Health and Early Childhood Education Coordinator

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Tiny Totos is a Kenyan social enterprise which has been working since 2014 to improve informal daycares in slums.



We do this by partnering with private, informal daycare entrepreneuers and delivering training and investment designed to upgrade standards, foster business sustainability, and deliver improved care to children.



​We build on and enhance the wealth of local market demand and supply, and strike a balance between quality improvement and financial sustainability.

JOB SUMMARY

BackgroundTiny Totos (TT) is a Kenyan registered company pursuing a scalable and financially self-sustaining model for creating a network of standard-setting, independent preschool daycares for lower income working mothers.  We work with informal babysitters to transform them into profitable childcare entrepreneurs, ensuring that they provide affordable, safe and stimulating daycare services while enjoying growing profits from their business. We also work with institutions, government and companies to help them craft cost-effective childcare strategies that improve child outcomes and worker productivity levels alike. TT has doubled its network in the past year, expanding the number of staff it employs as well as its remit from Kenya to Ethiopia. In the year ahead, we anticipate further expansion, being now in the position to launch operations in Uganda as well as undertaking advisory work in Tanzania with childcare practitioners. In collaboration with the Child Impact Director, the Health and Early Childhood Education Coordinator (HEC) will lead implementation of the early learning content and programming and health and nutrition interventions. The Health and Education Coordinator will play an essential role in ensuring that standards of child safety and safeguarding, hygiene and sanitation, nutrition and early learning at the daycares is high and consistent to ensure that the children in the Tiny Totos network receive the best quality care.In order to meet and sustain standards of health, safety, sanitation and educational service during a period of rapid growth, the ideal candidate will need to ensure consistent coverage, access and standards of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and early learning at the daycare, coaching of childcare providers, and opportunities to improve engagement and understanding of health, nutrition and early childhood development across both daycare and parent networks.  The candidate will need to be hands on and involved to ensure that Tiny Totos’ field staff members understand how to best support and communicate with childcare providers and parents to ensure behaviour change that helps children to learn and flourish in low-income areas.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Indeed, as our model unfolds in low-income settings, within the broader context of a social enterprise intervention model that is creating not merely improved quality of care environments but also self-reliant, profitable care businesses in cash-strapped communities, the ideal candidate must also be practical and realistic in their approach to this position.  They will need to work not just with the health, nutrition and Early Childhood Education teams, but seamlessly with other colleagues and departments across the organization, understanding that health and early child education programming in this context can only be sustained if balanced alongside other social, business and livelihood considerations of the daycare providers and parents we work with.Location: Tiny Totos Buruburu Office; partner daycares and wherever else may be required Reports to: TT Child Impact DirectorThe core duties and responsibilities of the ECDE Coordinator are as follows:Primary responsibilities Program development and implementation:Oversee, and manage the timely delivery of age-appropriate curricula and educational activities across Tiny Totos daycare centers.Ensure all programs align with the latest early childhood education research and best practices.Ensure that the ECD team work to maintain a positive, nurturing, and stimulating learning environment in the daycares.Conduct regular health and safety assessments at daycare facilities and provide actionable recommendations.Organize health campaigns, such as immunization drives and nutrition workshops, in partnership with local health providers.Collaborate with Tiny Totos team leads to ensure daycares are maintaining standards of learning, quality of care and other expectations of the Tiny Totos balanced scorecard.Support in creating ECD content for training / filming.  Ensure managers see the value add of Early Childhood Development training and coaching for their daycare development and children at the daycare.  Support in reviewing monthly and quarterly field-based reports and ensure appropriate follow up and decision making on data relevant to Tiny Totos early learning and health programsImprove coordination of child health and early learning departments.2. Project Planning and Coordination:Manage and coordinate all activities under the health and early learning component across the implementation areas of the Tiny Totos modelFacilitate the implementation of monthly work plans for health and early learning programs in liaison with field-based staffSupport in organizing and coordinating review meetings with field-based staff on quarterly basisParticipate in relevant monthly technical working group meetings scheduled by government and / or ECD network.Develop and maintain project timelines for health, nutrition and ECD initiatives, ensuring on-time completion of deliverables.  