Head of Legal Services

The Head of Legal Services is a vital senior leadership role at Croydon Health Services NHS Trust. The postholder will lead the Legal Services Team, which sits in the Corporate Governance Directorate, and serve as the primary legal subject matter expert for the whole Trust. This is a high profile role within the Trust, and the postholder will need to be hugely resilient - balancing a hands-on approach to personally progressing day-to-day legal casework in conjunction with the wider Legal Services Team, with other responsibilities such as supporting the Board and Executive Team with the provision of legal advice, identifying and sharing learning that will help lead to improved patient safety and experience, and raising the profile of the Legal Services Team, and the work it undertakes, across the organisation. Reporting to the Director of Corporate Governance, the post holder will ensure that the Legal Services Team provides efficient and effective legal services that aim to minimise clinical, financial, operational and legal risks of the Trust. This will include inquests, clinical claims, court of protection and all aspects of clinical legal advice, training and support. The postholder will provide senior legal advice to the Trust, including sourcing from external providers if appropriate. They will brief senior management on sensitive legal matters that might have significant implications and/or may attract public and media interestMain duties of the jobThe postholder will be responsible for the leadership and development of the Legal Services Team members and will lead the management of healthcare legal services, relating to clinical negligence,employers liability, personal injury and coroner-related work. The postholder will provide a combination of subject matter expertise and leadership skills to develop and maintain strong service delivery, including providing healthcare legal advice. The postholder will work with professional leads across the organisation to enable the Trust to demonstrate its compliance with national policies and standards. The postholder will support the Trust in improving the quality and value of services by learning from legal issues, including claims. The postholder will represent the Trust (or instruct solicitors/barristers to advise or act on behalf of the Trust) including in criminal, civil and Coroner's courts. The role requires leadership skills with practical experience in a healthcare law setting to ensure a suitable level of competency to work effectively, recognising when external advice or support is needed. The postholder will ensure there are mechanisms in place to identify and refer patient safety risks to the relevant teams for appropriate escalation and investigation and to drive learning from claims and inquests. The postholder will also lead the subject access requests team to comply with legal requirements for the disclosure of health records and personal data.About usCroydon Health Services NHS Trust holds a special place in the heart of our community it is a role that we take very seriously. We have ambitious plans to continue our journey to transform our care and services for people in our borough and support our staff in the roles they fulfil. We are a forerunner for how the NHS is changing. Our One Croydon Alliance is a trailblazer in integration so that our services work together across health, care and the voluntary sector. We are working together to help people live and stay well, as well as providing expert care at times of illness. Our core service remains the provision of urgent and emergency and elective secondary care services and the full range of community services to our local population. The pandemic hit our community harder and faster than most. Like other NHS trusts, we have also seen extreme pressure for urgent and emergency care services, whilst continuing to maintain patient safety and maximise efficiency to tackle national elective care backlogs. None of this would be possible without supporting our staff.
If you want the opportunity to have a real impact, challenge yourself and be part of an NHS Trust that's making a real difference then a career at Croydon Health Services could be just what you're looking for.
Our core values - professionalism, compassion, respect, and safety - guide everything we do. You'll work in a supportive environment where these values are embedded in daily practice.Job descriptionJob responsibilities***Please see the attached supporting document job description and person specification which contain more information about the role***Person SpecificationessentialEssential
Qualified Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales Proven and signficant leadership experience and/or formal management qualification
Desirable
An in-depth understanding of NHS policy Understanding of the background to and aims of patient safety and improvement methodologies
QualificationsEssential
Qualified Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales
Employer detailsEmployer nameCroydon Health Services NHS TrustAddressCroydon University Hospital 530 London Road Croydon CR7 7YEAny attachments will be accessible after you click to apply. 199-NN-6302121-A&C
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