Interim Head of Legal Services | East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an interim Head of Legal Services within East Kent Hospitals. The post holder shallprovide the Trust with expert legal and practical advicein the area ofhealthcare law requiring excellent time management, prioritisation,professionalismand pragmatism with the ability to clearly communicate highly contentious,highly complexandhighly sensitiveinformation in a demanding environment that isfrequentlyemotive,and patient focused. Working across the Trust and with other partner organisations;

• To ensure consistent management and professional leadership of the Trust's dedicated Legal Services department; this will include supervision and line management of the Legal Team.
• To provide advice and training on specialist litigation issues.
• To work autonomously within delegated levels of authority. Freedom totake actionbased on own interpretation of professional/relevant policies and law,advisingthe organisation on how these should be interpreted and implemented.
• Advising the organisation how tointerpret law/cases when managing/responding to legal claims. The role is a specialist role whichis able toact within broad occupational policies and only seeking advice as necessary from external specialists.
• Tomaintainones,own high professional standards and actively seek opportunities to develop self and others within the Legal Team.
• To be professionally responsible for own workload and workload of the Legal Team, including ongoing prioritisation of workload of the whole team.
• To work within the business standards code of practice for senior managers.
• To use managerial and judgement skills to analysehighly complexsituations and formulateappropriate solutions/responses.
• To work within Trust policies and procedures
We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 800,000 people. Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our values: 'People feel cared for, safe, respected and confident that we are making a difference'. We have a new way of working at East Kent Hospitals, called 'We care'. It's about empowering frontline staff to lead improvements day-to-day. We're looking for compassionate people to be part of our improvement journey for the patients, families and carers we care for every day.