Senior Childcare Lawyer

Senior Childcare Lawyer

Salary: £51,802 - 55,044 per annum

Location: Northamptonshire

Working: Hybrid

Closing Date: Friday 17th January 2025

About the Senior Childcare Lawyer role:

Sellick Partnership is proud to be working with an exceptional legal services team in the heart of Northamptonshire. We are looking for a Senior Childcare Lawyer to join the growing Legal team at North Northamptonshire Council to provide advice and representation to the Council in all areas of childcare law.

North Northamptonshire Council is an ambitious, exciting, innovative and supportive place to work. The Council is committed to focused service delivery to improve the lives of their residents. Working for the benefit of the public and having a team ethos is at the heart of the culture, their values make them who they are: customer-focused, respectful, efficient, supportive, and trustworthy.

As a Senior Childcare Lawyer, you will be supported by the senior leadership team in a growing team of professionals. The team's focus is on enabling service delivery, adopting a partnering model with their clients, supporting them to deliver an ambitious agenda for North Northampton.

North Northamptonshire Council is committed to developing, nurturing, and growing talent from legal assistants to the managers of the future. As a unitary authority, the opportunities are varied and broad providing a unique opportunity to shape processes and grow with the Council as it develops.

Key responsibilities of the Senior Childcare Lawyer role:

The role will involve delivering comprehensive professional legal advice to the unitary council and client department. You will manage a portfolio of your own cases which will consist of, but not limited to:

• Provide general and specialist childcare advice on behalf of the Council to clients, colleagues and elected members and senior officers.
• Manage a caseload in relation to the full range child protection cases, including attendance at court and undertaking advocacy where required.
• Advising on policy, strategy and procedures relating to childcare issues.
• You will have a brilliant opportunity to develop your specialism with the support of like-minded people and an experienced team around you.

Ideal requirements for the Senior Childcare Lawyer role include:

We are looking for candidates with previous public sector childcare case handling and advocacy experience and exceptional relationship building, networking, and influencing skills.

Experience in management of a team of lawyers and administration staff or relevant transferable experience is ideal, whilst having strong communication and presentation skills are paramount.

You will need to be a qualified Solicitor, barrister or FCILEx to apply but we are open minded to speaking with candidates of all childcare law backgrounds from the public sector to private practice.

Benefits of the Senior Childcare Lawyer role:

• Annual leave - generous leave entitlement of 28 days (rising to 33 days), and bank holidays; plus the option to buy up to an extra 10 days.
• Local Government Pensions Scheme - considered to be one of the best employer contribution rates.
• A flexible work-life balance: flexible working options including working from home where possible and smarter working arrangements.
• Training and support: access to development courses, mentoring and support and clear career pathways.
• A diverse and experienced team with a wealth of public law knowledge and talent.
• This role provides variety in what you do, challenging and high-impact cases to work on, the opportunity to work for the benefit of the wider public and the chance to progress your career within a progressive legal service, where you will learn from some talented and experienced professionals.
• A range of great benefits such as an Employee Assistance Programme, an Employee Benefits Scheme, wellbeing support, travel rates at HMRC rates, as well as supporting a range of active Employee Network Groups.

How to apply for the Senior Childcare Lawyer role:

To apply, please submit your CV and/or cover letter via this page or alternatively, contact Lewis Dainty in the Sellick Partnership Manchester office.

Sellick Partnership is proud to be an inclusive and accessible recruitment business and we support applications from candidates of all backgrounds and circumstances. Please note, our advertisements use years' experience, hourly rates, and salary levels purely as a guide and we assess applications based on the experience and skills evidenced on the CV. For information on how your personal details may be used by Sellick Partnership, please review our data processing notice on our website.