Legal Assistant (Children And Families Team) Occ615604

Job details

Salary range: £26,873 - £28,770 per annum (Grade 7)

Work location: County Hall, New Road, Oxford, OX1 1ND a minimum of once per week (subject to change) with the remaining days working from home as per Oxfordshire County Council’s agile working policy.

Hours per week: 37

Contract type: Permanent

Vetting requirements: This role is subject to a Criminal Records Check.

Closing date: Friday 29th March 2024

(Applicants are advised to apply as soon as possible as we will be reviewing applications on an ongoing basis. We reserve the right to close the advert prior to advertised closing date should enough applications be received.)

Interview date: Week commencing 1st April 2024

About us

Legal Services at Oxfordshire County Council provides key legal and corporate governance advice to all service areas of the council. We have recently re-designed and created a new legal team structure to ensure our legal services can deliver for the future, now. Our new structure has multiple entry routes, clear career progression and career graded pay so you can make the most of your career and development, whilst working for the common good of our communities.

We work collaboratively to meet the service needs in this busy and dynamic area of law. We work flexibly - in accordance with the agile working policy - from home and from our Oxford office as suits our team members and service needs.

About the role

The role sits within a friendly and supportive team who deliver high quality legal work for the Children and Families department of Oxfordshire County Council.

Key responsibilities include:

• Supporting our in-house lawyers with the conduct of legal cases
• Supporting the Children and Families team with the administration and smooth running of the legal service, duties can include telephone calls, organising appointments, meetings, correspondence, liaison with other professionals involved and maintaining our electronic files
• Acting in accordance with best practice and the client service agreement
• Work in accordance with our organisational values and behaviour framework

About you

To be successful in the role, you will need:

• Good communication skills both written and oral
• The ability to work effectively, individually and with others, as part of a team supporting child protection work to meet the service’s needs
• To have good organisational skills and the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment with tight deadlines
• Strong IT literacy to work with our software systems and support paperless and hybrid working
• Experience of working within a legal practice or department

Rewards and benefits

Working in local government is interesting, innovative, and challenging. The commitment of our teams to public service is key to our delivery of all services including infrastructure.

Oxfordshire has invested time and resource to create an environment where people develop professionally and personally. The Delivering the Future Together framework supports liaison between staff, teams and managers to embed the values of the organisation.

We offer a supportive induction process to introduce you to colleagues within your team and the wider organisation, and ways of working.

Oxfordshire offers a generous and family-friendly rewards to benefit life both at work and at home:

• Culture of flexible working
• Technology to support agile working where role permits
• Up to 31 day’s holiday p.a. plus bank holidays
• Option to ‘buy’ additional holiday
• Employee Assistance Programme including access to health and wellbeing support
• Membership of the Local Government contributory pension scheme, with an employer’s contribution of up to 19.9%
• Enhanced family friendly policies
• Local and national discounts for shopping and travel
• Great learning and development opportunities to support your ongoing development

Why Oxfordshire?

Oxfordshire has a wonderful balance between beautiful Cotswold countryside and quaint villages and towns against the urban dynamic of the world-renowned university City of Oxford and surrounding market towns. It is a thriving county with one of the fastest growing economies in the country with a rapidly growing science sector in and around the county and is the base for many national and internationally recognised companies and organisations. Oxford has good transport links to London and the rest of the country.

Would you like to know more?

Please click here to view the Job Description and Selection Criteria

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Amy Kogel, Senior Solicitor and Team Leaders (Children and Families) on amy.kogel@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Application Procedure

To apply, please complete an online application form by clicking either of the Apply Now buttons at the top and bottom of this advert. This includes a section asking you to explain how you meet the selection criteria, as specified in the job posting. You may attach a cover letter and/or CV to your application form, however it is not mandatory.

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