Investigations Lawyer

at  The Nursing and Midwifery Council

ABOUT YOU

• You’ll have a current UK practising certificate.
• Evidence of providing legal advice in a high pressured environment.
• An ability to think about the ‘big picture’ as well as the detail – we’re looking for someone who can make sensible, pragmatic decisions.
• Evidence of commitment to motivating and coaching more junior members of staff.
• Excellent written, oral and presentations skills.
• Focused approach to delivering results by working to tight deadlines.
• Self-motivated – we need someone with initiative who takes pride in the quality of their work and always strives to improve.
• Experience of collaborative working with other teams.
• Experience of working in a politically sensitive environment and dealing with high profile sensitive issues.
• Evidence of being willing to do what’s needed to get cases investigated. We’re looking for someone who is willing to work on cases as well as advise on them.

ABOUT US

Our core role is to regulate. First, we promote high education and professional standards for nurses and midwives across the UK, and nursing associates in England. Second, we maintain the register of professionals eligible to practise. Third, we investigate concerns about nurses, midwives and nursing associates - something that affects a tiny minority of professionals each year. We believe in giving professionals the chance to address concerns, but we’ll always take action when needed.
To regulate well, we support our professions and the public. We create resources and guidance that are useful throughout people’s careers, helping them to deliver our standards in practice and address new challenges. We also support people involved in our investigations, and we’re increasing our visibility so people feel engaged and empowered to shape our work.
Regulating and supporting our professions allows us to influence health and social care. We share intelligence from our regulatory activities and work with our partners to support workforce planning and sector-wide decision making. We use our voice to speak up for a healthy and inclusive working environment for our professions.
Check out our NMC LinkedIn page here for an insight into the NMC, our vacancies and the world of healthcare regulation.

This role is offered on an initial 12 month contract
As an Investigations Lawyer within the Professional Regulation directorate you’ll play an important role in ensuring cases are investigated in a proportionate and timely way that best protects the public in accordance with the NMC’s statutory obligations.
The role involves providing advice to case holders on a range of matters including case direction, scoping, evidential considerations, management of risk and procedural issues. The role involves providing advice at various stages from investigation planning to reviewing completed investigation reports and evidence.
As we’re working across the directorate to reduce our caseload, we’re testing some new ways of working so there may be some cases in your team that you’ll provide more direction over and there may be some cases in your team that you don’t advise on at all. There will be some cases on which you’ll need to conduct witness interviews, and engage with other external parties, such as our registrants and their representatives. Our investigations lawyers also provides oversight and support for applications to the High Court to extend interim orders.
Ultimately, you’ll need to support the department in producing high quality investigations in a timely manner.