As a Group Lawyer – People you will deputise for the Strategic Lawyer – People and other Group Lawyers, as and when required.

You will have overall operational responsibility for some of the areas of law:

• Children’s social care

• Education

• Adult social care

• Health

• Contentious Housing

You will work closely with Senior Leadership, Elected Members, Trade Unions, Partner Organisations and other key stakeholders from across the public and private sector to deliver the Council’s transformational work streams and The Deal priorities.

You will handle a personal caseload of complex and significant cases, assisting on Corporate and GMCA (Greater Manchester Combined Authority) initiatives within your area of responsibility.

You will also be responsible for providing leadership to a team of qualified professionals and for the development of a client care culture which places a strong emphasis on collaborative working and shared goals.

You will be an admitted Solicitor entitled to a current practicing certificate (the qualification of Barrister or Legal Executive is an acceptable alternative) and you will have at least five years post qualification experience in ideally Children’s social care and an understanding of the other areas of law covered by the People Team.

You will be an enthusiastic, highly motivated and professional individual who has experience of providing complex and significant legal advice to assist and guide clients when making decisions.

You will need to have experience of handling a personal caseload of complex and significant cases at all levels of the Family Court and ideally experience of public sector governance and policy drafting.

You will need to engage, inspire and care to achieve service developments, transformation and a culture of continuous improvement.

You will need to have experience of work allocation, management of caseloads across a team ensuring that performance, efficiency and client care targets are delivered.  You will develop, guide and mentor the team including our paralegals, trainee solicitors and trainee legal executives.

We want our Lawyers to be afford the time to focus on the delivery of legal services as such we have a dedicated team of paralegals and administrative support to reduce the administrative burden on our Lawyers.

We aim to offer services which are good value for money, innovative in their approach and delivery, risk aware not risk averse and open to doing things differently. We adopt a collaborative approach with all our clients’ ensuring we are embedded in all their processes and decision making.

We are committed to the continuous professional development of our staff which includes the payment of professional fees, a wide range of training opportunities and management development.

Wigan Council has been voted ‘Council of the Year’ at the iESE Public Sector Transformation Awards and has recently published The Deal 2030, our ambitious plan for our borough.  We are signed up to the Greater Manchester Continuous Service Commitment ensuring that your service will be continuous or ‘unbroken’ between the supporting organisations.

Wigan is a great place to work and, as a local authority, we truly value and recognise our staff as our greatest asset.  We offer a generous leave package which often includes the discretionary ‘reward’ of extra leave for the staff. We actively encourage innovation, strive to deliver outstanding services and celebrate our successes by our commitment to our ‘Be Wigan’ behaviours, Be Courageous, Be Accountable, Be Positive and Be Kind.

Our Legal team is inventive in its approach, digitally enabled and encourage a blended working ethos with equipment provided, which ensures that our staff have a happy and healthy work life balance. Our blended approach to work allows staff flexibility round working remotely or from the office. We are proud to have won the prestigious Lawyers in Local Government Innovation Award 2021 for our strategy on digital innovation and virtual court hearings.

As an employer we like to thank our employees for their hard work and commitment by giving them the opportunity to access a range of exclusive rewards and benefits including; payment of practicing certificate fees, supporting our staff in undertaking additional qualifications (such as Management, or Children’s Panel Certification), free parking and access to an online employee benefit platform, My Rewards.

For an informal discussion please contact Andrew Lee, Strategic Lawyer – People on 01942 828332 or Andrew.lee@wigan.gov.uk

Here at Wigan, we are proud to be a flexible workforce.  We take a blended approach to where we work, depending on the work we do.  This may include working from home (My Place), the office (Our Place) or the community (Your Place).  Please speak to the recruiting manager to find out more about where you will work from in your role.

As an employer we like to thank our employees for their hard work and commitment by giving them the opportunity to access a range of exclusive rewards and benefits.

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