Legal Executive/Solicitor/Barrister Level 1 Childcare

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 offering training and mentoring to aide their progression. We want everyone to enjoy their work, feel challenged and appreciated for what they do and to make a positive 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 polices such as maternity, adoption, paternity, and parental leave.

Responsibilities will include:

• Completing all aspects of challenging childcare casework and representing the client department at all case related meetings and appropriate court hearings with appropriate supervision
• Supporting the wider Legal Services Unit with casework, with required training and supervision
• Adherence to the Legal Services Unit’s quality standards (Lexcel) including time-recording in order to maintain professional standards
• To undertake in-service training as required by the training plan and to facilitate in-service training of staff members/client department
• To handle confidential data sensitively and securely in accordance with policy

We are looking for a qualified Chartered Legal Executive, Solicitor or Barrister (although this role is suitable for a newly qualified/junior applicant) with:

• An in-depth understanding of childcare law
• A general 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

If you are unsure if your skills and experience are suitable for this role or would benefit from an informal chat please contact Robin Longhurst, Team Senior on 01785 276304 or at robin.longhurst@staffordshire.gov.uk

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.

Our benefits:

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.

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Our recruitment process:

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.

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme