Childcare Lawyer – BHCC

Sussex Law Society; Hove; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

Brighton & Hove City Council is seeking a childcare lawyer for the Local Authority child protection team. The role requires smart, quick thinking, strong relationship-building and teamwork. You will run a caseload of child protection cases and advise social workers, ensuring polished Court submissions.

The role offers strong support and no cost targets, within an award-winning team. Applicants must be legally entitled to conduct litigation (Solicitor or Legal Executive with family law rights).

Qualifications

• Must be legally entitled to conduct litigation in family law.
• Experience in child protection law preferred but not required, at least some children law experience.
• You will run a caseload and present cases to Court.

Responsibilities

• Run a caseload of child protection cases and advise social workers.
• Present cases to Court in great shape with excellent support.

Skills

Child protection law

Litigation rights

Team collaboration

Education

Solicitor

Legal Executive with practising rights in family law

Job description

Lively and busy Local Authority child protection team are looking for a new childcare lawyer to join their team. Just like a Traitor, you’ll need to be smart, quick on your feet, build relationships with people and be a great team player. Unlike the Traitors though, we won’t be banishing anyone or doing missions involving helicopters.

You will be responsible for running a caseload of child protection cases, advising social workers and making sure that we present our cases to Court in great shape. You’ll have excellent support around you. No legal aid forms to complete, no cost targets to meet. We’re an award winning childcare team, in an award-winning legal team. We value quality and the people who provide that quality.

You must be legally entitled to conduct litigation – so either a Solicitor or a Legal Executive with practicing rights in family law. Ideally, you’ve got experience of child protection law but we’re looking for at least someone experienced in children law.

This role is permanant

Interviews to be held: Week Commencing 28 October 2026

There is full information about the role below and attached but, if you would like an informal discussion, please contact Andrew Pack [e-mail]

Encouraging a diverse workforce

Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it’s what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds.

Why work for us?

• be connected
• be confident
• be innovative and creative
• be diverse and inclusive
• be healthy and psychologically safe

For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.

AI advice for candidates

We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.

We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.

All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn’t give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.

Additional information

Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

Please note that this post is exempt from the rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and subject to a Disclosure & Barring service (DBS) Check

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.

Closing Date 18/10/2026

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