Communication & Language Early Years Practitioner

Halton is a vibrant local authority with a rich history and heritage, featuring three iconic bridges that connect communities across the River Mersey. Located in Cheshire, Halton boasts excellent transport links between Liverpool and Manchester, as well as close proximity to both Liverpool John Lennon and Manchester Airports.

Our progressive community strategy aims to bring about meaningful, long-term improvements that enhance lives. It’s an exciting time to join us as we develop new policies and transform the way people access services.

We are immensely proud that when asked what’s great about working for Halton, the most popular response from our workforce has been ‘our colleagues’.

Halton Family Hubs support children and young people from birth to age 19 (or up to 25 for young people with special educational needs and disabilities). Bringing together council, health and community services, Family Hubs ensure that children, young people and families can access the right support, at the right time, in the right place.

Our Family Hubs provide welcoming and inclusive spaces, both in local communities and through outreach services, where families can access practical, non-judgemental support. Services include maternity and health visiting support, early years development and play opportunities, family support, parenting programmes, speech and language development, emotional wellbeing support, and targeted help for children with disabilities, additional needs and their families.

An exciting opportunity has arisen to play a key role in delivering Halton's vision to improve outcomes for children and young people across the Borough by enhancing communication, speech and language skills from the earliest stages of development. Recognising the vital importance of early language acquisition in supporting children's learning, wellbeing and future life chances, Halton's Family Hubs are working in partnership with Speech and Language UK to develop and implement a range of innovative strategies, interventions and support pathways. These initiatives aim to empower parents, carers, early years practitioners and local communities to access, promote and deliver high-quality communication and language development opportunities for all children.

Hours: 37 per week based at Windmill Hill Children's Centre but will be required to work within other family hubs across the borough.

You will be highly motivated and an experienced early years practitioner with a passion for this area. ou will have experience in Wellcomm screening and other strategies to inform and support early language.

You will have the skills to influence and negotiate with a wide range or practitioners such as early years settings, childminders, Family Hubs, community venues to adopt Halton’s Speech and Language pathway and its embedded strategies, to build consistency in this area.

You will have a good understanding of how to early identify SEN needs and knowledge of the SEND pathways.

You will be an effective communicator and be confident to deliver training and participate in network events, in partnership with other colleagues.

You will be organised, can use own initiative where required and be able to manage own diary effectively. You will have a positive approach to teamwork, be a motivator and supportive.

Aside from working with a great team, our employees have access to a fantastic range of benefits, including:

• A generous annual holiday allowance starting at 34 days per year (including bank holidays), increasing with long service with the option to purchase an additional four-days of unpaid leave for our Annual Christmas Closedown
• Membership of our defined benefit, salary-linked Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) with generous employer contributions
• 3 x Salary Life Cover via Local Government Pension Scheme
• Investment in your personal development
• Free Car Parking at HBC sites
• Flexible working arrangements
• Extensive employee benefits platform including discounted shopping, car leasing, gym memberships, wellbeing hub and Employee Assistance Programme.
• Essential Monthly Car User Allowance

At Halton Borough Council, we want all of our candidates to feel well-informed so if you would like to have an informal chat about this role, please contact Clare Yearsley on 0151 511 7781.

Interviews will take place on w/c 14th September 2026

At Halton Borough Council we want to ensure that our communities are represented across our workforce and a vital part of this is to encourage diversity in all respects. We are committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and tailored to best suit the needs and strength of the individual. This includes making adjustments for people with a disability, neurodiversity or with long-term health conditions. If you require accommodations, please reach out during the recruitment process so that we can make this the best possible experience for you – resourcing@halton.gov.uk

Please refer to the attached Job Profile for further information about the role and our values.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier than the specified date should we receive sufficient applications. If you’re interested, please complete your application as early as possible.

We look forward to receiving your application!