Salary/Grade: £51,515 - £54,484 p.a. / Grade 16 (pay award pending)
Hours/Days: 37 hours per week
Contract Type: Permanent
Location: NEDDC, District Council Offices, Mill Lane, Wingerworth, S42 6NG
Closing Date: 19th May 2024
Interview Date: 24th May 2024

Job Details and Requirements

At North-East Derbyshire District Council we embrace innovation, creativity, new ideas and new ways of working to ensure our Council succeeds. We challenge functional barriers, encourage, coach and empower our colleagues to create an environment where our people want to be successful and take ownership and most importantly believe in our ONE TEAM ethos. Our Council has a strong people-centric culture which provides the foundations for delivery of our services to our communities.

We are looking to recruit a Legal Services Manager to our small, but ambitious and enthusiastic team. This post reports directly to the Assistant Director of Governance and Monitoring Officer and will assume the role of Deputy Monitoring Officer, as well as managing the Legal Services Team.

The Council has just launched its Council Plan 2023-2027 and our service managers play a key role in the successful delivery of this plan. The Legal Services Manger will be involved with senior managers and Members across the Council in delivering our ambitions under the Council Plan. Accordingly, you will need to show an ability to contribute effectively to the work of multi specialist teams as well as the ability to create strong working relationships with those you deal with.

As the lead specialist, we are looking for a qualified lawyer with significant expertise in housing litigation and experience of Planning enforcement would be an advantage. In addition, you should be able to demonstrate experience of leading a legal team within a local authority or in a relevant legal background or the strong desire to do so. You should be able to demonstrate how you will provide effective casework supervision to Team members as well as managing a significant workload yourself. You will be operating at a corporate level so will need to demonstrate a good understanding of the Council’s delivery ambitions and how these will be achieved as well as demonstrating your significant legal experience.

You will be able to demonstrate effective leadership skills, supporting change within Legal Services and across the Council and positively transforming working practices and service delivery outcomes. You will be able to demonstrate how you can develop the Legal Team and individual skill sets. Long term planning, management and development of complex legal projects will be integral to the role, and you will be an effective problem solver with the ability to apply sound judgement and evaluation to inform, advise and make decisions independently and quickly. You will be able to demonstrate an ability to manage budgets as well as legal policies, procedures and documents.

Effective interpersonal communication skills are essential to the role, and you will be skilled in writing and presenting quality documentation to a range of audiences. You will take ownership of service plans and corporate plans as required and lead on policy and procedure development relevant to the role and the wider organisation. You will need substantial knowledge of local and national strategies and be able to provide sound professional legal advice.

Contact Details

For an informal discussion about the post, please contact Sarah Sternberg, Assistant Director Governance and Monitoring Officer on (01246) 217731 or sarah.sternberg@ne-derbyshire.gov.uk

Application Pack

If you are interested in this post, please apply using the online application, attaching a CV and covering letter explaining how you meet the job spec on our dedicated webpage on Derbyshire Jobs at: North East Derbyshire District Council Vacancies or via Derbyshire - Jobs and Careers by clicking ‘Apply for this job’ and creating an account. You can save your progress and exit the application at any time, coming back to it at a later stage to complete and submit your application. Applications close Midnight, 19th May 2024.

Please read the Guidance Notes provided before completing any application and please note that CV’s alone will not be accepted and must be accompanied by a letter as described above.

If you do not have internet access, you can request an offline application pack by contacting North East Derbyshire District Council Contact Centre on (01246) 231111 or emailing: human.resources@ne-derbyshire.gov.uk

We welcome applications from all sections of the community. Please note the Council only consider applications from candidates eligible to work in the UK and who possess a current work permit appropriate to the job role advertised. If you have not received any communication within 4 weeks of the closing date, please assume you have been unsuccessful on this occasion and we thank you for your interest in the job role.