Job summary
- Main area
- Legal Services
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 285-7565-CORP-A
- Employer
- Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Wolverhampton Civic Centre
- Town
- Wolverhampton
- Salary
- £55,690 - £62,682 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 24/10/2025 23:59
Employer heading

Trust Solicitor (Public & Healthcare Law)
NHS AfC: Band 8a
Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides specialist mental health, learning disability, and community healthcare services for the population of the Black Country.
Across the Black Country we provide:
- Adult and older adult mental health services
- Specialist learning disability services
- Mental health services for children and young people
- Community healthcare services for children, young people and families in Dudley
Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust was formed on 1 April 2020, with the merger of Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust. Combining resources, strategies and talented workforce enables us to deliver a wider variety of outstanding services that are based on best practice and are continually improving.
We currently employ over 4,000 people and just like the population we serve, we are made up of diverse cultures and backgrounds. Whatever your role, working in a NHS Foundation Trust, like ours, is a demanding and extremely rewarding experience. Knowing that every day you can help to make a positive difference to someone’s life is a very powerful feeling. We know that our Trust runs on this desire to help and support people, and our Trust vision expresses this. Our vision is to improve health and wellbeing for everyone, especially our colleagues to achieve the best possible work/life balance.
We proudly offer supportive, inclusive and family friendly employment and flexible working policies. We have a wide range of professional services and employee networks to help our colleagues be at their best - and find support if they need it. To find more about our staff benefits, please visit our website: blackcountryhealthcare.nhs.uk.
Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and ethnic minority candidates are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Black Country Healthcare we recognise and value all forms of knowledge and expertise, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification or criteria in the job description/person specification, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
For further supporting information to help you apply for this role please see documents attached under ‘Additional documents’.
Job overview
An exciting opportunity has arisen to join Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and support the development of an in-house Legal Affairs Team.
You will need to have a recognised legal qualification and current professional registration, combined with recent experience in the field of healthcare law, social care law, information governance law as well as clinical negligence.
You should be self-motivated and enthusiastic, with excellent written and verbal communication skills, an eye for accuracy and detail, and a desire to ensure high quality care and services to patients, staff and the public.
You will be responsible for providing legal advice and services to Trust staff across a wide range of matters, including supporting clinical teams in learning from claims and inquests, and contributing to other patient safety initiatives.
An ability to work with minimal supervision and manage day to day systems, processes and teams whilst managing a personal workload is essential.
In return we offer a market leading pension scheme, Flexible working patterns and flexible work locations as well as genuine work-life balance along with a host of benefits including salary sacrifice schemes for cars.
Main duties of the job
Main Duties/Responsibilities
Inquests:
1. Liaise with the Coroner’s office and obtain reports/witness statements, identifying relevant clinicians following review of clinical records.
2. Identify and provide advice to the Trust Board on complex cases and those where there is potential for an adverse outcome.
3. Provide representation and advocacy in the Coroner's Court.
4. Provide appropriate support to Trust staff in relation to the Inquest process.
Legal Advice:
1. To provide professional in-house legal advice and services across a range of matters, but particularly in relation to medico-legal issues;
2. To provide professional in-house legal advice in relation to all matters pertaining to Mental Capacity Act 2005, especially serious medical treatment, deprivation of liberty, place of residence and care arrangements.
3. To provide advice to Trust’s Mental Health Law Team on all matters related to application of Mental Health Act and related frameworks.
Litigation:
1. Assist in the management of litigation claims against the Trust for clinical negligence and employer and public liability claims, in accordance with pre-action protocols, civil procedure rules and NHS Resolution reporting requirements.
2. To undertake factual investigations of clinical negligence, public liability and employers' liability claims against the Trust in accordance with Trust policies and the requirements of NHS Resolution;
Please download the attached Job Description for the full list of duties
Working for our organisation
We’re a Trust that’s big enough to make an impact, but small enough to feel personal. We care deeply about our people - both those we support in the community and those who work with us. As our Trust Solicitor you’ll play a key role in shaping our future, improving our culture, driving excellence, and helping us deliver compassionate, high-quality care every day.
This is your chance to make a lasting impact. To help us do our best for the Black Country, and for everyone who calls it home.
Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides specialist mental health, learning disability, and community healthcare services for the population of the Black Country. Across the whole of the region, we provide:
· Adult and older adult mental health services
· Specialist learning disability services
· CAMHS
Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust was formed on 1 April 2020, after NHS England and NHS Improvement approved the merger of Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.
Combining resources, strategies and talented workforce enables us to deliver a wider variety of outstanding services that are based on best practice and are continually improving.
As a public body, we are accountable to the people we serve. The Trust Board is responsible for determining the strategy and overall direction of the Trust in an open, honest, and transparent manner.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please download the accompanying Job Description and Person Specification for the role prior to submitting your application.
