Legal Caseworker - Children and Education Legal Team

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.
  
  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.
  
  As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service