Legal Officer

Grade: C (National £29,725, London £34,407)

London or Leeds

About the Care Quality Commission (CQC)

CQC is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve. We monitor, inspect and regulate services to ensure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find to help people choose care. People work at CQC because they believe we make a positive difference to people’s lives and we have a strong set of values which everyone in CQC helped to develop.

The last two years we have seen changes in the way in which we undertake our work, moving to being directorate based and with the introduction of the Fundamental Standards in 2015.

We have seen an increase in enforcement action such as urgent applications for cancellation or suspension; contentious work, both civil and criminal, including undertaking in-house prosecutions advice and casework under the new regulations as well as an increase in First Tier Tribunal appeals and judicial review matters.

Following a restructure of the Governance & Legal Services directorate, in order to meet this challenge and carry us through the life of the current CQC strategy we are looking to recruit a number of Legal Officers to join our Legal Services team.

About the role

As part of the Governance & Legal Services directorate, Legal Officers in the Legal Services team provide robust, responsive and expert legal advice and support to CQC, covering all areas of law that potentially impact on the organisation and its work.

As a Legal Officer within CQC you will be responsible for advising on civil and criminal enforcement matters, undertaking urgent action which may include advocacy; and for prosecuting under our revised criminal prosecution powers as a result of our 2014 Regulations.

You will also be responsible for developing strong relations throughout the business, using knowledge to shape legal solutions.

About you

You will be a Qualified Solicitor, Barrister or Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, entitled to practise in England and Wales; or alternatively you should have a minimum of 2 years’ non-qualified experience working within a legal environment, preferably involving statutory regulation.

You should have an established history of managing caseloads, advising on legal matters and managing enforcement activity.   With the ability to present complex information in an easy to understand accessible format you should have strong communication and presentation skills and the ability to secure and maintain the confidence of a range of CQC stakeholders.

Able to analyse risk and benefit within a fast-based environment and to reassess priorities on a continual basis, you should possess strong persuading and influencing skills; and as a confident communicator you will have the skills and ability to communicate effectively as an effective networker and relationship builder.

Underpinning all of the above, we expect you to be committed to CQC’s values of Excellence, Caring, Integrity and Teamwork.

Closing date: 31st July 2017, 12.00 noon

Interviews for these posts are scheduled to take place in London and Leeds week of 14th – 18th August 2017