Senior Lawyer – Inquiries Team

This role also offers a £600 annual homeworking allowance and a £2,500 Recruitment and Retention allowance.

Make a difference
Every role at CQC contributes to our mission. If you’re looking for a new role in Legal Services that gives a true sense of meaning and purpose, then you’ve found it.

As a Senior Lawyer in the Inquires Team, you’ll help ensure CQC responds effectively to public inquiries, supporting better outcomes across health and social care.

Picture this
You’ll work at the heart of important decisions, providing practical legal advice that helps CQC respond to high-profile inquiries and investigations, ensuring important lessons are identified and acted upon. You’ll collaborate with colleagues across the organisation to solve complex challenges, manage legal risks, and shape effective legal solutions.

As a Senior Lawyer, you might:

• Get the chance to work on CQC’s response to a major public inquiry or independent investigation, helping identify legal risks and supporting complex casework that informs organisational learning.
• Help shape strategic legal solutions that influence how CQC respond effectively to emerging issues across health and social care sectors.

The role
You’ll play an important part in delivering our mission. In this role, you’ll:

• Lead and support a legal team: Manage, coach and develop legal professionals, helping them deliver high-quality advice and services across CQC.
• Provide expert legal guidance: Deliver practical, solutions-focused legal advice across CQC, support inquiry proceedings where required, helping colleagues and leaders make informed legally-robust decisions.
• Drive continuous improvement: Monitor legal trends, review team performance, build strong relationships, and use feedback and learning to drive improvement in legal services and support organisational priorities.

Show us
We will be looking for specific skills, knowledge and experience in your application form:

• A legal qualification as a Solicitor, Barrister or Fellow of CILEX, with the right to practise in England and Wales, with at least 5 years post qualification experience of advising on public inquiries, inquests or significant public law matters including preparing submissions, drafting witness statements, or acting as a legal representative.
• Experience leading, coaching or developing legal professionals while managing legal work and delivering high-quality outcomes.
• Experience advising on complex legal matters, assessing legal risk, and explaining legal issues clearly to senior stakeholders or colleagues.

Apply today to join a workplace where your impact is felt every day.

Compliance
Note for internal candidates:
This is a secondment/fixed term opportunity. Please read the recruitment and selection policy section on secondments. You must discuss your application with your line manager before applying.

To progress your application, you’ll need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. Without valid right to work you won’t be eligible for the role. We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role. Some roles may also be subject to a satisfactory DBS check.

Next steps
If you apply, you’ll need to create a profile and complete an online application form. Your application will be completely anonymous.  Please see our information for applicants for more details on the process. We contact every applicant to let them know the outcome of their application, so you will hear from us whether or not you are shortlisted.

You can read the full details of the role in the Job Description

 If you’d like an informal chat about the role contact – Suleman Patel, Deputy Director of Public Inquiries at Suleman.Patel@cqc.org.uk. For general enquiries, please email recruitment@cqc.org.uk.

Closing date: 5 November 2026

For further information or to apply, please click on the ‘Enquire/Apply’ button.