Solicitor – Community Clinic (Part-time fixed for one year, continuation subject to funding)

Scottish Child Law Centre

Glasgow

Reporting to:
Senior Solicitor
Accountable to:
Senior Solicitor
Supervisory responsibilities:

Interns and volunteers as assigned

Hours and location: Govanhill Community Clinic (in person), some remote working and possible travel throughout Scotland
Salary: £32,000 pro-rata 3 days a week

Post open to women only under the Equality Act 2010 pursuant to Schedule 9, Part 1

Scottish Child Law Centre (SCLC) description

We are a specialist hub protecting children’s rights across Scotland.  Our volunteer solicitors provide free legal advice about child law and children’s rights to realise children’s rights and allow access to justice for children and families when their rights have been breached. We provide specialist training to organisations and schools and use the evidence from our work to influence long term change for children.

Vision

For ‘all children growing up in Scotland to have their rights respected, protected and fulfilled.’  

The Centre is going through an exciting period of transition and will shortly be setting up a Community Clinic in Govanhill to provide free legal advice and support to the people who need us most. Our community advice clinic work seeks to remove barriers and further extend our reach, especially in light of the UNCRC Act becoming law in July 2024. This follows a pilot community advice clinic in 2022 which identified multiple and serious breaches of rights, fuelled by an absence of legal aid – particularly amongst the Black, Asian and ethnic minority community. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child cite access to justice and children’s rights training as vital to UNCRC implementation.

Purpose of the role:

As a solicitor for the Scottish Child Law Centre, your primary role is to promote and further the rights of children and young people in Scotland, by giving legal advice to children and families at our Govanhill Community Clinic.

We hope to have secured the final instalment of funding to set up our Community Clinic in Govanhill by spring 2025. Prior to this the role of the solicitor will be to deliver legal advice via email on our advice line, draft court documents for people who cannot find legal representation and assist with the development and delivery of children’s rights training, including conducting research for bespoke training requests. There is additional scope for the successful candidate to be involved in co-producing children’s rights training with children from our partner school.

Main duties and responsibilities:

• To provide face-to-face legal advice appointments to children and families at the Govanhill Community Clinic
• To work closely with the Support Worker to assist families to implement legal advice
• To keep a record of all cases dealt with at the clinic as well as a record of the advice given and any follow up work
• To ensure that all work is carried out to the necessary standard, in accordance with the regulatory framework and professional standards.
• To work with the team to identify trends and issues and write up suitably anonymised case studies, and to contribute to policy and strategy for addressing systemic issues.
• Forging new outreach partnerships as and when needed and strategically identifying need.
• To ensure all outreach systems, including records, spreadsheets and templates are complied with.
• To review and maintain a quality assurance process including outreach advice reviews, as well as keeping records of this process and reporting on it.
• To develop and deliver training to organisations across Scotland, including research for bespoke training requests
• To provide legal supervision and support the solicitors, interns and volunteers in the SCLC
• Any other duties within competence as agreed, including travel throughout Scotland and beyond.

Knowledge and experience:

• Thorough knowledge of child law in Scotland (E)
• Excellent knowledge of the domestic and international children’s rights frameworks (E)
• Commitment to promoting children’s and young people’s rights, and understanding of working within a human rights and child rights framework (E)
• Experience of legal advice and casework in a legal practice setting (E)
• Understanding of the regulatory framework for legal advice provision (E)
• Experience of delivering legal advice to people with diverse backgrounds and complexities (E)
• Knowledge of the network of organisations who support children and of children’s entitlements to statutory service provision (E)
• Experience of project management and reporting, including providing information on deliverables and outcomes to funders (D)

Qualifications, skills and personal attributes:

• A valid practising certificate (E)
• A sensitive approach to providing legal advice to children, young people and families, including and those with vulnerabilities (E)
• Ability to operate services within the regulatory framework for legal advice provision (E)
• A supportive approach to line management (E)
• Highly developed communication skills, written and oral, and an ability to provide complex legal information in a comprehensible way to children, young people and those for whom English is an additional language (E)
• Ability to liaise and work effectively in partnership with a wide range of partner organisations and funders (E)
• Ability to work independently and on own initiative, taking responsibility for delivering and reporting on set targets (E)
• An excellent ability to develop, manage and maintain effective working relationships
• The capacity to undertake high volumes of work and ability to deliver to strict deadlines
• Willingness to get things done by effective team working and delegation and delivering a wide range of tasks directly as/when necessary, with strong administration and attention to detail (E)
• Excellent administrative and organisational skills to operate administrative and record-keeping systems (E)
• Excellent IT skills including practical knowledge of internet and Microsoft Office package (E)
• An understanding of client confidentiality and data protection (E)
• A flexible approach including ability to attend meetings on an extended or alternative day by arrangement when necessary (E)
• A valid drivers license and access to a car (D)
• Post open to women only under the Equality Act 2010 pursuant to Schedule 9, Part 1

Application process

Closing date Monday, 11th November 2024 at 17:00.

Please submit a CV and covering letter to enquiries@sclc.org.uk that is no more than two pages, stating how you meet the criteria and why you are interested in the role.

Interviews will likely be held the week of Monday, 25th November 2024.

We particularly encourage applications from disabled people and people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, as these groups are currently under-represented in the organisation.

We would be happy to discuss alternative working patterns too.