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Job summary

Main area
Legal Services
Grade
Band 7
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref
393-NMUH-1719-B
Employer
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust
Town
London
Salary
£51,883 - £58,544 per annum inclusive of HCAS (pro-rata if LTFT)
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
12/03/2025 23:59

Employer heading

NHS

Band 7 Legal Services Officer

Band 7

The North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust is a medium-sized acute and community trust with over 525 beds and over 600 community staff, serving more than 600,000 people living across Enfield and Haringey and the surrounding areas, including Barnet and Waltham Forest.

The hospital has been on its present site for over 100 years and was established as an NHS trust by statute in December 1990. The Trust’s services are provided on the North Middlesex University Hospital site as well as a range of community sites across the London Borough of Enfield, including at partner hospitals. They provide services in collaboration with a range of partners, including local GPs, acute, mental health and other community health service providers across North Central London.

In the year ending 31 March 2022, the Trust reported a turnover of £419.7m and employed almost 4,000 staff. Following the transfer of Enfield Community Services on 1st April 2023, this has increased as we have welcomed over 600 new staff including District Nurses, Community Matrons, Community Physiotherapists, Psychologists and many more across a wide range of adult and children’s community services in Enfield. It is an exciting time to join North Mid as we continue our journey to become an integrated care organisation to deliver high quality, seamless care in our local communities, with a focus on tackling health inequalities.

Job overview

The Legal Services Department at North Middlesex Hospital has an exciting opportunity for a Legal Services Officer to join our team. We require an experienced case handler in claims/inquests work.

Reporting to the Head of Legal Services, you will take responsibility for a varied caseload. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience of healthcare law gained in either in-house NHS legal departments or private practice.

You will be a highly motivated individual with a flexible and pro-active approach to work. Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate with people on all levels and provide support and reassurance to staff involved in legal cases is an essential prerequisite. This post requires someone with a positive attitude and the ability to work autonomously and meet tight deadlines.

Legal Services sits within the Quality Governance department and there is a requirement for collaborative working with the Clinical Governance and Quality Improvement teams. Our teams work together to promote and support a culture of learning and quality improvement across all aspects of patient care and experience within the Trust, so that our services provide excellent outcomes and an excellent experience for patients and staff and have excellent value for money of trust services.

For further details contact:

Zoe Gill - Head of Legal Services

02045534829 / [email protected]

Main duties of the job

Handling Coroner's inquest cases and clinical negligence/personal injury claims and all aspects of case management in these areas including, but not limited to statement preparation, analysis of expert evidence, attending court, attending case conferences and reviewing/analysing legal documentation.

You will need experience of representing organisations at coroner’s hearings and supporting witnesses through the inquest process.

You will hold a caseload of clinical negligence and personal injury claims and be responsible for your own designated files.

The successful candidate will have excellent knowledge of administrative systems and experience of working with IT systems and databases. Ideally you will also be competent in the use of Datix.

Working for our organisation

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The detailed duties and main responsibilities for this post can be found within the job description and person specification.

Person specification

Attributes/Skills

Essential criteria
  • Educated to degree level in law or equivalent experience
  • Post graduate qualification in legal practice or equivalent knowledge/experience (claims/inquest)
Desirable criteria
  • Membership of ILEX / SRA / Law Society
  • Clinical risk & claims management diploma

Skills & Abilities

Essential criteria
  • Manage a large caseload
  • Exceptional organisation and interpersonal skills
  • Ability to communicate at all levels
  • Developed negotiation skills
  • Self motivated / work on own initiative
  • Excellent knowledge of microsoft office
  • Working under pressure and within set timescales
Desirable criteria
  • Staff management/supervision

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Working within an NHS legal department or private practice specialising in healthcare law
  • Experience of working in an environment with conflicting pressures and changing workload.
  • Experience of working within a team and of developing good working relationships with internal and external staff at all levels.
Desirable criteria
  • Familiar with Datix risk/claims management system
  • Ability to use NHS Resolution case management system
  • Understanding of risk management in the NHS
  • Understanding of the NHS Complaints process

Personal Qualities

Essential criteria
  • Flexible & adaptable to change with a can-do attitude.
  • Able to motivate self and engage others.
  • Able to demonstrate a commitment to self-development.
  • Ability to empathise & communicate well with emotional (distressed, angry, frightened etc) people (claimants, patients, relatives & staff).

Values

Essential criteria
  • Demonstrable ability to meet Trust values

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Nursing TimesTimewise PartnerEnei Member

Applicant requirements

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Documents to download

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Stella Odunaike
Job title
Head of Quality Governance
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
020 8887 3070

If you have problems applying, contact

Address
WHT
Telephone
If you have any queries, please contact NLPSS Recruitment Helpdesk tel. 020 3758 2060