership with Jobcentre Plus that will lead to Level 3 qualifications for 20 New Deal lone parents.
One of my main responsibilities is to oversee the financial and budgeting operations of the department.
I'm also responsible for the introduction of quality standards for maintained and non-maintained settings, and improving qualifications linked to the workforce development strategy.
I oversee the annual training and bursary programme. The staff team I manage includes 20 teaching and non-teaching professionals.
Likes/dislikes
I like managing a diverse team and having direct contact with providers through training and advisory work. I also enjoy having control over the funding of projects to target resources most effectively and being part of a senior management team that oversees a borough-wide early years and childcare agenda with all its challenges and rewards.
It is an exciting time to be part of the national development of early years and childcare, but the speed of change and constant introductions of initiatives means there is often not enough time to fully evaluate the projects. It would be good to have more time to work with practitioners to develop strategic change.
Best achievement
Developing the Inuit Head Start project in the Arctic that trained and employed 100 per cent of Inuit community members to ensure that their cultural heritage, Inuk identity and Inukitut language were passed on to the next generation.
Training
I gained a degree in Early Childhood Education, with a double major in Management and Developmental Disabilities, in Canada, where I was born. I am studying for an MA in Management and Leadership in early years, at the London Metropolitan University. I also have a certificate in Small Business Management and a Diploma in Administration in Early Childhood Education.
Career path
Since graduating from university I've held a variety of posts, but I started in a managerial position. I worked in childcare settings throughout my time at university, which gave me valuable experience.
In my first post I was hired to set up workplace childcare for a large hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The setting catered for staff and patients and provided a diverse programme that operated for 13-hour days to meet the needs of shift workers, such as nurses. It also provided emergency care for patients and relatives of casualties.
I developed the early childhood programmes for a community health resource centre (similar to the current children's centre initiative) in Ottawa, Ontario.
I volunteered in Belize, Central America, with a voluntary sector organisation where I was a country pre-school policy adviser.
The aim was to assist the education minister in developing the country's pre-school policy linked to national education strategy. That is where I met my British partner and hence I'm now in the UK. I worked with the Inuit community in the Arctic and Ottawa, before and after my two years in Belize, co-ordinating the Inuit Head Start programme.
Advice
It's exciting that the Government is moving the national agenda forward in bringing the UK's early years and childcare workforce together as is the practice in much of Europe, North America and Australia, and New Zealand. I would encourage all practitioners to work towards a degree in early childhood and diversify your experiences.
Interests/hobbies
Buying and drinking good wine with friends who have a nose for it. Kayaking (less so in the London area), camping and generally being outdoors. I have enjoyed developing the little back yard that is now a sanctuary of peace and tranquillity for myself and the UK snail population.
For further information about Wandsworth's early years and childcare service, and Canada's Inuit communities, go to
* www.wandsworth.gov.uk
* www.ontarioinuit.ca
