Babyzone Operations Officer - Barnet

Job Description

Operations Officer - Babyzone Barnet

• 8:10am to 3:00pm on Thursdays in term time
• £11.95 per hour – London Living Wage
• Based at Unitas Youth Zone Barnet, 76 Montrose Avenue, Edgware, London, HA8 0DT
• Reporting to the Head of Babyzone Barnet

About Babyzone:

Babyzone is a brand-new charity which aims to support parents with children in the early years, aged 0 to 5 years. We are focused on removing barriers that many parents face in accessing high quality early years provision.

Babyzone's are made up of soft play and evidence-based early years classes, one day a week in a clean, safe and welcoming environment. We design our approach around the needs of families who may not otherwise be able to access this support, but are open to all. Parents and carers do not sign up in advance, there is no timetable, no charge and we do not ask for any names or personal details. We believe that by removing barriers we are creating a fully accessible, inclusive place for parents and carers to bring their children to talk, read, sing and play together. We welcome 150+ families each week in Babyzone Barnet.

The role:

The Babyzone Operations Officer is the face of Babyzone for our families and is responsible for ensuring that the set up and operations of the Babyzone run smoothly throughout the day.

Key activities:

• Setting up and packing away Babyzone each Thursday. This will include preparing the space by moving furniture, adjusting the layout to meet the needs of the families and ensuring that the space is clear of any hazards.
• Supporting the external class leads to bring in all of the equipment from the storage container that is required to deliver the Babyzone each week
• Supporting with the set up and packing away of the exploratory areas/soft play areas/bouncy castle and overseeing these areas during the day (making sure there is no food or shoes on the mats, keeping the space tidy, safe and free of hazards)
• Setting up and maintaining additional elements such as water jugs, a book corner and ensuring easy access to buggy parking and the baby-changing facilities.
• Personally welcoming each family to Babyzone, engaging with families and their children throughout the day, facilitating relationships, building community and signposting to local services
• Capturing family numbers by entering basic postcode data into a tablet as families depart Babyzone
• Acting as a point of contact and problem solver for any issues during the day that are raised by families or class leaders to ensure the smooth running of the Babyzone.
• Welcoming external stakeholders to Babyzone
• Championing the Babyzone ethos and mission
• Meeting regularly with the Head of Babyzone Barnet and Barnet team to share good practice

Your skills and experience:

• You must love engaging with all families and young children
• Understand and care about Babyzone’s mission
• Be motivated and committed to the Babyzone principles and show sensitivity to the needs of the families who visit Babyzone
• Be energetic and proactive, remaining calm under pressure
• Value and support everyone who comes into contact with Babyzone with an awareness of, and commitment to equal opportunities, equality and diversity
• Have an awareness of the importance of safeguarding children and understand that this is the responsibility of everyone
• Be comfortable with the physical demands of moving furniture around and be up for the challenge of a quick set up and close down process.
• Work effectively as part of a team
• Have excellent verbal communication skills

Babyzone will offer:

• Safeguarding training and DBS check
• Training and development opportunities

The application process

Babyzone is currently delivered in three areas of London which have high rates of poverty and diversity. Our ambition to grow means that we will increasingly work in other areas of the country that also have high rates of poverty and diversity. As a result Babyzone want to begin our journey as a charity from a position where our team fully reflects the diversity and lived experiences of the communities within which we work. We strongly encourage applications from under-represented groups.

We are focused on making our Babyzone's a welcoming, fully accessible, safe and inclusive place for all families to come. Babyzone won’t take a different approach to how we recruit for and treat our staff.

To apply, please submit a CV and covering letter.

Please keep your covering letter to a maximum of 1 side of A4 and cover the following topics:

1. Outline you motivation for the role
2. How your skills and experience fit with the skills and experience we have set out for this role
3. What would you bring the role of Operations Officer at Babyzone?