Senior Lawyer Child Care

Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership; Stafford; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

Professional development

Staff wellbeing

Job summary

Staffordshire County Council is seeking an experienced Senior Lawyer to lead a childcare team within Legal Services. The role focuses on complex childcare casework, advocacy in court, and developing junior lawyers.

We value flexible working, professional development and staff wellbeing, offering a supportive environment and opportunities to influence outcomes for vulnerable children and families in Staffordshire.

Qualifications

• Qualified Chartered Legal Executive, Solicitor or Barrister with a comprehensive understanding of childcare law.
• Ability to communicate clearly and confidently with diverse stakeholders.
• Experience supervising staff and managing case workloads.

Responsibilities

• Manage a challenging caseload of childcare proceedings and attend court hearings.
• Provide advocacy in childcare matters when required.
• Supervise and mentor junior lawyers within the team.
• Adhere to quality standards (Lexcel) and maintain professional records.

Skills

Childcare law expertise

Advocacy in court

Mentoring junior lawyers

Time management

Education

Chartered Legal Executive with practice rights

Job description

The following content displays a map of the jobs location - Stafford

Join a team where your legal expertise makes a lasting difference to the lives of children and families across Staffordshire.

At Staffordshire County Council, our Childcare Lawyers play a vital role in helping to protect children, support families and secure positive outcomes for some of the most vulnerable members of our communities. We are looking for an experienced and ambitious Senior Lawyer to join our highly regarded Legal Services team and help lead this important work.

Staffordshire Legal Services is a dynamic and supportive in-house team with a reputation for providing expert legal advice across a broad range of complex and high-profile matters. We pride ourselves on creating an environment where colleagues are trusted, encouraged and empowered to develop their careers while delivering excellent outcomes for our clients.

In this senior role, you will manage a challenging and rewarding caseload of childcare proceedings, provide advocacy where required, and support the development of junior lawyers within the team. Your expertise, leadership and commitment will help ensure that children and families receive the protection and support they need.

With a genuine commitment to flexible working, professional development and staff wellbeing, we offer a supportive environment where you can build a fulfilling career while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

If you are looking for a role that combines professional challenge, genuine purpose, and the opportunity to influence and develop others, we would love to hear from you.

Main Responsibilities

Responsibilities will include:

• Completing all aspects of complex Childcare casework and representing the client department at all case related meetings and court hearings.
• Conducting advocacy in court in Childcare matters when required.
• Demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of the work done by the Council in this area.
• Managing, supervising and mentoring staff and coordinating and delegating cases/tasks to a team to achieve service delivery.
• Adherence to the Legal Services Unit’s quality standards (Lexcel) including time-recording in order to maintain professional standards.
• To handle confidential data sensitively and securely in accordance with policy.

The Ideal Candidate

The minimum criteria that will be used to shortlist for this role will be:

We are looking for a qualified Chartered Legal Executive with practice rights, Solicitor or Barrister with:

• A comprehensive understanding of Childcare law
• An in-depth understanding of the work done by this public sector, although previous local government experience is not essential
• An ability to clearly, confidently and effectively communicate
• Meticulous attention to detail
• Effective time management, prioritisation skills and an ability to work under the demands of competing pressures
• An ability to delegate work in order to generate capacity

Interviews will be face to face and held on Friday 20th November 2026, in Stafford.

Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role.

Please note: The minimum essential criteria in the ideal section detailed above will be used if you are applying under one of our Interview Guarantee Schemes.

About Staffordshire County Council

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.