About the job

Job summary

Please note if you are viewing this vacancy during the festive period, Cafcass as an organisation is closed at this time, giving us all invaluable time to spend time with our families and friends. Therefore, you shouldn’t expect to hear from us until after we return on 2nd January 2024.

We are recruiting for a Lawyer in our Legal Services Team.

Our team works flexibly and remotely however you will be required to have a regular presence in London. Our office location is in Gray's Inn Road, London.

We trust and empower colleagues to work in a hybrid way, providing the resources, equipment and support, so that individually and collectively, we can be the voice of children and young people when the family court makes critical decisions about their futures. We provide extensive wellbeing support for colleagues, as well as excellent benefits, all of which we hope encourages you to join us.

We are a diverse, inclusive organisation that is a safe space for colleagues with shared aspects of identity and lived experience, which helps ensure we provide a service which promotes the diversity and uniqueness of children and families from all backgrounds. We especially welcome applications from people from diverse backgrounds as we strive to ensure our workforce reflects the diversity of the children and families we work with.

 

Let us tell you a bit more about the role…

Our Legal Services Team play a key role in supporting the organisation and our staff to manage potentially complex, sensitive legal situations. We are looking to supplement this busy, unique and highly specialised team by recruiting a 5 year qualified solicitor or barrister although applicants with less than 5 years practice experience will be considered if they can demonstrate relevant experience.

Job description

Let us tell you a bit more about the role…

Our Legal Services Team play a key role in supporting the organisation and our staff to manage potentially complex, sensitive legal situations. We are looking to supplement this busy, unique and highly specialised team by recruiting a 5 year qualified solicitor or barrister although applicants with less than 5 years practice experience will be considered if they can demonstrate relevant experience.

Successful applicants will be:

• Representing and advocating for the children who are represented by Cafcass Guardians in the High Court Team
• Giving advice to practitioners when covering the duty line;
• Delivering training for practitioners;
• Providing legal updates on legislation;
• Acting as Advocate to the Court.
• On occasion representing Guardians in public law cases where the child has instructed their own solicitor
• Acting for Cafcass in civil claims brought against the organisation
• Providing Legal Advice to Cafcass on policy development and within the context of the organisational delivery priorities

Person specification

This is a fantastic opportunity for a Lawyer wishing to gain exposure to a wide variety of challenging cases High Court proceedings -

To be considered, applicants will need to have:

• 5+ years PQE Family Solicitor, with a Higher Rights qualification but not essential. Less than 5 years PQE will be considered if relevant experience can be demonstrated.
• or a Barrister with 5 years’ call (as above)

You can find out more about the above - and much more - before you apply and we also recommend you read the job description.

Benefits

Benefits that really benefit you

We know you want to be rewarded appropriately, you want time away from work to manage your wellbeing, spend time with those important to you, help to secure your future and be trusted to work creatively and autonomously.

So, on top of a competitive salary, you’ll have an excellent holiday allowance (28 days + Bank Holidays), a Local Government pension with 19.4% employer contribution, Health and Wellbeing cash plan and the potential to bring your continuous service with you - which could mean you have 33 days holiday from day one - and a wide range of other benefits that collectively makes for a great package with a highly supportive employer.

  

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Timelines we’re working to

If and when you are ready to apply, our application process is straightforward and quick to complete. You don’t need to complete your application in a single visit, you can start it and come back and amend your responses / update your CV, just make sure you come back before the closing date to submit.

Below we have given you an indication of a timetable we are hoping to work towards, although dates are subject to change.

 

Closing date: 22 January 2024

Final Interview: W/C 12th and 19th February 2024 at Gray's Inn, London

 

We understand you may benefit from finding out more to help you decide to apply. There is a lot of information available at Cafcass Careers but if there is something else you need to find out more about, you can either contact Narinder Kaur at Narinder.kaur2@cafcass.gov.uk from our HR Resourcing team if your query is to do with the recruitment process or is HR-related, or Shabana Jaffar at Shabana.Jaffar@cafcass.gov.uk if your questions relate more to the role, providing your contact information and best times / methods to get hold of you.

 

Whilst we will always try and respond asap, we wouldn’t want you to miss the closing date before we are able to. If this is the case, we recommend you apply and as part of your application you can ask questions, and this may allow us to contact you and provide you with the required information that will help you decide if you still wish to be considered.

 

Finally, in anticipation of your application being successful, you might want to read about the offer and pre-employment checks process. As part of your application, you can highlight any concerns or questions about the pre-employment checks and we encourage all applicants to do so, safe in the knowledge such information will not be shared with individuals involved in the selection process.

 

We look forward to hearing from you.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.