Senior Safeguarding Lawyer (Children’s)

Are you the Senior Children’s Lawyer we’re looking for?

We pride ourselves in offering the best of London in one borough. The list is long but includes Brick Lane, Victoria Park, Canary Wharf, Columbia Road market, Tower of London, V&A Museum of Childhood and Whitechapel Art Gallery.

We have one of the youngest, most multi-cultural and fastest growing populations in the country - set to rise to 341,000 by 2023. Our residents are our greatest asset, and our part of the East End has been enriched by many generations of migrants who have made their home here.

This is an exciting time to join the council as we bring the old Royal London Hospital in the heart of Whitechapel back to life as our new town hall, with excellent transport links including the Elizabeth Line. Our well-resourced and Lexcel accredited legal team has a crucial role providing the full range and variety of expert services across all areas of the council’s work.

If you’re an experienced and highly motivated legal professional looking for a fantastic opportunity to join our team, then we’d love to hear from you.

Key Responsibilities

You will be one of a team of lawyers dealing with Children’s Social Care, reporting to the Principal Lawyer – (Safeguarding) Children. You will be able to demonstrate experience of dealing with Childcare legal work including emergency applications, care proceedings, adoption and Inherent Jurisdiction, and of providing advice at panel meetings. You will also have strong advocacy skills. Knowledge of judicial review and Adult social care work will be an advantage as the post holder may be required to provide support on these matters.

You will be able to conduct your caseload with minimum supervision and will be accustomed to working at pace in a busy team

Requirements

You must be a Qualified Solicitor/Barrister or Fellow of CILEX and hold a practising certificate. 

Tower Hamlets vision for our borough is that: people are aspirational, independent and have equal access to opportunities; we are a borough that our residents are proud of and love to live in; and we are a dynamic, outcomes-based council using digital innovation and partnership working to respond to the changing needs of our borough. We want people who aspire to our TOWER values: Together; Open; Willing; Excellent; Respect.

Tower Hamlets has a zero-tolerance approach to, and works to eradicate, all forms of discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital status, status as a civil partner, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy and maternity and looks to employ a diverse workforce representative of those groups. We recognise that people can also be disadvantaged by their social and economic circumstances, so we will work to eliminate discrimination and disadvantage caused by social class.

We welcome applicants interested in flexible working arrangements and also applicants who live in the borough