Band 8a Deputy Head of Legal

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) has a great opportunity for a Deputy Head of Legal Services to join us on a permanent full-time basis.

Main duties of the job

The Deputy Head of Legal Services is responsible for providing professional in-house legal advice and services across a range of matters but in particular in relation to medico-legal issues.

The role also includes management of a mixed case load of clinical negligence/employer and public liability claims and inquests managing these in accordance with Trust policies, requirements of NHS Resolution and relevant legislation/regulations.

The post holder will provide advice and guidance on Trust wide policies relevant to claims management and coronial law and processes. They will assist in the team's liaison with NHS Resolution, HM Coroner, external panel law firms and senior members of the Chief Medical Officer's management team and senior clinicians and operational colleagues.

The role requires excellent organisation skills, attention to detail and ability to be flexible and adaptable to changing workloads/priorities.

About us

We are recognised as one of the leading NHS Foundation Trusts in the UK. Our vision is to Build Healthier Lives, and we recognise that we need incredible staff to do this.

Our commitment to our staff is to create the best place for them to work, and we are dedicated to:

1. Investing in the health and wellbeing of our staff, including a commitment of offering flexible working where we can.
2. Offering our staff a wide variety of training and development opportunities, to support their personal and career development objectives.

Job description

Job responsibilities

*Please Note : For a detailed job description for this vacancy, please see attached Job Description.*

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Educated to degree level in law/legal practice with appropriate post graduate level courses or substantial experience at a comparable level.
• Recent experience/traineeship managing clinical negligence/employer liability claims to Masters level equivalent.
• Evidence of CPD.

Desirable

• ILEX (Institute of Legal Executives) or similar qualification.

Experience

Essential

• Previous Coronial/Inquest management experience.
• Experience of staff management.
• Able to demonstrate a clear understanding of CPR, the claims process and MHC Rules & Regulations.
• Strong technical knowledge in areas relevant to legal healthcare practice.
• Good understanding of the principles of investigations management, root cause analysis techniques and Clinical Governance.
• Understanding data -- extracts, collates, quantitatively analyses and validates data, recognising alternative solution where necessary.

Desirable

• Experience of working within a healthcare law setting.
• Previous experience of managing inquests.
• Advocacy experience.
• Implementing risk and case management systems.
• Experience of quality management processes and quality improvement mechanisms.
• Teaching/Training experience.

Additional Criteria

Essential

• Ability to rapidly assimilate a range of complex information and provide advice.
• Strong problem solving ability and capacity to recognise alternative solutions where necessary.
• Strong team management and workload management skills.
• Ability to interpret national policy and guidance, identify local implications and apply implementation to a local setting.
• Critical appraisal of wide ranging documents to facilitate assessment of risk and to ensure appropriate & sensitive communication/management of claims/inquests.
• Ability to manage, prioritise and deliver a number of projects and work programmes within timescales.
• Ability to lead and supervise teams and work in a collegiate manner.
• Ability to deal with conflicting demands ensuring key priorities and deadlines are met through effective time management.
• Ability to think strategically and see the 'bigger picture'.
• Ability to devise innovative systems and methods of working with minimal guidance.
• Good standard of computer literacy including word processing, spreadsheets and databases.
• Makes clear recommendations indicating benefits/consequences and identify risks.
• Predicts trends by analysing and interpreting all relevant information.
• Analysis and use of complex information from a variety of sources and formats and undertakes information analysis.
• Strong interpersonal skills.
• Excellent communication skills:
• Written -- experience of drafting standard letters, emails and technical reports with clarity and awareness. Excellent writing skills. Ability to prepare written material presenting complex matters in a logical way using the appropriate style, content and language for the audience.
• Oral -- Communicates with appropriate groups. Information is given correctly and accurately in a helpful and professional manner. Expresses opinions confidently and constructively.
• Listening -- shows willingness and ability to listen. Absorbs complex messages. Encourages individuals to expand ideas.
• Displays a high standard of personal integrity.
• Actively seeks ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness of own performance.
• Flexible and adaptable to changing workloads/priorities.
• Ability to work and travel across all UHB sites and external sites as required by the role.

Desirable

• Data manipulation including identification, accessing and downloading of data, design set up and development of data entry systems including automation as appropriate.

Employer details

Employer name

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Trustwide

Mindelsohn Way

Birmingham

West Midlands

B15 2TH

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

304-1071421DO