Job Purpose

Working Families’ legal advice services (LAS) team works at the forefront of access to justice for parents and carers at work. Many parents and carers find that the ‘system’ – including employers’ approaches to flexible working, available in-work benefits, leave and entitlement to time off – doesn’t allow them to work and care and thrive. We want to change that.   

Our award-winning free helpline individually advised over 3,000 parents and carers on their rights at work last year and over 1.5 million people via our comprehensive online advice pages. This ranges from advice on the impact of COVID-19, pregnancy and sex discrimination and unfair dismissals; to negotiating flexible working; dealing with childcare emergencies; advice on maternity, adoption and shared parental leave and pay; redundancy; and in-work benefits.   

The purpose of your role within the legal advice team would be to equip the UK’s 13 million parents and carers with the tools they need to thrive in a system that often prevents them from doing so. If you have a strong commitment to justice, awareness of issues that parents and carers face and want to join a small team of dedicated advisers in supporting the UK’s parents and carers, we want to hear from you.  

To give you a better picture of our work during the pandemic, and the difference you can make, see our six months of COVID impact report. 

Role Overview

A professional and enthusiastic employment lawyer who will advise parents and carers on employment law and benefits as well as having a supervisory role in the team.  

You will also help to shape the law in this area by supporting judicial interventions and collaborate with our policy team by providing information and guidance informed by our service users.  You will deputise for the Head of Legal Advice Services as required. 

Key Accountabilities

Legal Advice  

• Provide relevant and correct advice and guidance to parents and carers on employment rights.  

• Provide supervisory assistance to the team of rights advisors for the efficient and effective delivery of legal advice and guidance to parents and carers to the highest quality standards.  

• Keep abreast of changes in employment, financial or other relevant support for parents.  

• Maintain and develop the LAS precedent bank.  

• Updating and enriching of the advice pages of WF website.  

• Deputising for Head of LAS during absence. 

Stakeholders and Partners  

• Oversee and review the content of LAS newsletters.   

• Assist with managing and building the relationships with pro bono solicitors and firms.  

• Partial responsibility for management and engagement with LAS volunteers. 

• Provide outreach, training for parents and organisations and partnering of other organisations and represent WF at relevant stakeholder meetings.  

Within the wider charity:

• Assist with identifying policy, legal and strategic issues to develop policy relevant to employment legislation and collaborate with the Policy team on reports and consultations etc.   

• Comply with LAS reporting requirements internally and externally.  

• Represent Working Families externally.  

• Assist and participate in fundraising activities for WF, including applications and reports. 

• Liaise with the Marketing & Communications team, including dealing with media enquiries and checking for legal accuracy in communication outputs, helping ensure Working Families is positioned as the leading voice on families, work, and work life balance.  

• Contribute to the wider Working Families team, undertaking any other reasonable duties as directed.  

Person Specification

Essential  

Advice 

• Legal qualification as a solicitor or barrister with at least 2 years PQE specialising in employment law  

• Expertise in and experience of providing autonomous advice on employment law including discrimination and parental employment rights.  

• Experience of providing telephone advice and/or email advice to members of the public providing people with practical solutions to questions and issues they are currently facing. 

• Ability to explain and write clearly and in an accessible manner about complex issues.  

• Ability to respond to callers in an empathetic and professional manner. 

• Ability to identify own training and development needs and commitment to keeping up to date with all relevant changes in employment rights. 

Policy and Communication  

• Awareness of the social and political issues relevant to Working Families: including parental rights at work, work-life balance, affordability of childcare, disability, and benefits .  

• Ability to assist the policy team in wider policy work and government consultations on these issues.  

Teamwork 

• Flexibility to adapt to working in a small team and the various demands not only of your specific role but also coming from the rest of the organisation.  

• Ability to set priorities and training needs and manage own workload.  

• Ability to manage a small team of advisers and engage with and/or supervise a wider team of volunteers as required. 

Desirable 

• Broad knowledge of maternity, paternity and parental benefits and tax credits and workplace related maternity, paternity and parental rights and sex discrimination. 

• Experience of providing training or second tier advice to advisers  

• Experience of using case management database to record advice 

• Ability to identify policy issues arising from advice work 

• Experience of planning and writing advice publications for members of the public and reports 

• Ability to manage and interrogate database to produce reports  

  We particularly welcome applications from those with lived experiences of disabilities, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as they are currently under-represented in our workforce. We also welcome applications from LGBTQ+ candidates.  

  Deadline for applications is 9am on the 10th May. Successful candidates will be invited to an interview which will include a written test which will be sent to you 1 hour before you allocated interview time, followed by a Zoom/Teams meeting. Interviews will take place on the 17th the 20th May. Please allow two hours for the written test and interview.

  Please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments.