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Job overview

The Employment Risk Domain is a dynamic, growing and supportive team of in-house lawyers. Together, we use our skills, knowledge and experience to ensure that NHS England receives professional and pragmatic employment law advice and support. 

The team’s work is impactful, and varied and includes:

• Providing and/or supervising the provision of expert employment law advice to support colleagues across the organisation, particularly those in the HR and OD team, to manage employee and employment related risks;
• managing all external employment law advice and Employment Tribunal support provided to NHS England. This includes commissioning advice from external legal advisors and overseeing outsourced work to ensure that it is carried out in a timely and cost-effective manner, is in line with NHS England’s strategic aims and organisational values and meets client requirements; and
• supporting effective decision making and corporate governance, and all employment related operational activities as needed.

All lawyers within the Employment Risk team provide advice, often to senior decision makers, personally and at pace. The team handles a fantastic range of interesting and challenging work in an environment where there is a good balance of autonomy and support.  The focus of the team is on building relationships, understanding the organisation and quality of output rather than time recorded or hours billed, which means there are plenty of opportunities to develop professionally.    

Main duties of the job

The role of the Senior Employment Risk Lawyer is to ensure NHSE is a legally compliant organisation, in all internal and external undertakings, to advise upon and manage all aspects of employment legal risk and to make sure NHSE makes the most effective use of its legal powers for the benefit of patients.  

You will provide advice on employment law matters, often to senior decision makers, personally and at pace, as well as maintaining and improving an agile advice service for others in the organisation. This frequently means having a fast, solution focus and able to articulate risk, to facilitate informed and efficient decision making.  

You will have extensive experience of advising on a full range of HR/employee relations matters, including highly complex, and potentially high-risk HR cases, along with experience of litigation and transactional work.  You will have a high degree of resilience, the ability to deal with ambiguity, and excellent communication skills. You will be able to build good relationships rapidly to support good decision making and risk management.  You will have experience of working closely and effectively with HR and Trade Unions in a range of different contexts. 

The NHS is committed to building an inclusive personal, fair and diverse health and care system and a workplace where belonging, equity, diversity and inclusion are treasured. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds. 

Working for our organisation

In April 2023, NHS England, NHS Digital, and Health Education England merged to create a new, single organisation to lead the NHS in England. This new NHS England is designed to create a simpler, smaller, high performing, organisation that leads the NHS more effectively and is a better place to work. Speaking with one voice to the service. The new NHS England board have set out the top-level purpose for the new organisation to lead the NHS in England to deliver high-quality services for all, which will inform the detailed design work and we will achieve this purpose by: Enabling local systems and providers to improve the health of their people and patients and reduce health inequalities. Making the NHS a great place to work, where our people can make a difference and achieve their potential. Working collaboratively to ensure our healthcare workforce has the right knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to deliver accessible, compassionate care Optimising the use of digital technology, research, and innovation Delivering value for money. If you would like to know more or require further information, please visit https://www.england.nhs.uk/ .

NHS England leads the NHS in England to deliver high quality care for all. We support NHS organisations to deliver better outcomes for our patients and communities, work to get the best possible value for taxpayers, and drive improvement across the NHS.