Lawyer

The Sensitive and Complex Casework Team is a specialist unit within the Fitness to Practise (FtP) directorate. Its purpose is to handle high-risk, high-profile, or legally complicated cases, providing specialised legal advice and direct investigative support to speed up decision-making and ensure consistency.

Your role and impact: As a Lawyer in the SCCT, you will be responsible for the effective management of a caseload of sensitive and complex cases across the fitness to practice process, ensuring that our cases are progressed in a proportionate, timely and risk-focused manner so that you can support the organisation to meet its statutory objectives of protecting the public and upholding confidence in the nursing and midwifery professions.

What you’ll bring: You will advise on a range of issues including the identification of regulatory concerns, the identification and assessment of both case-specific and organisational risk, the scoping of investigations, evidence collation and providing disclosable summaries for media briefings. You will also be responsible for advising colleagues in respect of many of our wider legal obligations and the relevance and impact of case law. You will be expected to collaborate and work with internal teams across the NMC on complex matters including information sharing, public inquiries and inquests. You will be a key point of contact for both internal and external stakeholders, often at a senior level, and you will be able to provide updates at short notice in relation to the cases you are overseeing. As well as overseeing your own Fitness to Practise workload you will, from time to time and as appropriate, instruct external firms to conduct investigations and you will confidently provide instructions on all aspects of the investigation from the scope of enquiries to the proposed disposal, ensuring the investigations are progressed in a cost-effective, timely and proportionate manner. A key part of your role will be in the supervision and development of more junior colleagues as well as taking an active role in identifying and implementing improvements to the way we work. You’ll be a confident self-starter who is able to work autonomously, with relevant casework experience, knowledge and skills.

Salary Details: Edinburgh - 56,174-62,416 London -58,022- 60,109

Please note that this role requires you to review and work with sensitive and distressing material relating to fitness to practice cases and you will be given the appropriate support to deal with this material.

In the personal summary question on the application form, please provide a statement that clearly demonstrates how you meet the behaviours, experience, and skills outlined in the job specification.

Benefits:

• 30 days annual leave
• Enhanced Pension Contributions via our attractive Pension Scheme – with a basic 8% employer contribution as standard which increases up to 14% with optional added Employee Contributions
• Life Insurance – 4 x current salary
• Hybrid working
• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Leave
• 24 Hours Employee Assistance Programme
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Perkbox membership
• Subsidised restaurant in our Portland Place office
• Season ticket loans

The role you are applying for is a flexible role, and whilst you will be posted initially to a team, this may require movement between teams as the flow of work dictates. You will of course understand that this flexible approach enables us to provide the best possible service to our registrants and reach the outcomes to our cases quickly and within a reasonable timeframe. This will not change your terms and conditions and will be discussed with you prior to you taking up the post.

Hybrid Working Policy: We are currently working to a policy of office attendance for two days per week with the rest of the time working from home. Before submitting your application, please ensure you are able to commit to working in one of our office locations twice per week. If you are applying for a part-time role, please pro-rata office attendance based on the number of days you would be working.

Our Pay Policy: It is expected that staff new to the NMC will ordinarily be appointed to the bottom of the relevant pay band. However, in exceptional circumstances, it may be possible to offer a salary above the bottom of the relevant pay band but we may request proof of current earnings. Please note that we offer an annual review of salaries and adopt a generous progressive pay approach. Further details of which are available on request.

For our internal colleagues, you will be paid in accordance to our internal pay policy.

Reasonable adjustments: We will provide reasonable adjustments to support disabled candidates throughout the recruitment process. Please let us know if you need any additional support to enable you to make an application with us.

Screening and vetting: All of our roles are subject to pre-employment checks. We are in the process of introducing a vetting policy, and it is possible that this role may become subject to DBS and further vetting checks in future.

Department: Sensitive and Complex Casework Team

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Workplace type: Hybrid