Regional Director -Early Years- South West

Regional Director

Senior Operational Leadership – South Wes

Job Purpose

The Regional Director is a senior operational leader with full accountability for the performance of an allocated region of 12 nurseries. The postholder directly leads up to 12 Nursery Managers and a Curriculum and Practice Lead, creating a clear regional leadership structure that combines strong operational grip with educational excellence.

The role is accountable for translating organisational strategy into consistently high-performing nursery operations. This includes quality and curriculum, safeguarding, regulatory compliance, people performance, occupancy, revenue, staffing costs, parent experience and sustainable financial contribution.

Working in partnership with the CQOO and central support functions, the Regional Director will identify risk early, intervene decisively where performance is off track and build capable, accountable Nursery Managers who can deliver strong and sustainable results. The role models and embeds the organisational values of Accountable, Reliable, Caring and Honest (ARCH).

Scope and Accountability

• Hold end-to-end operational accountability for up to 12 nurseries within the allocated region.

• Provide direct line management, coaching, performance management and professional challenge to up to 12 Nursery Managers.

• Line manage the regional Curriculum and Practice Lead, ensuring educational priorities are translated into measurable improvements in practice and children’s experiences.

• Operate as Regional Directors, leading the South West working collaboratively with the other Regional Director to achieve consistency, share intelligence and deliver group-wide priorities.

• Maintain regular visibility across nurseries, balancing strategic regional leadership with sufficient on-site presence to understand performance, culture, risk and operational reality.

Main Areas of Responsibility

1. Senior Operational Leadership

• Lead the operational performance of regional nurseries, setting clear expectations and ensuring Nursery Managers deliver agreed standards and KPIs.

• Translate organisational priorities into a focused regional operating plan with measurable actions, milestones, owners and timescales.

• Maintain a strong operational grip through regular performance reviews, nursery visits, data analysis, risk assessment and follow-through on agreed actions.

• Identify underperformance early and lead rapid, proportionate intervention to restore quality, compliance, leadership stability or commercial performance.

• Ensure operational systems, routines and controls are consistently implemented and support managers to focus on the areas that have the greatest impact.

• Lead responses to significant incidents, complaints, regulatory concerns and inspection outcomes, ensuring appropriate escalation, pace and organisational learning.

• Create consistency across the region while recognising the individual context, market and development needs of each nursery.

2. Leadership of Nursery Managers

• Provide high-quality line management to Nursery Managers through structured one-to-ones, supervision, performance reviews, coaching and clear accountability.

• Set stretching but achievable expectations for quality, occupancy, workforce, parent experience, compliance and financial performance.

• Develop Nursery Managers as confident business and educational leaders who understand their data, anticipate risk and take ownership of improvement.

• Address weak performance promptly and fairly, using clear improvement expectations and formal processes where required.

• Build succession plans and leadership pipelines across the region, identifying high-potential colleagues and reducing reliance on reactive recruitment.

• Promote a culture of high support and high challenge in which leaders are empowered to make decisions and are accountable for their outcomes.

3. Curriculum, Practice and Quality

• Line manage and set priorities for the Curriculum and Practice Lead, ensuring their work is targeted towards the settings and practice areas where it will have the greatest impact.

• Ensure the organisation’s curriculum and pedagogical expectations are consistently understood and implemented across regional nurseries.

• Use audits, deep dives, learning walks, practice observations, inspection findings, parent feedback and performance data to identify regional themes and improvement priorities.

• Ensure every nursery is continuously inspection-ready, with improvement embedded into everyday leadership rather than driven by reactive preparation.

• Challenge variation in the quality of teaching, interactions, environments, room leadership and curriculum implementation, ensuring action is timely and measurable.

• Work with the CQOO, Curriculum and Practice Lead and other specialists to ensure quality improvement activity is coherent and aligned with organisational strategy.

4. Safeguarding, Compliance and Risk

• Maintain strategic oversight of safeguarding culture and practice across the region, ensuring concerns are escalated and acted upon with urgency and professional curiosity.

• Ensure nurseries consistently meet EYFS and/or Welsh National Minimum Standards requirements, Ofsted/CIW expectations, health and safety requirements, safer recruitment standards and organisational policies.

• Maintain a clear regional risk picture covering safeguarding, compliance, staffing, leadership, quality, complaints, premises and commercial performance.

• Work closely with the Safeguarding and Inclusion Lead and other specialists on complex cases, emerging themes and preventative action.

• Ensure learning from incidents, complaints, audits and regulatory activity is translated into improved systems and practice across the region.

5. Commercial and Financial Performance

• Own regional performance against occupancy, revenue, staffing cost, EBITDA and controllable expenditure targets.

• Ensure Nursery Managers understand and actively manage their nursery budgets, forecasts, occupancy pipeline, staffing deployment and cost base.

• Use data to identify commercial risks and opportunities and require clear recovery or growth plans where performance is below expectation.

• Drive sustainable occupancy growth through strong parent experience, local reputation, enquiry conversion and effective partnership with Customer Success and marketing functions.

• Ensure staffing models are safe, compliant and efficient, balancing children’s needs, quality and financial sustainability.

• Control discretionary and capital expenditure in line with approved budgets and business cases.

6. People, Culture and Workforce

• Build stable, engaged and accountable nursery leadership teams and ensure workforce planning supports current and future operational needs.

