Legal Officer – Children’s Social Care
Vacancy: Legal Officer – Children’s Social Care
Salary: £20,344 – £22,911 (Grade E)
Terms: Permanent – 37 hours per week
The Local Authority
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council marked the 20th anniversary of it’s unitary status in style – scooping The MJ’s prestigious Local Authority of the Year title.
It’s the third time the Council has had a top national accolade in the past 20 years – previously winning the LGC Council of the year twice.
In 2017, we retained our ‘good’ rating for Children’s Services: one of only a handful of similarly deprived authorities to do so in the past decade. Despite growing budgetary challenges, we continue to innovate. Support for vulnerable children is particularly strong. Our support hub for children with disabilities and their families was judged to be outstanding again this year; and our adolescent support unit helping young people on the cusp of care and their families is nationally recognised as good practice. Senior children’s services officers also work extensively across the region in support of other councils and are very active in sector-led improvement, including the North West School Improvement Board.
The Role
We are recruiting a motivated individual to join our busy Legal Services Department in the area of children’s social care. Working with friendly and supportive colleagues you will gain valuable experience working across a variety of legal disciplines.
You need to have or be undertaking the Institute of Legal Executive qualifications or an alternative legal qualification.
The successful candidate will be a flexible team player, with good technical knowledge and experience in the area of children’s law, providing quality legal support to the Council. We can offer a varied and interesting caseload and an excellent development opportunity for a candidate looking to obtain high quality legal experience working for a key public sector organisation.
We play a key partnership role with our Children’s Services who are proud to have recently been rated by OFSTED as ‘good’.
An excellent benefits package is also on offer which includes membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme, salary sacrifice car lease scheme, as well as a range of benefits in health, wellbeing and other areas.
For an informal discussion about this role please contact Christian Williams-White, Principal Solicitor (Social Care) on 01254 585713.
In addition to your application and CV, please include supporting information which evidences how you meet the criteria detailed on the key requirements document.
Closing date: 14th April 2019
Interviews: 17th April 2019 (and 24th April if a second day for interviews is required)
