Social Care Lawyer

Herts Legal Service - Hertfordshire County Council; Stevenage; Hybrid; GBP 54,000 - 59,000; Full time

Job summary

Herts Legal Service - Hertfordshire County Council in Stevenage is seeking an Adult Social Care Lawyer. The role focuses on providing high quality legal advice in adult social care matters, including support for the Deprivation of Liberty Supervisory Body and advocacy in tribunals and courts.

You will handle a varied caseload, attend safeguarding and case planning meetings, and ensure legal decisions align with policy and statutory requirements while delivering effective client outcomes.

Qualifications

• Recognised legal qualification as Solicitor, Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive.
• Significant experience in Adult Social Care Law.
• Experience handling a diverse civil litigation caseload and conducting advocacy.
• Strong written and oral communication, time management and teamwork.

Responsibilities

• Provide adult social care law advice, and additional legal advice on areas including children social care (not care proceedings) education and health as required.
• Attend and advise at meetings across the County attended by professionals such as Safeguarding Adults from Abuse Meetings (SAFFA’s), case planning meetings and other similar meetings.
• Conduct advocacy before the Court and instruct counsel where appropriate in matters before the High Court, County Court, Magistrates Court and First Tier Tribunal and prepare cases to deliver client outcomes.
• Ensure decisions by client departments are within legal boundaries and align with County Council policy while achieving aims efficiently.
• Maintain awareness of relevant legislation, caselaw and policy, and provide training where necessary.

Skills

Communication skills

Time management

Teamwork

Advocacy experience

Education

Qualified legal professional

Job description

Job Title

Adult Social Care Lawyer

Starting Salary

£53,806 plus £5,691 market enhancement progressing to £59,497 plus £5,738 market enhancement per annum

Hours

37

Location

Stevenage with hybrid working

Contract Type

Permanent

Directorate

Resources

About The Team

Working as part of the Adults, Children and Health Team you will be providing high quality legal services to the County Council’s Members, Adult Care Services, Children’s Services and Public Health Departments and, in particular, to provide Adult Social Care Law advice, including advice to the Hertfordshire Deprivation of Liberty Supervisory Body, Approved Mental Health Professionals and to act as an advocate before Tribunals and the Court

About The Role

This role offers the opportunity to be involved in a wide variety of legal areas primarily relating to the protection of Vulnerable Adults but also relating to Vulnerable Children outside of Care Proceedings. Therefore, you will need to be able to provide accurate, comprehensive and timely legal advice whilst managing a varied and demanding caseload.

Responsibilities

• Provide adult social care law advice, and additional legal advice on areas including children social care (not care proceedings) education and health as required
• Attend and advise at meetings across the County attended by professionals such as Safeguarding Adults from Abuse Meetings (SAFFA’s), case planning meetings and other similar meetings
• Conduct advocacy before the Court and instruct counsel where appropriate, in matters before the High Court, County Court, Magistrates Court and First Tier Tribunal as well as preparation of these cases in order to see the outcomes required by the client departments
• Ensure that the decisions made by the client departments are within the legal boundaries; accord with County Council policy; and achieve their aims and objectives efficiently
• Maintain an awareness of all relevant legislation, caselaw policy and regulations, investigate and advise on implications of changing legislation, case law and codes of practice and policy and provide training where necessary

About You

Essential

• You will need to have a recognised legal qualification as a Solicitor, Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive.
• Significant experience in Adult Social Care Law
• You will have experience of holding a diverse caseload of civil litigation matters and experience of conducting your own advocacy.
• Strong written and oral communication skills, used to build and maintain working relationships, and to produce and present reports
• Effective time management skills, prioritising workloads whilst managing a varied caseload
• Experience in working effectively as part of a team

We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation.

We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.

This job role is Level 13. Please locate the job profile here: Job profiles - Corporate services

To hear more about this opportunity please [e-mail] for an informal discussion about the role.

Interviews will be arranged on an ad hoc basis

Benefits of working for us

Additional Information

Disability Confident

We are proud to be aDisability Confident employerand guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

English Fluency

The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required).Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.

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