• Monitor turnover, absence, vacancies, agency use, training compliance and employee relations trends, taking regional action where themes emerge.

• Work collaboratively with People and Culture and Training and Development to ensure recruitment, onboarding, capability building and CPD are aligned with regional priorities.

• Support Nursery Managers with complex people matters while ensuring ownership remains at the appropriate leadership level.

• Champion ARCH values and create a culture where high standards, care, professional curiosity and accountability are visible in everyday leadership.

7. Regional Intelligence, Reporting and Collaboration

• Provide the CQOO with concise, evidence-based reporting on regional performance, risks, trends, actions and required decisions.

• Analyse nursery and regional data to identify patterns rather than treating issues as isolated site-level events.

• Work closely with the Regional Director for the other region to calibrate standards, share effective practice and ensure consistent application of organisational expectations.

• Collaborate effectively with central teams including Finance, People and Culture, Safeguarding and Inclusion, Customer Success, Estates and Training and Development.

• Build constructive relationships with regulators, local authorities and external partners and represent the organisation professionally.

8. Growth and Organisational Development

• Support acquisitions, due diligence, TUPE transfers, integrations and new nursery openings, ensuring operational readiness, cultural alignment and quality integration.

• Lead or contribute to strategic projects that improve operational effectiveness, service quality, leadership capability and sustainable growth.

• Support the development of group-wide systems and frameworks by bringing evidence and learning from regional operations.

Key Performance Indicators

• Quality outcomes: 100% of nurseries at Expected Standards/Good, with 50% achieving Strong Standards/Excellent, particularly in Leadership and Quality of Care/Curriculum.

• Curriculum implementation: consistent delivery evidenced through audits, deep dives and practice review.

• Compliance: 100% compliance with Ofsted/CIW, safeguarding, health and safety and organisational requirements.

• Mandatory training: 100% completion, including refresh cycles, with appropriate engagement in CPD pathways.

• Leadership: stable Nursery Manager leadership, effective succession plans and demonstrable improvement in leadership capability.

• Turnover: regrettable turnover below 16% and overall turnover below 25%.

• Occupancy: average regional occupancy of 80%+.

• Revenue: achievement of budgeted revenue and growth targets.

• Staffing costs: maintained within agreed budget parameters, with a target of 52.5% subject to site size and operating model.

• EBITDA: meet or exceed the agreed regional contribution.

• Controllable spend: maintained within agreed budget tolerances, including food, resources and consumables.

• Capital expenditure: aligned to approved business cases and organisational priorities.

• Underperforming settings: measurable improvement delivered within agreed timescales.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

Essential

• Senior multi-site operational leadership experience, ideally within early years, education, care or another regulated service environment.

• Proven experience of directly leading and developing a substantial team of site or service managers.

• Demonstrable success in improving operational, quality and commercial performance across multiple locations.

• Strong commercial acumen, including budgets, forecasting, occupancy/revenue management, staffing costs and data analysis.

• Strong knowledge of EYFS and early years regulatory expectations, including Ofsted and/or CIW, safeguarding and health and safety.

• Ability to interpret complex performance information, identify themes and translate analysis into clear operational action.

• Strong coaching, performance management, change leadership and stakeholder management skills.

• Credibility and resilience to lead through challenge, hold senior managers to account and make sound decisions at pace.

• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to produce clear senior-level reports and recommendations.

Desirable

• Experience of acquisitions, integrations, new openings or significant organisational growth.

• Experience working across both English and Welsh regulatory contexts.

• Experience leading curriculum, pedagogy or quality improvement through specialist team members.

Qualifications

• Level 5 qualification or above desirable.

• Leadership and Management qualification desirable.

• Designated Safeguarding Lead and Safer Recruitment training, or willingness to complete.

• IOSH Leading Safely, or willingness to complete.

Role Profile

This is a senior, highly visible operational leadership role. Success will be demonstrated through strong Nursery Managers, consistent quality and curriculum implementation, robust compliance, early identification of risk, improved commercial performance and a region that can sustain high standards without dependency on constant central intervention.

Why Work for Us: Senior Leadership Roles

At Family Adventures Group, senior leadership is about more than managing performance. It is about shaping an organisation with a clear purpose: Empowering the Generations of Tomorrow.

You will join us at an exciting stage of growth, with the opportunity to influence our strategy, strengthen our culture and make a meaningful difference to children, families, colleagues and communities.

As a senior leader, you can expect:

• The autonomy to lead with purpose and make decisions that create measurable impact.

• The opportunity to shape organisational strategy, standards and future growth.

• A visible role within a values-led organisation built around being Accountable, Reliable, Caring and Honest, our ARCH values.

• A supportive and collaborative senior leadership team.

• The opportunity to build high-performing teams and develop the next generation of leaders.

• Investment in leadership development, coaching and professional growth.

• Recognition for your contribution through our reward, benefits and recognition programmes.

• A comprehensive benefits package designed to support your wellbeing, family, finances and career.

Our benefits are designed to support real life, recognise contribution, protect wellbeing and create opportunities for colleagues to learn, grow and build meaningful careers.

Family Adventures Group is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. All colleagues are expected to share this commitment. Appointment is subject to our safer recruitment procedures, including identity and Right to Work checks, satisfactory references, an Enhanced DBS check and relevant barred list check where required, and any other suitability checks applicable to the role.