Salary: Band 6, £26,073 to £29,777 per annum
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time (37 hours per week, Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5.00pm)
Closing date: Wednesday 28 August 2024, 23:59
Portsmouth City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and young people, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. It is also committed to promoting quality childcare across the city that works to improve outcomes for children.
Every post is subject to PCC and Portsmouth Safeguarding Children’s Board safer recruitment procedures.
Why come to live and work in Portsmouth?
Portsmouth is a great waterfront city and a vibrant place to live and work. It is an island city with an “inner city” feel, a seaside location packed with attractions and events, and the advantage of fantastic countryside on its doorstep. With fast road and rail links to London, Brighton and major airports, and ferry links to Europe, it is the perfect place to live and work. Portsmouth has a strong history of partnership working and has successfully integrated several local services.
The Service:
Portsmouth Legal Services is a friendly hardworking and dedicated team of approximately 40 lawyers and assistant staff who provide commercial and litigation support to the Council departments. We are committed to ensuring an excellent service in all aspects of our work.
Your New Role:
Your duties will include preparation of court bundles, maintaining and resolving conflict in court diaries and fee earner diaries, email correspondence both internally and externally, payment of invoices and court fees, Freedom of Information and ensuring compliance with court directions. You will provide support, advice and assistance across the department with a main focus on supporting the childcare and litigation teams. You will collect and maintain data on ongoing work and projects, and provide efficient and effective legal and admin backup service, primarily to the Children's Social Care service. You will assist with drafting court documents including urgent applications with supervision from a fee earner, and you will receive training in use of the electronic court bundling systems.
Please read the job profile for the full details of this role.
What you'll need to succeed:
You are an ambitious and creative individual with a positive and energetic attitude, and you take pride in your and our successes. You are consistent, supportive, respectful, proactive and flexible. You have excellent time management and IT skills and can work flexibly. You have experience of managing diaries and meetings, and can prioritise effectively. You have good teamworking and communication skills, are confident, and have good attention to detail. You can work with integrity and to deadlines, being responsible and accountable for the delivery of your personal tasks and outcomes. You have at least two A levels or equivalent at Level 3. Experience in law would be an advantage but not essential.
Please read the job profile for the full details of this role.
You will need to demonstrate that you have the Right to Work in the UK. No post will be offered without it.
What you'll get in return:
We really appreciate our employees and fully realise they are essential to our success and look to offer an inclusive, supportive working environment where employees can reach their potentials with a healthy work life balance, offering the following rewards:
- Generous annual leave (27 days per year rising to 31, pro rata for part time hours) with the potential to purchase additional leave.
- A fantastic pension which allows you the opportunity to pay in more for that greater return.
- Flexible working options including hybrid working with a minimum of two days office based per week pro rata, giving you the flexibility to work up to three days at home every week. Hybrid working is dependent on the role and service needs, exact details will be discussed with you at interview.
- Access to a wide range of training and development opportunities including apprenticeships.
- Extensive wellbeing support through the Employee Assistance Programme
- Discount on travel, travel loans and the bike loan scheme
- Discounts on a wide range of goods and services – access a range of discounts and offers from thousands of restaurants, shops and more.
Staff rewards: https://careers.portsmouth.gov.uk/working-for-the-council/
Additional Information:
The full job profile is attached here.
Contact Details for an Informal Discussion:
Peter Baulf, City Solicitor and Monitoring Officer, peter.baulf@portsmouthcc.gov.uk, 023 92 834 041
A commitment to our values:
We are committed to our values of respect, integrity, collaboration, inclusivity and being people-focussed. These values set out how we can contribute to the success of the council and our own success as individuals. Learn more about our values and behaviours.
Application process:
How to complete your application: https://careers.portsmouth.gov.uk/how-to-apply/
We are a disability confident employer - committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive and accessible and welcome applications from all areas of society.
Please submit both a CV and a cover letter/personal statement. Remember to demonstrate in your cover letter/personal statement why you are suitable against each of the points described in the 'Who is the Person' points on the Job Profile, using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work / personal experience, which clearly illustrates what you did and the effect it had.
If you upload a CV without a cover letter/personal statement, it is unlikely that your application will be successful.
Please ensure you provide your full education history from secondary school, include name/address of establishment, details of relevant qualifications & awarding body. Please explain any gaps.
We will email applicants from time to time; please ensure you check e-mail folders as sometimes our e-mails may go into spam/junk folders.
We look forward to speaking with you soon.
Should you require any support in completing the application form please contact recruit@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.