Essex County Council’s children’s services were recognised as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted in 2018 and 2023. Our team of Children and Education lawyers has been busy supporting the service. There’s lots of challenging and innovative work in one of the largest teams in the country. Essex County Council (ECC) is a diverse and large organisation that strives for excellence and delivers an outstanding service for residents across Essex. At ECC’s in-house legal service, ELS, we pride ourselves on providing a comprehensive legal service to the Council – most of our work is done in-house. We value the people who work for us and provide a supportive working environment, where people work hard to do their best for Essex. The work can be demanding and we expect resilience but our senior leaders are committed to ensuring that ELS is a place where people want to stay.

We’re looking for someone senior who can support our lawyers to deliver outstanding legal advice and support our ethos. This post is focused on leading a team of legal professionals but with a broader role, as part of the ELS leadership team, the role has a strong voice in the running of the service. We're looking for someone with excellent technical legal skills and relevant experience who can quickly pick things up and manage a team of specialists within the Children and Education legal team. They will need to be able to operate effectively in a complex politically-led organisation. Their influencing skills will be critical in order to articulate options and risks when advising Senior Leaders and Councillors.