Childcare Lawyer (1 post)
Team: Legal Services
Salary: £39,152- 40,777
Hours: 37 Mon- Fri, some meetings outside of regular hours may be required
Are you a legal professional looking for a challenging and rewarding role where you can use your skills to make a real difference? If so, we want to hear from you. The role is suitable for someone looking for the opportunity to manage a mix of pre-proceedings and care proceedings work. Ideal for someone newly qualified or new to local government, there is support to learn but also the opportunity to make a difference and work independently.
This is an exciting time to be joining Bury Council; a growing council and an equally growing legal services team, we are undertaking a number of exciting development plans across our six townships.
Bury Legal Services plays a vital role in supporting the council's vision for the borough, and we are looking for a Lawyer to join our team and contribute to delivering high quality legal services to our several client departments.
What you'll be doing
As a Childcare Lawyer, you will undertake interesting and challenging work and you will also play a key role in supporting children and young people social care colleagues. You will also have the opportunity to provide input to the development and implementation of our legal compliance policies and procedures.
You will gain experience of conducting cases within these areas of law which will put you in good stead for success and support your continued development within our service should you wish to progress.
At Bury Council, we are advocates of developing our teams, especially in terms of apprenticeships. We are an organisation that looks to promote collaborative working styles.
What our clients say about us
“Bury's legal team are integral to our service delivery and ensuring that timely permanence plans are achieved for our children. At Bury we work closely as a team to achieve the best possible outcomes for children. Our legal team are passionate, knowledgeable about the work they undertake and highly regarded by senior management and social work teams.”
What our team say about us
'The legal team at Bury is a supportive environment in which to develop skills and knowledge to ensure high quality legal representation for children’s services. Colleagues and management team offer great support to every member of the team'.
“The best part about working within a Local Authority legal team, is that you get to work on interesting, complex, and important cases from the get go.”
“The people within legal services are really supportive and the managers genuinely value your opinion and seek to support your progression, if you want to work on something in particular or have a specific interest, they will act on that.”
“What I really enjoy about my role at Bury Council, is that I get to see the positive impacts of the work I do and build really positive client relationships with those within the Council.”
“Working in a friendly team who each cover one another and assist where required is great and helpful, with the addition to be able to bounce ideas and discuss matters with one another, it is a continuous learning curve.
Relaxed and friendly atmosphere with the flexibility of hybrid working, it is the perfect set up. Very good and technical case management platform which performs a variety of tasks and assists in management of ongoing cases.”
What you'll need
To be successful in this role, you will need to have:
* A strong track record of success.
* An interest in Childcare law and procedures.
* The ability to build and maintain relationships with a wide range of stakeholders.
* Excellent communication and presentation skills.
What we offer
* Generous Pension Scheme.
* Generous annual Leave, including additional days for Volunteering as well as the option to purchase extra leave.
* Flexible and agile working arrangements.
* Supportive and inclusive environment.
* Personal Development plan to support career growth.
* Proud Living Wage employer.
* Variety of discounts and benefit schemes.
We hope you will be encouraged to apply. For more information, please contact our Ceri Kay on c.kay@bury.gov.uk or via telephone 0161-253-6203 or Ruth Whittingham on r.whittingham@bury.gov.uk telephone 0161-253-5219
Closing date:
To hear about the benefits for working with Bury Council, please visit A good employer | greater jobs
We are committed to Bury being an equal society that recognises values and embraces all people, regardless of any difference, for the skills, abilities and experiences they bring into the workforce and the wider community. Therefore, we guarantee an interview for disabled people, looked after children/ care leavers, armed forces personnel (including reservists and veterans) and carers of adults or disabled children if they meet the essential criteria.
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About Bury
The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare or children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Appointment may be subject to a satisfactory disclosure at the appropriate level under the Disclosure and Barring Service.
In line with safer recruitment, please ensure that your application/CV covers your full employment history and there is a reason noted for any gaps in employment. Successful candidates will be asked to provide relevant references for the past ten years and character references will not be accepted.
As a Corporate Parent, ensure that the work and services you deliver considers our care experienced young people, promotes their life chances empowers them to influence the policies, services, and decisions that affect them, champions their rights, and ensure they grow up in the best possible way
Benefits of working for Bury Council
To hear about the benefits for working with Bury Council, please visit A good employer | greater jobs
We support employees to work with agility, where appropriate for the post and service requirements.
We are committed to Bury being an equal society that recognises values and embraces all people, regardless of any difference, for the skills, abilities and experiences they bring into the workforce and the wider community. Therefore we guarantee an interview for disabled people, looked after children/ care leavers, armed forces personnel (including reservists and veterans) and carers of adults or disabled children if they meet the essential criteria.
Next steps
For an informal chat regarding the role please contact Ceri Kay on 01612535203.
Interviews will be held on 28th January 2026.