About us

Trafford Council and its partners in the public, private and third sectors are embarking on a Vision which sees us working together to close inequality gaps and maximise Trafford’s huge potential. Our vision is working together to build the best future for all our communities and everyone in Trafford.

Trafford really is a great place to work. With a positive permission culture, we embrace innovation and encourage performance. We’re keen to recruit someone with the right values and behaviours that can help us ensure our workplace values are at the heart of everything we do.

We recognise that having a diverse workforce is essential to bringing fresh ideas and perspectives to our Council, so we particularly welcome applications from minority, marginalised and diverse groups, and we in turn promise a fair and unbiased recruitment process.

We currently have an exciting opportunity for a qualified Solicitor to join the Council’s Children and Adult Services Legal Team to enable us to continue to build on our success and also bring new experience, knowledge and ideas into the team.

About you

Your style and approach will reflect our values and behaviours. You will be committed to continually learning and improving the way you do things to ensure effective outcomes; valuing and respecting others’ contribution, you will work together to deliver service; you will take ownership of your actions and strive to getting things right first time and learn from when things do go wrong; you will enjoy taking personal responsibility to resolve issues and change what you do and how you do it to make a difference.

About the role

The role will involve providing a comprehensive, cost effective, responsive and quality legal service in the field of Adult Social Care and Adult Services within the Council and work as a solicitor as part of the Council’s in-house legal team in close cooperation with the Adult Social Care team. The post holder will take all appropriate steps to ensure that the Council meets its social care responsibilities and priorities.

The main duties of the post will be providing clear and practical legal advice in relation to adult social care matters including but not limited to mental capacity and best interests, deprivation of liberty, judicial review, ordinary residence, care charges and adult social care debt recovery, conduct of cases in the Court of Protection and Coroner’s Court.

You will keep up to date with the relevant regulations, policy and legislation relating to this area of law and practice.

The ideal candidate will come from a public sector background and will have experience of managing a caseload of adult social care matters, although candidates with relevant experience in private practice are very welcome to apply, provided they have relevant transferrable skills.

You will work closely with the Council’s Children, Families and Wellbeing Directorate and other services as well as the legal services team and will therefore have good customer care and interpersonal skills, good communication and problem solving skills and will work well as part of a team and be flexible, enthusiastic and committed.

You will possess a “can do” approach. You’ll be skilled at drafting legal documentation, providing concise and clear advice, carrying out legal research and analysis and representing the Council at Court. Well organised and adaptable, you may from time to time be asked to take on challenges outside your field of expertise.

The grading of the appointment will be made based on interview and experience. Progression within the grading structure then will be based on clear criteria. 

You will join a strong team that deals with issues in a pragmatic manner, within a supportive environment and be required to work part time (0.5 FTE), between Monday and Friday. The proposed working hours and pattern will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate. The Council also promotes flexible working initiatives for staff, to balance work and life commitments.