Senior Legal Services Officer

at  Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

We are seeking a Senior Legal Services Officer to play a pivotal role in delivering the diverse and dynamic Legal Services required to support one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching Trusts. King’s has a unique profile of local services and focused tertiary specialties together with an international reputation for its work in liver disease and transplantation, neurosciences, fetal medicine, cardiac and blood cell cancer.

This post represents an excellent opportunity for a professional with a passion for high quality (and occasionally high profile) medico-legal work. The post holder will provide professional support for Trust claims and inquest work as well as assisting under supervision with advisory and Court of Protection matters. There will be involvement in some legal matters of particular national and international importance, attracting media attention.

• To provide an effective claims management and inquest service for the Trust including clinical negligence; employer and public liability matters.
• Responsibility for complying with disclosure and obtaining witness statements from relevant Trust staff in relations to inquests or claims.
• Notify and report to the Associate Director of Legal / Head of Legal (ADoL / HoL) any claims trends or issues relating to clinical processes or staff conduct arising out of any claims or inquests.
• To assist with advising on general healthcare law, support with Court of Protection applications and other clinical legal issues.
• To assist with the preparation of reports, databases, management of internal case management systems and delivery of internal training sessions.
• The job description may be subject to change according to the varying needs of the service.
• All duties must be carried out within the scope of Trust policy and procedures. You must never undertake any duties that are outside your area of skill or knowledge. If in doubt, you must seek clarification from a more senior member of Legal Services.

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of c£1 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and more than 15,000 staff based across South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local and specialist services across its five sites. The trust-wide strategy of Strong Roots, Global Reach is our Vision to be BOLD, Brilliant people, Outstanding care, Leaders in Research, Innovation and Education, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at the heart of everything we do. By being person-centred, digitally-enabled, and focused on sustainability, we aim to take Team King’s to another level.
We are at a pivotal point in our history and we require individuals who are ready to join a highly professional team and make a real, lasting difference to our patients and our people.
King’s is committed to delivering Sustainable Healthcare for All via our Green Plan. In line with national Greener NHS ambitions, we have set net zero carbon targets of 2040 for our NHS Carbon Footprint and 2045 for our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus. Everyone’s contribution is required in order to meet the goals set out in our Green Plan and we encourage all staff to work responsibly, minimising their contributions to the Trust’s carbon emissions, waste and pollution wherever possible.
Main Duties and Responsibilities

1. Claims Handling

• Under supervision of more senior members of Legal Services, manage claims against the Trust for clinical negligence and employer/public liability in accordance with Pre-Action protocols, Civil Procedure Rules and NHS Resolution reporting requirements.
• Liaise with other departments to obtain additional information where there has been a complaint, incident or internal investigation.
• Identify links between claims, incidents, and Inquests and initiate any additional investigations via other relevant teams such as Risk or Patient Safety.
• Responsible for notifying and requesting comments or statements from relevant members of staff on any claims matters, where panel has not already been instructed to do so.
• To prepare updating briefs on claims for the approval of ADoL / HoL and provide reports on the claims as and when requested by ADoL / HoL
• Liaise with claimants’ solicitors as necessary to elicit further information.
• Review and analyse medical records and any other relevant documents and preparation of chronology/synopsis.
• At the conclusion of the claims, to ensure that relevant clinicians and the department are updated with the conclusion of the matter and ensure that any lessons learned are identified and communicated across the Trust, in particular through contributing to Legal Services reports
• Responsible for ensuring that all claims where complex issues arise are brought to the attention of ADoL / HoL for advice and direction as per relevant policies.

1. Inquests

To assist ADoL / HoL in the conduct of Coroners’ Inquest cases by completing tasks in the preparation of all such cases, including:

• Acting as primary liaison point with the Coroner’s Office and maintaining a professional and amicable working relationship with the various Coroners’ Officers;
• Management of frequent, unexpected and urgent requests for information and/or assistance from Coroners’ Officers which may require reprioritisation of work, exercising judgement having regard to the particular circumstances;
• Opening case management files for all new Inquest matters and maintaining/updating these as the matter develops;
• Retrieving medical records and identification of relevant witnesses, and requesting reports and/or statements from the witnesses, ensuring at all times that any time scales requested by the Coroner’s Office are met;
• Identifying linked complaints and incidents and notifying ADoL / HoL;
• Analysis and assessment of complex clinical and factual scenarios (which may be distressing) in the identification of relevant factual witnesses and any key legal, ethical or patient safety issues that may arise in the Coroner’s inquiry;
• Escalating any potentially contentious issues and/or any problems in obtaining witness reports/statements to more senior members of the team and proactive identification of potential solutions;
• Identifying where NHSR funding is required for an inquest hearing and requesting this;
• Drafting briefs and instructions to panel and/or Counsel.
• Co-ordinating Pre-Inquest Meetings and court hearing appointments for the Legal team and the relevant witnesses and, if appropriate, external Counsel;
• Attending Inquest hearings in order to support relevant witnesses and / or conduct advocacy;
• Ensuring that Record of Inquests and conclusions are promptly obtained following the conclusion of Inquests and ensuring that any learning identified has been escalated to ADoL / HoL the Case management files are updated and closed as appropriate.
• At the conclusion of the Inquest, to ensure that relevant clinicians and the department are updated with the conclusion of the matter and ensure that any lessons learned are identified and communicated across the Trust, in particular through contributing to regular Legal Services reports.

1. Advice, Analysis and Data Management

• Under supervision, to manage advisory queries and provide advice within their sphere of competence.
• Responsible for maintaining the data within the Trust’s inquests and claims database(s) (e.g. InPhase), ensuring that the data is accurate and up-to-date
• Provide relevant information to ADoL / HoL as requested in order to form the wider Trust with regards to trends within the inquests and claims portfolio
• Preparing draft reports under direction for review by more senior colleagues.

1. Supervisory role

• Acting as primary liaison point with the Coroner’s Office and maintaining a professional and amicable working relationship with the various Coroners’ Officers;
• Management of frequent, unexpected and urgent requests for information and/or assistance from Coroners’ Officers which may require reprioritisation of work, exercising judgement having regard to the particular circumstances;
• Opening case management files for all new Inquest matters and maintaining/updating these as the matter develops;
• Retrieving medical records and identification of relevant witnesses, and requesting reports and/or statements from the witnesses, ensuring at all times that any time scales requested by the Coroner’s Office are met;
• Identifying linked complaints and incidents and notifying ADoL / HoL;
• Analysis and assessment of complex clinical and factual scenarios (which may be distressing) in the identification of relevant factual witnesses and any key legal, ethical or patient safety issues that may arise in the Coroner’s inquiry;
• Escalating any potentially contentious issues and/or any problems in obtaining witness reports/statements to more senior members of the team and proactive identification of potential solutions;
• Identifying where NHSR funding is required for an inquest hearing and requesting this;
• Drafting briefs and instructions to panel and/or Counsel.
• Co-ordinating Pre-Inquest Meetings and court hearing appointments for the Legal team and the relevant witnesses and, if appropriate, external Counsel;
• Attending Inquest hearings in order to support relevant witnesses and / or conduct advocacy;
• Ensuring that Record of Inquests and conclusions are promptly obtained following the conclusion of Inquests and ensuring that any learning identified has been escalated to ADoL / HoL the Case management files are updated and closed as appropriate.
• At the conclusion of the Inquest, to ensure that relevant clinicians and the department are updated with the conclusion of the matter and ensure that any lessons learned are identified and communicated across the Trust, in particular through contributing to regular Legal Services reports