Public Health Assistant Early Years

Job summary

We are recruiting for a Public Health Assistant to work alongside Health Visitors and Senior Public Health Assistants to support the delivery of services for children and families across Ashford.

Our Health Visiting Service delivers the Healthy Child Programme, supporting families with babies and children under five to achieve the best possible health and wellbeing outcomes. Working closely with parents, carers and partner organisations, we provide advice, guidance and practical support on a wide range of topics, including child development, healthy growth, breastfeeding, nutrition, immunisations, emotional wellbeing, parenting challenges, accident prevention and safeguarding.

As part of the Tunbridge Wells Health Visiting Team, you will be based in Tunbridge Wells, covering Paddock Wood and Cranbrook. You'll support children and families in their local communities, delivering clinics and services from children's centres and community venues.

This is a rewarding opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of local families while working as part of a passionate and dedicated public health team.

Interviews will be held on Wednesday 4th November 2026.

Please note, this vacancy does not meet the criteria for skilled worker sponsorship. Therefore, we are unable to accept applications from candidates that cannot provide documentary evidence of right to work in the United Kingdom.

Main duties of the job

You'll build positive relationships with families, providing practical support, health promotion and guidance to improve health and wellbeing outcomes.

Your day-to-day activities may include completing universal health and wellbeing reviews for children aged 9-12 months and 2-2 1/2 years, assessing development using the Ages and Stages Questionnaires, weighing and measuring babies and children, and supporting the delivery of Healthy Child Clinics.

You'll also provide information and advice to families, promote the importance of play and early learning, and signpost parents and carers to local services, children's centres, community organisations and support groups.

If you're passionate about working with families, enjoy meeting new people and want a role where every day brings variety and purpose, we'd love to hear from you.

About us

Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust is currently undertaking a significant programme of transformation to align our community services to the new Neighbourhood Model of care delivery, there will be a period of consultation which may result in changes affecting some services, teams or roles. Depending on the area you are applying to work in, this could include potential changes to your role, work base, reporting arrangements, or terms and conditions of employment. Any changes would be subject to consultation and managed sensitively and in line with relevant employment processes. Please do contact the recruiting manager if you have any concerns about this so they can answer any questions you might have.

Rated 'Outstanding' by CQC, we deliver high-quality care that improves the health of our communities. We are looking for people who share our values:Compassionate, Aspirational, Responsive and Excellent.

We are proud to be an inclusive, welcoming organisation and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We use protected characteristic information for monitoring only and it is not seen by recruiting managers, except where applicants choose to be considered under our disability guaranteed interview scheme.

We know life outside work matters. As a flexible working-friendly organisation, we welcome conversations about arrangements that help you thrive while supporting excellent care for our patients.

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Job responsibilities

As a community Trust, many of our roles require individuals to be able to drive to perform their duties. Where driving is a requirement of the role, you will be asked to confirm that you hold a full UK driving licence or a full driving licence issued by an EU country (not exchanged from a non-EU country) to proceed with your application. We are committed to supporting candidates with disabilities into employment. If you are unable to drive due to a disability, please contact the Recruitment Team via [email protected], quoting the vacancy reference number, so we can support you further.

The job description and person specification gives you all the information you need about this role. Please look carefully at the criteria in the person specification and tell us what you have done that shows you meet this in your application. If you need an application form in an alternative format please let our recruitment team know. All information you supply on your application should, to the best of your knowledge, be true and accurate.

Still have questions? The recruiting manager would love to hear from you, their contact details can be found in the job advert.

We can get a lot of applications for some roles so to be in with the best chance of being shortlisted please make sure you apply as soon as possible. A vacancy may close early if there is a lot of interest in the job.

At KCHFT we strongly encourage colleagues in clinical and non-clinical roles who have direct or social contact with patients to be fully vaccinated. In this way we will be doing all we can to ensure your safety and that of your colleagues and the patients we serve.

Find out more about the community difference here.

Good luck! We cant wait to meet you and welcome you to #teamKCHFT, #cometocommunity.

Person specification

Qualifications, training and experience

Essential

• You will have either: A Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) Level 3. This could be an NVQ Level 3 apprenticeship, BTEC or equivalent international qualification in healthcare. Or you will be able to demonstrate the equivalent level of experience.
• In addition you will also have Functional Skills at Level 2 (Literacy and numeracy/ GCSE grade A-C/ 4-9 or equivalent in English and Maths)
• You'll need to have recent experience of child development gained through education, work experience or previous employment.
• A full, valid UK driving licence or a full driving licence issued by an EU country

Desirable

• You may also have the Care Certificate, but if not, we will support you to achieve this within the first 3 months of starting

Knowledge and skills

Essential

• You will need to have a customer focussed approach
• Provide clients and their families with the best possible experience
• You will need to be able to be able to use IT systems and databases
• You will have knowledge of up to date clinical practice by using up- to- date skills and adhering to evidence based procedures and clinical effectiveness frameworks. You will fully understand the role and remit of a public health assistant
• You will know when you are within your own limits and when to escalate