Senior Lawyer (Child Care)

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About the role

Are you ready to take the next step in your career and do you want to be supported in achieving the step after that? We are creating a brand new in-house Legal Team to support the Northamptonshire Children's Trust. Join the existing Legal Team at West Northants Council, one of the newest and the fourth biggest Unitary Council in England.

If you have experience in Child Care Law, we want to hear from you. Whether you are looking to develop your local government experience, change sector into local government or return to work after a career break, you won't find a better place to do so.

Whilst local government experience is not essential, a passion for delivering an excellent legal service in a fast-paced environment and a desire to help shape and deliver an exemplar local authority legal service is.

View our colleagues, Mukti and Viren talk about their experience working with our team.

What will you be doing?

Your duties will include:

• Advising upon and conducting proceedings relating to the care and protection of children and young people.
• Providing legal advice and support to clients, including elected members and senior officers.
• Being a lead within the team and providing guidance and support to other members of the team.

About you

West Northants is a great place to work. With a focus on career development, wellbeing, flexibility and support, this is an opportunity for you to take the next step on your career journey in a supported environment. We have mentoring, buddying, coaching, training and many other opportunities available to assist and develop you, to ensure your success in the role and your ongoing progression and success within the Council. We will also consider any version of flexible working you can come up with.

For more information please visit our designated legal recruitment pages at https://www.westnorthants.gov.uk/spotlight-our-key-services-careers-and-... or contact Julia Rickards, Head of Legal (People), on 07585 405339 for a confidential discussion.

Please also join us at one of our virtual collaboration sessions where we welcome your thoughts about what the future of Child Care legal teams holds and help us to shape that future. Attendees will include representatives from West Northants Council, Northamptonshire Children's Trust and Child Care lawyers from private practice, together with Pam Burrows, the wellbeing expert supporting West Northants Council to shape a strong and resilient legal team with wellbeing at its core. Details of these sessions will be shared on our social media pages, LinkedIn and our designated legal recruitment pages.

Join us at our Eventbrite events to hear from guest speakers, including team members who have progressed through internal promotions and mentoring partnerships, as well as some of our dedicated mentoring partners.

Lunchtime event. Wed, 20 Nov 2024 12:30 - 13:15 GMT:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/west-northants-council-legal-department-c...

Evening event. Thu, 21 Nov 2024 18:00 - 18:45 GMT:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/west-northants-council-legal-department-c...

Our benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits to our employees, these include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement starting at 28 days annual leave per year, 29 days for senior managers (pro rata, depending on how many hours per week you work), plus bank holidays. An additional 5 days, linked to continuous service, and ability to purchase up to 6 weeks additional leave per year.
• Cycle to Work scheme.
• Local Government Pension Scheme plus immediate life cover (3 times your annual salary from day one) and ill-health protection.
• Employee discounts with local and national retailers, days out, finance, health and beauty, travel and eating out plus lots more.
• Car Lease scheme via Tusker.
• Payment of professional subscription / membership - If your job description requires that you are registered with or are a member of a professional body, WNC will pay for your professional subscription or membership fees.
• Employee Assistance Programme - We have an employee support programme run by Health Assured, an independent, external organisation. Health Assured is available for you and your immediate family members, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and includes telephone counselling, legal advice, bereavement support and medical information.
• Commsave- Free membership to Commsave Credit Union who provide a variety of savings accounts, loans, a monthly lottery draw and more!
• Ongoing training and development opportunities.
• A variety of flexible working options to support your work/life balance, including full or part time, term time, 9-day fortnight, etc. (subject to business needs).
• Our West Ways of Working - We want our workforce to thrive, and we equip our employees with the right technology to support hybrid and collaborative working, on or off site, depending on the role.
• Making a difference - If you want to use your skills and experience with an organisation that are genuinely invested in making a difference, are committed to improving people's lives, and whose success has a direct impact on the wellbeing of your family, friends and people in your local area, then West Northamptonshire Council is the place for you.

About us

At West Northants Council, it's about our people. People who thrive with ambition, bubble with new ideas, demand better ways of working, caring about every detail, and who never shy away from a challenge. Our culture is a gateway for new experiences. A place to forge new opportunities. To empower you in your career and unite you with like-minded people.

Our vision is 'to make West Northants a great place to live, work, visit and thrive'. We truly stand by this and work hard every day to make this a reality. Our corporate values, THRIVE, stand for: Trust, High Performance, Respect, Innovate and Empower, they underpin everything we do and how we deliver services.

Hear more from our Chief Executive, Anna Earnshaw, about what it's like to work at West Northants Council https://youtu.be/lV0EfeUF4aU

We are committed to ensuring diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion is woven into the fabric of WNC and everything we do, to enable all colleagues to develop and maximize their full potential. We are a disability confident employer, a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, and a Care Leaver Covenant partner

The following film was created by us to communicate our intentions - watch WNC colleagues explain what DEI means to us .

If you need additional support or reasonable adjustments during the application process, including needing the job description in another format or language, please email careers@westnorthants.gov.uk for support.

West Northants Council, where careers thrive.