Educational Responsibilities:
1. To assist in planning and delivering the Trust's programmes for teaching and professional development of staff relating to healthcare-related law generally, delivering lectures and leading seminars as required.
Analysis and Data Management:
1. Maintain accurate and up to date information on the legal database.
2. Ensure use of computers and computerised data conforms fully to legal requirements and Trust standards.
3. Assist in the analysis of trends identified from all activities undertaken by the Legal Affairs Team
4. Assist in the production of reports on activities undertaken by the Legal Affairs Team for various Trust Boards/Committees.
5. Analyse highly complex matters and alert the Associate Director for Safeguarding and Legal Affairs as appropriate of any rising trends and hotspots, suggesting viable optionsfor reduction and/or corrective action.
General:
1. Undertake any other duties commensurate with the grade as required by the Associate Director of Safeguarding and Legal Affairs.
2. To act in accordance with any delegated operational and financial authority, which can include incurring the cost of expert reports, instruction of barristers, court applications and requests for records.
3. Line management and supervision of junior qualified lawyers, pre-qualified lawyers (such as paralegals and trainee solicitors) and support staff as required.
Person specification
All
Essential criteria
- Solicitor/Barrister with current practising certificate
Desirable criteria
- Higher Rights of Audience for Civil Advocacy
All
Essential criteria
- Solicitor/Barrister with current practising certificate
- Minimum 3 years relevant post-qualification experience as a Solicitor/Barrister/Legal Executive
- Experience of working within a legal team
- Experience of handling inquests in the Coroner’s Court
- Experience of handling welfare matters in the Court of Protection
- Experience of handling matters in the family court and High Court Family Division
- Experience of managing clinical negligence claims
- Experience of providing advice on data protection and information governance law related matters
- Advocacy experience in a variety of settings
- Teaching/training experience
- Specific experience in healthcare law and providing advice to clinicians.
- Knowledge of the principles and processes of litigation within the UK Courts and Tribunal service.
- Knowledge of key legal issues in the NHS/healthcare, including, but not limited to: • provision of s117 MHA 1983 aftercare and process of dispute resolution • provision of treatment under Mental Health Act 1983 • Continuous Healthcare Framework 2023 • Care Act 2014 • Mental Capacity Act 2005 • Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards scheme • Children Act 1989 and relevant care planning regulations; • NHS Act 2006; • Health and Social Care Act 2008 and relevant regulations • Freedom of Information Act 2000 and relevant regulations • Data Protection Act 2018 • Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act 2018 • The Tribunal Procedure (First-Tier Tribunal) (Health, Education and Social Care Chamber) Rules 2008 • Civil Procedure Rules 1998 with associated Practice Directions • Court of Protection Rules 2017 • Coroners and Justice Act 2009 • Coroners (Inquests) Rules 2013 and Coroners (Investigation) Regulations 2013
- Knowledge of relevant statutory obligations.
- Understanding of clinical and corporate governance.
- Knowledge of other forms of litigation such as professional and regulatory processes.
- Able to prioritise your own workload
- Able to work under time pressure and set deadlines
- Ability to gather, write, and provide complex information for others to understand and interpret
- Ability to produce good quality written documentation including case summaries, draft orders, applications, position statements, skeleton arguments and threshold documents, and provide advice in respect of the written evidence being provided by the client.
- Ability to provide advice on law and practice in respect of aspect of the healthcare law, social care law and data protection law.
- Ability to exercise professional judgment and make operational decisions on allocated matters in the context of legal advice and assistance.
- Ability to provide supervision, guidance and support to colleagues across the team.
- Ability to analyse information and risk assess safeguarding situations
- Effective and sensitive handling of difficult information and situations
- Motivational, negotiating and persuasive skills, for example when there is a difference of threshold view in a strategy discussion
- Ability to work across a range of clinical systems, capturing relevant information from different systems
- Ability to influence range of colleagues including senior management and multi-disciplinary teams
- Ability to develop training materials and to deliver training in house to Trust staff, and to provide briefings to senior officers of the Trust and managers, where required on complex points of law and developments in law and practice.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to effectively communicate both verbally and in writing to a wide range of people
- Flexible and adaptable to changing workload
- Able to work from across various sites and areas where the Trust provides its services and attend hearings and meetings in various parts of the UK.
- Attend the office over minimum 4 working days, with very limited opportunity to work from home.
- Calm and works well under pressure
Desirable criteria
- Higher Rights of Audience for Civil Advocacy
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
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
- Jacek Borek
- Job title
- Associate Director for Safeguarding
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07780726766
- Additional information
You can also contact with any questions or queries, our Clinical Resourcing Lead - Simon Pownall - via [email protected]
List jobs with Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in Administrative Services or all sectors