Senior Childcare Lawyer

Bury Council; Bury; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A local government authority in Bury is seeking a Senior Childcare Solicitor to join their legal team. The role involves managing a varied caseload while advising children and young people's social care services. Candidates should have qualifications as a Barrister or Solicitor, along with strong communication and IT skills. This position offers a supportive work environment with opportunities for professional development and flexible working arrangements.

Benefits

Professional development opportunities

Agile working arrangements

Commitment to equal opportunities

Qualifications

• Extensive experience of handling a full personal caseload of legal matters.
• Methodical and can-do approach with deadlines including court timelines.
• Ability to work independently or as part of a team.

Responsibilities

• Manage a variety of legal matters advising social care colleagues.
• Provide input to the development of legal compliance policies.
• Collaborate closely with a dedicated legal officer.

Skills

Advocacy rights

Legal advice

Exceptional communication skills

IT literacy

Ability to work under pressure

Education

Qualification as a Barrister, Solicitor, or CIlex level 6

Tools

Case management systems

Outlook

Job description

Childcare Legal Team

Are you a legal professional looking for a challenging and rewarding role where you can use your skills to make a real difference? If so, we want to hear from you.

This is an exciting time to be joining Bury Council; a growing council and an equally growing legal services team, we are undertaking several exciting development plans across our six townships.

Bury Legal Services plays a vital role in supporting the council's vision for the borough, and we are looking for a Senior Childcare Solicitor to join our team and contribute to delivering high quality legal services to our several client departments

What you’ll be doing

As a Senior Childcare Solicitor, you will manage a variety of interesting and rewarding matters advising children & young people social care colleagues. You will also have the opportunity to provide significant input to the development and implementation of our legal compliance policies and procedures.

You will have the opportunity to manage an interesting, sometimes complex and always varied caseload, you will play a significant role in managing your caseload and also contributing substantially to the team. The team is a small but agile; it is a developing team where everyone works closely with each other to achieve our aims. You will work closely with a dedicated legal officer who will provide support.

Normal hours of work are 37 hours per week based around the usual business working week. Dependent on service requirements, you may be required to work on a rota basis.

At Bury Council, we are advocates of developing our teams, especially in terms of apprenticeships, and you will have an opportunity to progress and develop. We are an organisation that looks to promote collaborative working styles.

What our clients say about us

“Bury's legal team are integral to our service delivery and ensuring that timely permanence plans are achieved for our children. At Bury we work closely as a team to achieve the best possible outcomes for children. Our legal team are passionate, knowledgeable about the work they undertake and highly regarded by senior management and social work teams.”

What our team say about us

“The legal team at Bury is a supportive environment in which to develop skills and knowledge to ensure high quality legal representation for children’s services. Colleagues and management team offer great support to every member of the team”

“The best part about working within a Local Authority legal team, is that you get to work on interesting, complex, and important cases from the get go”

“The people within legal services are really supportive and the managers genuinely value your opinion and seek to support your progression, if you want to work on something in particular or have a specific interest, they will act on that”

“What I really enjoy about my role at Bury Council, is that I get to see the positive impacts of the work I do and build really positive client relationships with those within the Council”

“Working in a friendly team who each cover one another and assist where required is great and helpful, with the addition to be able to bounce ideas and discuss matters with one another, it is a continuous learning curve”

“Relaxed and friendly atmosphere with the flexibility of hybrid working, it is the perfect set up. Very good and technical case management platform which performs a variety of tasks and assists in management of ongoing cases”

What you’ll need

To be successful in this role, you will need to have :

• Qualification as a Barrister, Solicitor or CIlex level 6 or equivalent and advocacy rights with practicing certificate.
• An ability to work under pressure and to deadlines including court deadlines and timetables
• Experience of advising preparing and conducting proceedings, as appropriate.
• A methodical, can-do approach to undertaking your work with an ability to implement the skills you have learnt.
• Extensive experience of handling and prioritising a full personal caseload of legal matters / cases with excellent knowledge in this area of law.
• The ability to work independently or as member of a team.
• Exceptional communication skills both written and verbal
• IT literacy with an ability to use Outlook and case management systems.
• Experience of giving legal advice verbally and in writing.

About Bury

The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare or children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Appointment may be subject to a satisfactory disclosure at the appropriate level under the Disclosure and Barring Service.

In line with safer recruitment, please ensure that your application / CV covers your full employment history and there is a reason noted for any gaps in employment. Successful candidates will be asked to provide relevant references for the past ten years and character references will not be accepted.

As a Corporate Parent, ensure that the work and services you deliver considers our care experienced young people, promotes their life chances empowers them to influence the policies, services, and decisions that affect them, champions their rights, and ensure they grow up in the best possible way

Benefits of working for Bury Council

To hear about the benefits for working with Bury Council, please visit A good employer | greater jobs

We support employees to work with agility, where appropriate for the post and service requirements.

We are committed to Bury being an equal society that recognises values and embraces all people, regardless of any difference, for the skills, abilities and experiences they bring into the workforce and the wider community. Therefore we guarantee an interview for disabled people, looked after children / care leavers, armed forces personnel (including reservists and veterans) and carers of adults or disabled children if they meet the essential criteria.

Next steps

For an informal chat regarding the role please contact Ceri Kay on 01612535203. If you wish to ask any questions about this vacancy please do not hesitate to call.

Interviews will be held on 11th December at Bury Town Hall, Knowsley Street, Bury, BL9 0SW.