Team Senior Lawyer - Education & SEND

Staffordshire County Council; Stafford; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A local government authority in England is seeking a qualified Chartered Legal Executive, Solicitor, or Barrister to join their Legal Services team. This role involves providing legal support in education matters, particularly regarding special educational needs (SEND) legislation. The ideal candidate will possess a strong understanding of education law and have excellent communication and management skills. Benefits include generous holiday entitlement, flexible working options, and a supportive work environment.

Benefits

Generous holiday entitlement

Flexible working hours

Local government pension scheme

Employee discounts

Qualifications

• Chartered Legal Executive with practice/advocacy rights.
• In-depth understanding of public sector law is essential.
• Ability to manage multiple demands effectively.

Responsibilities

• Deliver policy advice on Education matters including SEND.
• Manage and supervise client files according to Lexcel.
• Provide advice on complex Local Authority education functions.

Skills

Understanding of Education law

Effective communication

Attention to detail

Time management

Ability to delegate

Education

Chartered Legal Executive, Solicitor or Barrister qualification

Job description

Staffordshire County Council is a modern, progressive, and forward-thinking authority that is ambitious and empowers its employees to be courageous and innovative in their approach.

Staffordshire Legal Services is a large in-house corporate legal team, offering a significant breadth of experience and expertise. We support and retain our lawyers, trainees and support staff by offering a wide variety of work, an extensive benefits package and training and mentoring to aid progression. We want everyone to enjoy their work, feel challenged and appreciated for what they do, and positively contribute to making a difference to the lives of the people of Staffordshire. People are often unaware that Legal Services support the Council to fulfil every function when delivering its agenda and priorities, in addition to the Staffordshire pension fund, and a wide range of external clients. This keeps the work interesting, challenging and often high value and high profile.

We genuinely recognise the benefit of achieving the right work‑life balance and our extensive package of benefits support this. Lots of organisations offer this, however our staff survey reliably informs us that our work ethos truly delivers this. Our package includes a generous holiday entitlement, increasing significantly with service, and an additional annual leave purchase scheme. Flexible and term‑time‑only working, agile working, employee travel and entertainment discounts, a local government pension scheme, optional car lease scheme and a staff parking discount scheme. We also offer family‑friendly policies such as maternity, adoption, paternity, and parental leave.

Main Responsibilities

These will include delivering support in relation to Education matters, as follows:

• Policy advice and representation in respect of SEND including responding to judicial review letters and applications. Expertise in SEND work is a significant part of this role.
• Ensuring the efficient delivery of a Schools Advice Service and all that entails
• Giving advice in relation to a full range of often complex Local Authority statutory education functions
• Managing client files in accordance with Lexcel requirements and supervising other members of the team

The Ideal Candidate

We are looking for you to be a qualified Chartered Legal Executive (with practice/advocacy rights), Solicitor or Barrister with:

• A comprehensive understanding of Education 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

We're happy to talk flexible working.

If you are unsure if your skills and experience are suitable for this role or for an informal chat please contact Wendy Lofthouse, Deputy Legal Services Manager, email: [e-mail] or Robin Longhurst, Deputy Legal Services Manager, email: [e-mail].

Interviews will take place on 14th January 2026.

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.

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 backgrounds and communities.

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a GoldAward 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.