About the role
A unique opportunity to build a team and influence one of the largest and newest unitary Councils
North Northamptonshire Council is an ambitious, exciting, innovative and supportive place to work. The Council is committed to focused service delivery to improve the lives of our residents. Following local government reform, we are well on our way into our transformation journey to deliver excellent services in an inclusive and creative environment where ideas are encouraged alongside a commitment to staff development.
The Council has an ambitious growth agenda, securing significant levelling up funding to support regeneration projects and an overall revenue and capital budget of £292 million. The Council is proud to have delivered a balanced budget and despite the challenging financial position nationally is as a result, able to remain focused on delivery of its objectives.
We have invested in our legal team to support delivery of the Councils priorities and created a structure that supports the team to deliver a holistic legal service across the Council’s functions. This is an exciting time to join us and be integral in building, establishing, and developing the new team providing high quality trusted advice.
We are committed to your personal development; the variety of work delivers an exciting mixed caseload for the team. Our approach provides you with an opportunity to influence and play a broad role in the Council and the way it delivers services to residents.
As a member of the team, you will be supported at a senior level and by your peers in a growing and developing team of professionals. The team’s focus is on enabling service delivery, to achieve this we adopt a partnering model with our clients, supporting them to deliver an ambitious agenda for North Northampton.
The newly created team provides an exciting opportunity for applicant’s whatever stage they are at in their career. We are committed to developing, nurturing, and growing talent from legal assistants, to the managers of the future. As a unitary authority, the opportunities are varied and broad providing a unique opportunity to shape processes and grow with the Council as it develops. We will be releasing more opportunities, so watch this space.
Please have a look at our YouTube video here also: https://youtu.be/kqsWrCeshT0
What will you be doing?
The purpose of this job is:
To provide the council, as constituted by its Elected Members and Officers, with access at all times to appropriate advice and support in order to carry out its functions lawfully, effectively and efficiently. This role will provide legal advice on complex or politically sensitive matters directly to Members and Officers.
To support the Monitoring Officer, providing professional advice on governance, compliance with the Constitution, Code of Conduct and associated legal areas.
To work with the Corporate Leadership Team to ensure that North Northamptonshire Council and any subsidiary organisations has access to appropriate legal advice, this will include acting as the council’s “intelligent client” in the commissioning of Legal Services from external private law firms and counsel, monitoring and ensuring the council obtains value for money in commissioning, robustly monitoring delivery and cost-effectiveness.
Please see the attached job description and person specification for full job responsibilities
About you
You must be a Qualified Solicitor or Barrister licensed to practice and able to demonstrate proven experience and knowledge as follows:
- Legal knowledge and experience in one of the areas of Children’s’ Social Care provision and Safeguarding, Adults Social Care or Public Health Law, Contracts and Procurement, Litigation and Governance.
- Record of providing advice and acting as legal advisor to members and officers within a local authority/public sector. Likely to have held more than one role in different organisation and to demonstrate working across different subject areas since qualification
- A thorough understanding of Local Government Law and the legislative framework governing the operation of local authorities and public sector bodies more generally.
- Experience of advising in relation to matters of corporate governance and legal structures.
- Experience of overseeing corporate processes and procedures and ensuring compliance with the law.
Please see the attached job description and person specification for full details of the essential and desirable criteria for this role.
Our benefits
We offer:
- a competitive salary
- a pension scheme, where we pay a significant contribution on top of your contribution. It provides life cover and ill-health protection.
- opportunities to develop your skills, knowledge and potential in a large unitary council
- generous leave entitlement (27 days, rising to 32 days) and bank holidays, plus the option to buy up to an extra 10 days
- agile and flexible working arrangements to help you with a healthy work-life balance.
About us
We are a new unitary council, established in April 2021; we are one of the largest unitary councils in the country. Our vision for North Northants is to be 'A place where everyone has the best opportunities and quality of life'.
Our priorities are:
- helping people live active fulfilled lives
- caring for our young people, providing them with high quality education and opportunities
- enabling a thriving and successful economy
- leading on a green and sustainable environment
- ensuring our communities are connected do they can shape their lives and where they live
- providing modern public services
Our values, as chosen by our staff, are - Customer-focused, Respectful, Efficient, Supportive and Trustworthy.
Your differences make us different - Achieve Together.
We are undertaking consultation with the Trade Unions on terms and conditions and the future NNC pay structure and during this time are appointing new employees on interim spot salaries. You will be advised of the outcome and any impact on your role once this work is complete.
Attached documents
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