In House Advocate

at  ManchesterCityCouncil

ABOUT THE CANDIDATE

Are your skills and legal mind being rewarded? Do you work together as part of a supportive team? Is your work wide-ranging and varied? Are you achieving your goals?
Be part of our incredible journey.
We are looking for enthusiastic individuals with initiative, a proactive approach to problem-solving, and a real commitment to the job. You will work within a friendly, welcoming and supportive team environment where your professional development will be nurtured and appreciated.
The successful candidates whilst demonstrating a good working knowledge of local government law, will have the abilities to formulate and present quality legal argument to the Courts on behalf of our clients, both orally and in writing, within hearings of varying lengths and complexity. You will have a sound and proven knowledge of the law relating to children and families. The successful candidates will also be able to evidence personal commitment to continuous self-development.
Your brief, received from internal team members, is also growing. As an already effective team of lawyers, legal officers and business support team who produce incredible, outstanding results their vision for the future is also being enhanced. Aligning ourselves with Children’s Services to deliver safe, efficient, and effective services to families, the enhanced vision is supported by a new “small teams” structure, an enriched training, mentoring and coaching tool and a new Case Management System. Highly valued by our clients, our excellent relationships and continual looking for better ways of doing things and achieving greater heights produces an innovative, responsive, inclusive and transparent legal service.
You will be a qualified Barrister, Solicitor or Chartered Legal Executive with Advocacy Certificate, able and committed to working in a flexible manner including outside normal office hours, when the role necessitates the same. You will be a key member of the group, confident and able to work independently and act upon your own initiative.
Why work with us?
We recognise that working in child protection law can be challenging. We offer our lawyers flexible start and finish times (subject to court hearings and workload) with an effective hybrid working-practice model, so that you can find the balance that empowers you to do your best work. There’s opportunity for development and variety thanks to the way our teams practise in our Lexcel-accredited and supported legal service.
Legal work for public services in Manchester, Salford and Rochdale Councils and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority puts you among the few practitioners in England’s first, and biggest, devolved region, where major decisions are now taken in-house rather than in Whitehall and by NHS administrations.
Interested?
If you are interested, we would like to hear from you. For full details of the role please read the role profile.
To arrange an informal discussion on the role please contact Alison Robertson, Head of In House Advocacy Services on email at alison.robertson@manchester.gov.uk
As part your application, please submit your Curriculum Vitae and detailed Expression of Interest setting out how your skills and experience meet the role profile
Put your legal experience to work for Manchester City Council.

ABOUT US

In accordance with Home Office guidance, successful candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK before commencement of employment.
This is not a role we consider to be eligible for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route based on Manchester City Council policy. Candidates are therefore encouraged to consider their own right to work options without the requirement for Manchester City Council sponsorship.
We’re the local government authority for Manchester, and have teams across the city helping to make this a great place to live for everyone. We’re proud to do local government differently, in a city with an international reputation for diversity, creativity, culture and passion.
When you join us, you’re joining a team of over 7,000 council staff helping to make our ambition for Manchester a reality. Whatever your role, you’ll be supporting our residents and communities to be the best they can be, and helping to build a Manchester that’s fairer for everyone who lives, works, volunteers, studies or plays here.

To make our ambition a reality, every person we recruit needs to play their its part. It takes a certain type of behaviour, attitude and way of working to get Manchester where it wants to be. Our people and partners have agreed five ‘behaviours’ – the grounding for how we must work together and treat one another:

• We take time to listen and understand
• We work together and trust each other
• We show that we value our differences and treat each other fairly
• We ‘own it’ and we’re not afraid to try new things
• We’re proud and passionate about Manchester

A career with us means you can be yourself, thrive, and build the career your talent and ambition deserve.

THIS ROLE IS SUBJECT TO -

• Qualification and registration - Qualified Solicitor, Barrister or FILEx/CILEx (with FILEx/CILEx Advocacy Certificate)
• DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) clearance - this post is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (amended in 2013). Appointable candidates will be required to apply for a Standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. Information provided by you or the DBS will be dealt with in a confidential manner and in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice which can be viewed here. We have a policy on the Employment of Ex-Offenders and it is available upon request.
• Casual Car Documentation- The successful candidate will be a designated Casual Car User which means that car journeys may be necessary on an occasional basis, but are not essential to the role. If you do drive, you must always hold a full valid driving licence and provide your own car for use at work, as well as provide all the appropriate documentation. You will receive an allowance per mile of business use.
  We are looking for a qualified Barrister or Solicitor/CILEx Advocate to join our team of In House Advocates within the Children and Families Legal Group which offers expert legal advice, support and representation to local authority clients in all areas of child protection law.
  Our In House Advocacy Service is in now in its 14th year of operation! We have achieved some incredible results given the quality of our work and the support of In House Advocates. We pride ourselves on providing comprehensive and proactive legal advice and representation for Manchester, Salford and Rochdale Councils and the range of legal work is both interesting and challenging. Joining a well-regarded and established team of 7 In House Advocates we are looking to fill vacant positions with investment to take our already outstanding results to a new enhanced vision for the future.
  We are a large, dynamic and very supportive team who work collaboratively to meet the clients’ aims and objectives.
  To pursue our goal of expanding our in-house advocacy resource further, we have an exciting opportunity to join our team of experienced professionals as a Career-Graded In House Advocate. We are looking for a qualified Barrister, Solicitor or FILEx/CILEx Advocate with a current practising certificate to play a vital role in helping to deliver focused, high-quality advice and representation to our clients.
  This is a career graded In House Advocate role which covers Grades 10 through to Grade 12. The role will therefore be suitable for advocates of differing experience and skills. The level of support provided with regard to your role will be commensurate with the grade.
  Whilst previous local authority experience would be an advantage, we are also open to candidates who have private practice experience, are counsel who have completed their pupillage or who have experience in other in-house roles where they have transferable skills and would be a good fit.
  Career development is important to us. We recognise the value of mentoring, training, coaching and development. We provide support to enable our In House Advocates to pursue higher rights of audience and the management, support and quality of our work has also enabled several former In House Advocates to transfer to the Bar without pupillage!

As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you’ll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role, and identify with one of the below criteria:

• Members of the Armed Forces and veterans
• Are currently in care, or have previously been in care
• If you consider yourself to be disabled or if you have a long-term health conditio

If you are successfully offered a position with us, the pre-employment checks you will be asked to undertake will depend on the role you’ve applied for. As a guide, these may include:

• Passport/ID: You will be required to provide documentary proof of your right to work in the UK – please note that visa sponsorship is not guaranteed for this role
• References (Current and Previous employer)
• Qualification
• Disclosure and Barring Service Clearance (DBS)
• Evidence of driving licence / car document