Legal Caseworker - Children and Education Legal Team
- Employer
- Essex County Council
- Location
- England, Essex, Chelmsford
- Salary
- £23344 - £26620 per annum + + 26 Days Leave & Local Gov Pension
- Closing date
- 21 Nov 2024
View more categoriesView less categories
- Sector
- Corporate Services, Administration, Legal
- Job role
- Officer
- Contract Type
- Full time
Job Details
Legal Caseworker - Children and Education Legal Team
Fixed Term - 12 Months duration, Full Time - 37 Hours Per Week
£23,344 to £26,620 Per Annum
Location: Chelmsford
Closing Date: Wednesday 20th November 2024 at 11.59pm
Please note that this is a Fixed Term Contract / Secondment opportunity for a period of 12 months
This role has a hybrid working arrangement. We will expect you to attend our Chelmsford offices approximately 1 - 2 days per week. In the first 2 months of appointment to the role, you will be required to attend the office daily for training purposes.
The Role
Essex Legal Services (ELS) provides high quality, professional, legal advice across the Council and to increasing numbers of external clients.
As a caseworker in the Children and Education Team you will assist the lawyers to provide a high-quality advice and litigation service to meet the Council's corporate objectives and will support legally qualified and other colleagues, in providing routine admin and quasi legal tasks. Working directly to lawyers and paralegals, you will be commissioned to undertake various tasks such as preparing court bundles, organising meetings and administrative support. You will contribute to delivering a more efficient, professional service that is valued by our customers and improves their business.
The Children and Education legal team deal with highly sensitive, sometimes distressing, cases relating to child protection matters. You should therefore be resilient and empathetic. The team works at a very fast pace, often dealing with several urgent matters and it is therefore essential you are able to work under pressure and prioritise tasks.
The Opportunity
You will support legally qualified colleagues in the delivery of all aspects of routine legal work within the Children and Education team across the Council and to external customers which will include:
- Dealing predominantly with public law cases including care proceedings and adoption proceedings;
- Responsible for the smooth and efficient running of your allocated lawyers' day to day activities;
- Liaising with external solicitors, barristers, courts and CAFCASS;
- Processing applications, preparing court bundles;
- Lodging documents with the Court and other parties via the Family Public Law online portal;
- Diary management;
- General administration, including preparing bundles photocopying and scanning.
Accountabilities
- Good understanding of client needs and provides them with a service they value, which supports them in driving the delivery of productivity and efficiency improvements.
- Supports colleagues in the development of current and future business opportunities, to promote the Essex Legal Services' vision to the external market.
- Responsible for delivering personal objectives in support of the function's overall business plan.
- Develops good working relationships across the Council, schools, other local authorities and the private sector, to ensure a quality service is provided to the customer.
- Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.
The Experience You Will Bring
Essential
- Strong Administrative and IT skills including Outlook and Word.
- Excellent communication skills with ability to communicate appropriately with a diverse range of clients and external organisations and professionals.
- Proven track record of excellent customer service skills.
- Works collaboratively in a fast-paced environment with colleagues and the client base, to understand customer needs with a strong focus on delivering positive outcomes which meet these needs and an ability to manage competing demands.
Desirable:
- Experience of working within an administrative role in legal setting in a public service or private sector environment, assisting in the provision of legal work preferably within family law.
- Experience of the Family Public Law Portal
- Experience of a Case Management System - ELS uses Visual Files.
Company
Why Essex?
Essex County Council covers 1,300 square miles from Constable Country to the Thames Estuary. From the dynamic M11 corridor to the traditional seaside resorts of Clacton and Walton. England’s oldest town, Colchester, and two of its newest – Basildon and Harlow – are right here. Along with the City of Chelmsford, the county town, they form our major population centres. It means real choice and makes Essex the ideal place for your career.
We celebrate difference and work to ensure that no one is disadvantaged when accessing services, employment or public life in Essex. We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interviewing all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. We’re also committed to interviewing all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.
Free to deliver big
We recruit creative, ambitious, talented people, and free them up to think – and deliver – big.
We’ve made substantial changes in recent years, reorganising how we’re structured and how we work, so we can protect the most vulnerable and enable our economy to grow. Join us and you’ll be trusted to take control, manage change and make a lasting impact. You’ll be able to call upon external partners and suppliers to help you deliver. More importantly, talented, trailblazing colleagues – including many industry-leaders – will be right by your side to share ideas, knowledge and experience.
Find out how Essex County Council is changing, and how you’ll fit in.
Employee Recognition & Engagement
Here are some of the things we have in place to give our employees a sense of belonging, involvement and recognition.
Employee Networks:
- Ethnically Diverse Employee Network (EDEN)
- Carers Forum
- Christian Network
- Disabled Employees Network
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Network
- Parents Network
- Women’s Network
- Men’s Network
- Young People and Apprentice Network.
You Make The Difference’ Awards - giving employees the opportunity to nominate individuals or teams who go above and beyond for our residents.
Employee Surveys – where we listen to the voices of our people and take action on what we hear.
Employee Panels – giving you the opportunity to feed back on a range of policies and initiatives, network with colleagues and influence far-reaching changes.
Learning and Development
We have developed diverse learning opportunities to support our people to grow both personally and professionally. This includes:
- A large suite of online training and tools
- Dedicated learning events such as ‘LearnFest’ – our flagship annual celebration of learning
- Apprenticeships for both new and existing colleagues
- Financial support to achieve professional qualifications
- Support from subject matter experts
- The opportunity to share your own expertise to up-skill colleagues
- Leadership and executive coaching
- Learning on demand
- Career pathways
Rewards and Benefits
- Family Friendly flexible Working
- Generous holiday and special leave allowances (including the option to purchase extra holiday)
- Local Government Pension Scheme
- Life Assurance of three times annual salary
- Volunteering leave (up to 4 days per year)
- Employee wellbeing and counselling
- Travel discounts & season ticket loans
- Learning and Development opportunities/coaching & mentoring
- Payment of professional fees for approved professions
- Eye care vouchers
- Lease car scheme (dependent on business needs)
- Up to £8,000 relocation package (subject to terms and conditions)
You’ll also have access to MyReward, a unique platform for Essex County Council employees to gain various discounts and savings.
Your Wellbeing
At Essex County Council we are committed to supporting the wellbeing of our people. We work closely with our employees to provide wellbeing support based on their needs. We strive to enable the right environment, conditions, and behaviours so individual and organisational wellbeing is embedded in everything we do.
Join us and get Inspired to do More.
- Website
- https://workingforessex.com/
- Telephone
- 0845 743 0430
- Location
-
County Hall
Market Road
Chelmsford
Essex
CM1 1QH
United Kingdom
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