Job Description

Job Category: Legal
:
Legal Officer | 9514 | Permanent Contract | 37 hours per week | 31,537 - 33,699 per annum | Scale G | Norwich
We are looking for Legal Officers to join nplaw's Child Protection Team and work alongside experienced colleagues to offer expert legal advice and support to our local authority clients in all areas of child protection law. Our team is friendly and supportive and we put particular emphasis on nurturing and advancing your professional development.
The Child Protection Team is part of nplaw, a public sector shared legal service with a wealth of experience gained through many years of advising our clients in local government, the public sector, charities and schools. We provide a wide range of legal services, delivered by specialist lawyers who understand the local government context.
As a Legal Officer in the Child Protection Team, you will be part of a large team providing legal advice and support on a broad range of child protection matters, ensuring that the expectations of stakeholders and clients are met. You will understand, or develop an understanding of, the legal procedures, resources and systems to undertake straightforward legal transactions and casework, working closely with Solicitors and Senior Legal Officers, including:

• Obtaining and drafting basic pleadings, including consent orders and statements of facts;

• Preparing and drafting basic legal documents and uploading to the family platform

• Ensuring that Court Bundles are compliant with PD27A and updated ready for the courts and other relevant parties, and receiving documentation and adding to the bundle where relevant;

• Attending meetings and court hearings when requested to do so to take notes;

• Ensuring that deadlines and order time limits are complied with by chasing and reminding clients and third parties;

• Progressing court directions for disclosure and information from third parties.

To be considered for the Legal Officer role you will have a law degree or CILEx level 3 qualification (or working towards CILEx level 3), hold a similar qualification or have equivalent experience. You'll need a good knowledge of the law or a willingness to learn a new subject area, first class communication and organisational skills, and great client care.
You'll have a brilliant opportunity to learn and develop your skills and experience, with the support of a talented team around you, and a structured approach to long term career development with the possibility of enabling you to qualify as a solicitor if this is something you aspire to.
We encourage applications from candidates at any stage in their career, whether newly graduated or with more experience. We would also welcome applications from lawyers who have taken a career break and would like to return to the workplace or lawyers looking to change their specialism and we will support your development to transition to this area of law.
We are open to part-time, full-time and flexible working. We are currently working in a hybrid manner with some time working from home or another location and some time spent at our base at County Hall, Norwich, as well as attendance at court where appropriate. None of these roles are fully remote.
We know we're asking for a lot, but in return we think we have a lot to offer. These roles involve variety in what you do, challenging and high-impact cases to work on and the opportunity to progress your career within an award-winning legal service, where you will learn from some talented and experienced professionals. Then there's the working environment at nplaw, where we put work life balance at the forefront and offer flexible, smarter working arrangements, all underpinned by leading edge technology. Our employees' well-being is a really high priority for us and we provide you with a buddy who can guide you through the new starter process, we have trained mental health first aiders and an employee helpline and counselling service to support our staff. It is important to us that you feel able to bring your whole self to work and we encourage a diverse workforce.
If you would like an informal discussion regarding the role, please contact Rebecca Anderson at
These are some benefits you can enjoy by working for Norfolk County Council:

• Competitive salary
• Generous holiday entitlement
• Health and Wellbeing services including fast-track physiotherapy and a free counselling service
• Flexible working opportunities including flexi-time, part time, remote and hybrid working - dependant on your job role and business need.
• Financial benefits such as:

• '
• A

for Fire Service and Social Care Workers * Relocation expenses (where applicable)

• An advance of your expenses if you travel for work
• Local Government Pension Scheme with generous employer contribution, life assurance, death in service payments and dependants' pensions.

Tax efficient ways of getting extra pension and new bikes
Access to our tax efficient car lease scheme for greener travel enabling you to lease a brand new, ultra-low emission vehicle (subject to eligibility)
A payment if you refer someone you know to a hard to fill job
Before you apply, we recommend reading the full to help you demonstrate you meet the criteria. You can also find information on our here.
Already a Norfolk County Council employee? See and apply for internal and external vacancies in using your @norfolk.gov.uk or @nccal.ac.uk email.
We would like to make you aware that priority consideration for this post may be given to current employees who are at risk due to restructure within the organisation or are in a redeployment position.
Redeployment closing date: 02 February 2026 23:59
All other applicants closing date: 09 February 2026 23:59
About Us: We have miles of beautiful coastline and our unique Broads, thriving market towns and a city with a proud cultural heritage. Our economy is growing and driven by innovation in a number of sectors, including energy and food. We also have ambitious plans for new housing and a building programme for schools across Norfolk. Our county a great place to live, work and visit, and is an excellent environment for businesses to start, grow and innovate.
We are the main local authority for Norfolk providing services countywide to more than 850,000 Norfolk residents. We take the lead in critical policy areas, working with 84 elected Members responsible for the strategic local government services in the county.
We provide a high quality service through involving people who use our services to shape and comment on them and by promoting efficiency and innovation.
We work in partnership with local businesses, voluntary organisations and other local authorities such as District and Parish Councils to provide the people of Norfolk with excellent services.

Skills Required