Lawyer
Posted by: Social Work England
Employed By: Social Work England
Job Title: Lawyer
Salary or salary range: £49,358 per year, rising to £51,768 per year after successfully completing a 6-month probationary period.
Contract type: Full-time
Location of position: Sheffield/Hybrid
Application deadline: Sunday 18 October 2026
The Role
Social Work England are the specialist regulator for social work in England, focused on enabling positive change in social work. Every day, social workers support millions of people to improve their chances in life. We are taking a new approach to regulating social workers in their vital roles. We believe in the power of collaboration and share a common goal with those we regulate – to protect the public, enable positive change and ultimately improve people’s lives.
Lawyers in the Legal Regulation Team support Social Work England to lawfully carry out its regulatory functions. They work across all areas of the regulatory team’s work. This includes:
Preparing responses to pre-action correspondence and managing the progression of potential and active litigation including judicial reviews, statutory appeals and appeals under section 29 of the NHS Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002;
Providing regulatory legal advice on guidance, policies, procedures and processes to ensure legal compliance;
Providing advice in response to requests for reviews of case examiner decisions by applying the criteria set out in our Fitness to Practise Rules and conducting those reviews, where necessary;
Supporting our fitness to practise and registration teams to ensure that our regulatory processes are compliant with any legal restrictions regarding the use of information which relates to private court proceedings (or is otherwise subject to legal restrictions), such as Family Court proceedings and Court of Protection proceedings; and
Making applications to, and conducting litigation within, the Family Court and the Court of Protection, when necessary to obtain disclosure of information from these proceedings, for use in fitness to practise proceedings.
While the role will primarily focus on the areas listed above, there will also be opportunities to become involved in other projects relating to our regulatory functions and to participate in the work of the wider legal team.
What you will do
In addition to the responsibilities described above, you will:
Instruct and liaise with external lawyers when required, managing costs effectively.
Participate in the fitness to practise decision-making group for triage decisions.
Ensure that the organisation’s regulatory decisions are legally robust by identifying legal risks early and working with other teams to ensure that those risks are managed appropriately.
Provide regulatory and other legal advice to our regulatory teams, particularly the fitness to practise and registration teams.
Provide advice on guidance, policies, procedures and processes to ensure legal compliance and participate in project teams and working groups as necessary.
Develop strong relationships throughout the organisation (and particularly with our fitness to practise teams), using your legal expertise and knowledge to provide solutions-focused support.
Support the legal team to deliver the organisation’s business plan (which will be reflected in each lawyer’s objectives), including the delivery of training and legal awareness.
Be open to developing your supervisory and line management skills as you progress in the role.
Your skills, knowledge and experience
Appropriate qualifications and experience as a solicitor, barrister or Legal Executive. You must be registered with (or be eligible to immediately join) a legal professional register.
Rights to conduct civil litigation and/or Rights to conduct litigation and advocacy in the Family Court.
Knowledge and experience of at least one of the following areas of law: Professional regulation and/or fitness to practise; civil litigation, including pre-action correspondence; Family proceedings; and Court of Protection proceedings.
Strong legal analytical skills and judgement, with the ability to analyse complex issues and present legally sound and focused advice.
Excellent written communication skills, with the ability to draft clear and comprehensive advice and to present information on complex issues clearly and succinctly for a range of different audiences.
The ability to work across the organisation, working well with others and responding positively, creatively and supportively to a variety of colleagues while maintaining high and consistent standards.
The ability to work to tight deadlines, be calm under pressure and flexibly manage competing priorities.
A track record of respectful, open, and honest behaviour, including a demonstrable commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
Benefits
In addition to your salary, we also offer:
Hybrid working
25 days annual leave, rising with service to 30 days per annum, plus bank holidays.
The option to purchase up to an additional 5 days of annual leave per annum.
A TIDE award-winning inclusive culture, made up of staff networks, social events and forums.
A pension scheme, life insurance, an employee recognition scheme and cycle to work scheme.
Application
During the application process, you'll be asked to provide answers to three questions from the job description. These answers will be what your application is scored on; please answer in as much detail as possible, using examples where necessary.