**INTERNAL APPLICATIONS ONLY** Junior Childcare Advocate

**INTERNAL APPLICATIONS ONLY**

 

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO10 £68,784 - £72,399 

Contract Type: Full-time/ Permanent

Working hours per week: 36 

Application Deadline: 08/07/2026

Proposed Interview Date(s): TBC 

Reference: 2204

 

About Us: 

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work. 

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents. 

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment. 

The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method. 
 

About the role: 

Full of energy and culture, Waltham Forest is a progressive and innovative borough with a Legal Service to match. We provide the best possible legal service to our diverse client departments through our highly skilled legal professionals. As an In-house Advocate, you’ll represent Children’s Social Care teams and be a specialist in your area. You’ll be a key member of our Families team.

Your role will involve giving advice on relevant legislation and providing representation in the Family Court to the children’s social care teams, covering all aspects of childcare law. It means delivering a legal service that meets all Council, professional and legal requirements in line with our business and service plans.

>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<  

 

Key Responsibilities: 

• To advise Children’s Social Care teams on legal and evidential matters pertaining to cases that the Legal Service team have been instructed on.
• Provide high quality pro-active legal advice, assistance and support including cases/projects of high complexity and/or substantial corporate importance in childcare law and related areas. 
• Provision of legal representation in the Family Court to the Children’s Social Care teams, covering all aspects of childcare law.
• To take clear instructions from the clients and to identify the clients’ objectives and further them in a professional and ethical manner.
• To advise the clients in respect of emergency or urgent applications and to provide representation at Court in respect of those cases, including out of hours cover where necessary and to attend meetings and court hearings outside of working hours.
• Undertake drafting to include (but not limited to) case summaries, position statements, skeleton arguments, threshold documents, witness templates, Scott schedules and draft case management orders as required.
• To design and deliver training to colleagues and client departments.

Qualifications and Requirements: 

• To join us, you must be a qualified Barrister, Solicitor or FILEX with advocacy rights, with ideally Higher Rights of Audience. 
• You will have experience in conducting advocacy in a wide variety of care and related proceedings in the Family Court, as well as representing clients at advocate’s meetings. 
• A childcare specialist, you’ll be confident and capable – ready to work independently and act upon your initiative. You’ll also be able and committed to working in a flexible way, including outside normal office hours when necessary. 
• Whilst a local authority background would be an advantage, we’ll also welcome experience in private practice. Alternatively, you could be counsel who has completed pupillage or a professional who has built up transferable skills in another in-house role. 
• You must have a good working knowledge of local government law as well as childcare legislation. We’re also looking for the ability to formulate and present quality legal robust arguments before the Courts on behalf of our clients, both orally and in writing, within hearings of varying lengths and complexity.
• To be considered, you must have initiative, a proactive approach to problem-solving, and commitment to the job. You will work within a friendly, welcoming and supportive team where your professional development will be nurtured and appreciated.  

Terms and conditions: 

The below terms and conditions apply to this role: 

• Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks; 
• Satisfactory declaration of interest; 
• Satisfactory DBS check; 
• Continued professional body registration; 

How to Apply: 

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy. 

 We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.  

 Equal Opportunity Employer: 

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value. 

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy. 

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview. 

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us. 

Contact Information: 

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Sahdiah Ikram, Principal Lawyer, Family Legal Team, Legal Services, email: sahdiah.ikram@waltham.forest.gov.uk 

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk. 

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.