Working Pattern: Full-time, 37 hours per week. Flexible working and condensed hours options considered e.g. 9 day fortnight.

Location: Your office base will be County Hall, Chichester. This is a hybrid/remote working role with any working from home arrangements being at the discretion and agreement with your manager.

As a childcare lawyer you will be working with Children’s Services, supporting them with sensitive cases.  Your legal advice and support will impact on the future wellbeing and circumstances of individual children and families in West Sussex. Your role will involve supporting Children’s Services with discharging their statutory responsibilities of ensuring the safety and welfare needs of children and young persons across West Sussex are paramount.

You will be part of our 40 strong Childcare legal team. You will work in an accommodating and dynamic environment supported by a senior management team including 1 Principal Lawyer and 4 Senior Lawyers. We aim to support our team members to achieve their full potential as we strive for a healthy work-life balance and ensure you are rewarded for the work you do. This is an excellent opportunity for an ambitious and or experienced childcare solicitor to come on board and benefit from the team’s wide-ranging expertise.

What are we looking for?

The ideal candidates will have experience in childcare law with the ability to work under pressure in a fast-paced environment. Consideration will be given to applicants from private practice with relevant experience.

As a service, we are looking for committed individuals with high levels of professionalism, integrity, and a genuine desire to contribute to the growth of the team. You will be a tenacious, compassionate and self-driven individual who is prepared to embrace our values and be part of the West Sussex culture #BeTheDifference.

Experience and skills

Key Skills:

• Effective drafting and report writing skills.
• Ability to give competent legal advice in a timely manner to clients.
• Fully competent research skills.
• Ability to build strong working relations with clients, colleagues and external Stakeholders.
• Sound organisational skills.
• Competent presentational skills or advocacy experience in childcare law.
• Ability to analyse and advise on legislative and regulatory text and other legal materials and to present arguments in written or oral form.
• Being a pro-active member of the team and having a “can do” attitude within the range of work for the post.
• Having the flexibility to work within a fast-paced legal environment.
• Ability to use initiative and be innovative in a complex area of law as well as working under the supervision of a Senior lawyer as appropriate.
• Sound IT skills in order to use the case management system and digital court process.

Qualifications and/or experience:

• Qualified solicitor, barrister or chartered legal executive with appropriate demonstrable experience within child protection legal work.
• Relevant chartered status of a professional body or equivalent high-level experience of involved practices e.g. CILEX.

What's in it for you?

As well as adding real value to our service users and our communities, as an employer we recognise our employees are central in being able to achieve this. To recognise this we want to help support your development and provide an great place to work ensuring you can fulfil your full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance and are rewarded for the work you do. Upon joining us you will have access to a range of benefits including:

• an excellent local government pension scheme
• generous holiday entitlement of 27 to 30 days (plus opportunity to buy additional leave)
• a range of flexible working options, depending on your job role
• maternity, paternity, dependency and adoption leave
• volunteering opportunities
• training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring
• a range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers; groceries, travel, cinema tickets, days out, leisure activities, high street retailers and the opportunity to save over £1,000 a year through our West Sussex Choices benefits platform
• health and wellbeing benefits including access to our Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and Voluntary Health Cash Plans

*This alters every 01.04.

Further information
The reference number for this role is CRS00896.

For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact Sara Boothroyd, Senior Lawyer at sara.boothroyd@westsussex.gov.uk or Ashley Hughes, Senior Lawyer at ashley.hughes@westsussex.gov.uk. For issues or queries regarding your application please contact hrrecruitment@westsussex.gov.uk.

To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and Cover Letter. In your cover letter please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to 3 years referencing and a health check.