Onboarding & Compliance Administrator

Onboarding & Compliance Administrator - Join a Growing, Values-Led Childcare Group

Hours: 40 Hours - Full-time (Long-Term Temporary)

Location: 1 day per week in Welwyn Garden City

Be Valued. Be Supported. Be You.

Family First is on a mission to become the number one quality childcare provider in the UK. Since starting out with just 4 nurseries in London in 2019, we've grown to over 95 nurseries across the country, without ever losing sight of what matters most: putting families, children and colleagues first.

We're looking for a proactive, detail-driven Onboarding & Compliance Administrator to join our Talent team on a long-term temporary basis. This is a safeguarding-critical role: you'll be the last line of defence making sure every new starter and apprentice joining Family First meets the rigorous compliance standards required to work safely with children.

Your Benefits

We believe great outcomes for children start with happy, supported teams. Here's what you'll enjoy:

• Hybrid Working: just 1 day per week in the Welwyn Garden City office, the rest from home
• Health & Wellbeing Support: confidential helpline and wellbeing resources
• Supportive Culture: a warm, collaborative team who live and breathe our INSPIRE values
• Company Pension

The Role

As Onboarding & Compliance Administrator, you'll own the safeguarding compliance journey for new starters and apprentices across our nursery network - this goes well beyond a standard two-reference check. You will:

• Process DBS applications and disclosures, ensuring checks are completed to Ofsted/EYFS safeguarding standards before start dates
• Proactively chase references, qualifications, right-to-work documents and other pre-employment checks, following up persistently rather than waiting for candidates or referees to respond
• Apply rigorous safeguarding vetting practices in line with Safer Recruitment principles
• Identify and escalate any compliance gaps, discrepancies or safeguarding concerns without delay
• Maintain audit-ready compliance records that would stand up to Ofsted or local authority scrutiny
• Liaise with hiring managers, Area Managers and candidates to keep onboarding on track and within agreed time-to-hire SLAs

About You

You're methodical, tenacious, and take safeguarding seriously - comfortable holding candidates and referees to account to get compliance over the line.

Essential:

• Proven experience in compliance and onboarding within the early years or education sector
• Proactive approach to chasing references and documentation - persistent, not passive
• Experience with DBS checks and safer recruitment / safeguarding vetting practices
• High attention to detail and comfortable working to strict deadlines
• Confident, professional communicator who isn't afraid to chase people repeatedly

Desirable:

• Working knowledge of EYFS safeguarding requirements or Ofsted compliance standards
• Experience using an ATS or HR/compliance system

Why Join Us?

This is a great opportunity to join a fast-growing group and do genuinely meaningful safeguarding work as part of our Talent team.

Family First is committed to safeguarding and protecting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Family First Nurseries takes great care to treat everyone as a person, with equal rights and responsibilities to any other individual, whether they are an adult or a child. We are committed to providing equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice for all children and families according to their individual needs. Discrimination on the grounds of gender, age, race, religion or belief, marriage or civil partnership, disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, pregnancy or maternity, ethnic or national origin, or political belief has no place within the Family First Group.