Head of Legal Services

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Join us at an exciting time for Barnet, Haringey and Enfield Mental Health NHS Trust and Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust. After three years working in Partnership, we are due to create a new Trust, to be known as the North London NHS Foundation Trust on 1 November 2024, subject to Secretary of State approval. Join us to be part of the North London Way as we:

• Collaborate at every level by living our Values to create the right conditions for us all to work together
• Develop our new Trust culture, to help make our new Trust a great place to work and to receive great care
• Empower our teams to lead the planned improvements in our services, by skilling them and giving them the tools to make the changes
• Focus on delivering excellence at every level to improve our performance and ensure consistently high quality care across all our services
• Ensure that research, Quality Improvement and technology lead the way and are embedded in our services
• Take a trauma informed approach to everything we do

We look forward to welcoming you to the new North London NHS Foundation Trust, where we work in the North London Way to deliver: Better Mental Health, Better Lives, Better Communities.

Our new trust website is: Home | North London Mental Health Partnership

Job overview

The Head of Legal Services is a new essential role within the Partnership. They will have responsibility for the professional management of Trust claims, inquests, advisory and Court of Protection matters.

The post holder will be a qualified solicitor or barrister with significant experience working in healthcare law, including claims management, conducting inquests and assisting/handling Court of Protection matters.

Candidates will need to demonstrate a genuine commitment to supporting the development of excellent health services and a broad interest in patient safety.

Main duties of the job

• To develop and implement a strategic vision for the legal services department.
• To provide a responsive, resolution-focused and effective inquest and legal claims service within the Trust
• To ensure statutory and organisational requirements in respect of legal services are met.
• Lead the legal team to ensure that the Trust management of legal claims and inquests is responsive, timely and effective and staff are supported with legal queries.
• Attend and advocate at high profile inquests where required and ensure external solicitors are instructed if risk to the organisation is high.
• Advise staff on complex legal queries relating to patient treatment in a timely manner or escalate to panel where specialist advice is needed.

Working for our organisation

The partnership between Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust (BEH) and Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust (C&I) is going from strength to strength since it was originally established in 2021 forming the North London Mental Health Partnership.

In order to meet the needs of the new Partnership services you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Enfield and Harringay Trust and Camden and Islington Trust. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to the job description and person specification by clicking on the JD/PS attachment in the advert.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• UK qualified solicitor or barrister or demonstrable equivalent experience of working as a senior legal advisor on healthcare matters.
• Masters degree level / equivalent experience
• Member of relevant Professional Body e.g. with Practicing Certificate (Solicitors Regulation Authority).

Desirable criteria

• Project Management Training

Personal Qualities

Essential criteria

• Strong commitment to patient safety, quality improvement and quality governance.
• Effective communicator, verbally and written.

Skills and Abilities

Essential criteria

• Able to manage/supervise complex claims and respond to matters in the best interests of the Trust.
• Strategic thinking - ability to anticipate and resolve problems before they arise. Good use of available information sources to enable efficient and effective planning.
• Able to represent the Trust at Pre Inquest Reviews hearings and inquests and support staff accordingly
• Excellent standards of written and verbal communications, with the ability to read and prepare legal documentation and case papers and to clearly communicate complex issues.
• Exercise judgement involving highly complex facts or situations, which require the analysis, interpretation and comparison of a range of options
• Excellent standards of written and verbal communications, with the ability to read and prepare legal documentation and case papers and to clearly communicate complex issues
• Display strong collaborative leadership qualities
• The ability to deliver training and presentations to audience from non-legal backgrounds.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of implementing service change/ reconfiguration and modernising services

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of appearing in court and representing clients in contentious matters.
• Detailed understanding of current healthcare policy and appreciate the implications of this on the relevant local and national policy
• Significant experience of legal advice on healthcare regulatory matters.
• Experience and good understanding of Court of Protection matters
• Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge within Health Law, including litigation, inquests and general advice on protection of interests of medical staff and organisations
• A thorough understanding of current law and relevant status relating to clinical negligence.
• Experience of leading teams and delivering excellence through others
• Experience of effective partnership working with a range of agencies and stakeholders

Desirable criteria

• Experience in risk management

References will be required to cover your last 3 years of employment/training. One has to be from your current or most recent employer and the others from your previous employer. The references should be from persons with management responsibility or HR.

If you have been unemployed for a period of four years or more, please give the details of your last employer and one character referee of your choice (not members of your family). If more applicable, references will be requested from your teacher or head of faculty. Please ensure you provide full contact details.

Vacancies that are advertised as Fixed Term Contracts will also be available as secondment opportunities for substantive internal staff.

Please be aware that your documents eg. Passport/NI Card, will be electronically scanned using Home Office accredited Verification System.

Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts, we will close vacancies before the stated closing date once the first 50 applications are received. Therefore, please apply as soon as possible.

All non-medical posts with the Trust are subject to a probationary period of six months, during which time you will be required to demonstrate to the Trust's satisfaction, your suitability for the position in which you will be employed.

Should you not hear from us within three working weeks of the closing date for this post, then regretfully in this instance, you have not been shortlisted.

By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at improving efficiencies within the NHS both to make costs savings for NHS organisations but also to save you time when your employment transfers.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Documents to download

• Head of Legal Services JD and PS (PDF, 480.4KB)
• Head of Legal Services JD and PS (PDF, 480.4KB)
• Functional Requirements PDF (PDF, 178.7KB)
• Applicant Information Pack (PDF, 1.6MB)