This includes: timely preparation and circulation of the quarterly learning pack, timely collection of growth monitoring and developmental assessments, timely distribution of report cards, timely planning and implementation of health campaigns and more.Work with team-leads to plan and execute health and ECD projects, ensuring alignment with TT goals.Monitor project progress and provide regular updates to the Child Impact Director and other key stakeholders.3.Staff training and development:Train, mentor, and support daycare owners and staff in health, safety and early childhood education principles and practices.Participate in trainings to improve health, safety and early learning  performance for daycare managers.Schedule, plan, and evaluate training programs for staff, ensuring consistent project timelines and quality outputs.Evaluate field staff performance and provide constructive feedback.4. Quality assurance and compliance:Ensure all daycare centers comply with Tiny Totos quality standards for health and early childhood education; improving network scores on quality assessments.Conduct regular site visits to assess program quality and provide guidance for improvements.Maintain accurate records of daycare coaching activities and staff development.Facilitate supportive supervision to field based teamsFacilitate and lead in the quarterly assessments of field staff using the approved scorecard5.Monitoring and Evaluation:Monitor the progress of health and ECD projects and initiatives, and collaborate with the data team to analyze data to ensure daycares meet quality standards and TT goals.Present detailed project reports, including lessons learned and recommendations for health and ECD initiatives, including, but not limited to theme pack training, deep dive trainings, community learning workshops, and report cards.  In collaboration with field-based team and data team contribute to documentation and dissemination of lessons learned and best practicesWork in collaboration with field-based teams in development of case studies and success stories on a monthly basis. Facilitate data review meetings with health and education teams on a monthly basis reviewing periodic progress against prioritized key performance indicators in child health and developmental milestones.6.Family and community engagement:Act as primary point of contact for parents on all issues related to health, nutrition and ECD.Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including the Mentorship and Leadership Lead, to plan parent meetings and events within established timelines and budget constraints.Address parent concerns and provide resources to support children’s development at home. Ensure appropriate and consistent health related and education related messaging to key partners including: daycare managers and parents.7. Resource management:Provide strategic management of the Tiny Totos Resource centre, ensuring educational materials, supplies, and resources effectively stimulate children and are in line with the theme packs, learning outcomes and are age appropriate. Develop and manage budgets for educational programs and initiatives.Establish and monitor satellite resource centres in new zones / counties of operation.Secondary responsibilities Support the Child Impact Director in analysis of development assessments to improve ECDE programming across the network; and growth monitoring assessments to improve nutritional programming.Identify, report, and troubleshoot where possible challenges or obstacles preventing field efficiencies.Experience & personal qualities: Education: Diploma or Bachelor’s degree in Public Health, Food Nutrition and Dietetics, Early Childhood Development, Education, Social Work or related field. Bachelor’s preferredExperience: Minimum of 2 years of experience in project management position.Skills:Strong understanding of early childhood development principles and practices.Excellent project management and team management skills.Effective communication and interpersonal skills.Instructional coaching/mentorship experience.Strong organizational and problem-solving abilities.Passionate about public health, early childhood education and child development; and making the wellbeing of the children at the daycare a key priority.Strong interpersonal skills, with a genuine interest in supporting children and families.Experience working in low-income settings and in social enterprises a distinct advantage.Proactive, with a commitment to continuous improvement.Skilled verbal and presentation communication skills in both Kiswahili and English.Excellent organisational skills, flexibility and an ability to prioritise.  A team player who can work well with colleagues from different backgrounds.Ability to represent Tiny Totos to the public, meetings at all times in a dignified, articulate manner.Working Conditions: Flexibility to work weekends as needed to attend parent meetings and TT events.  Any weekend time required is compensated. 

REQUIRED SKILLS

Team leadership, Public health, Training program planning, Project preparation and planning, Project implementation, Project management, Project monitoring and evaluation (M&E), Budgeting, financial planning

REQUIRED EDUCATION

Bachelor's degree