Principal Lawyer – Social Care

About the job

Key information

• Salary: £65,101 per annum (inclusive of a £10,000 time limited recruitment allowance)
• 33 days annual leave, plus bank holidays.
• Permanent, Full-time contract (37 hours per week).
• Relocation package up to £8,000 for those moving to Somerset
• Taunton, Somerset based (Dynamic Working – flexible arrangements including working from home).

What will I be doing?

We’re working to improve the lives of people in Somerset – and you’ll be a key part of that.

We need a specialist Social Care Lawyer with experience of leading and managing a legal team comprising Adult Social Care lawyers and Children Social Care lawyers. The ideal candidate will have experience of advocacy in court dealing with social care cases, with expertise in either Adult Social Care legal work, Education, Children Social Care legal work or both.

Your day-to-day work will involve:

• To lead on all aspects of Social Care legal work, including undertaking their own cases, including advocacy; ensuring through appropriate delegation and supervision that all work is of the correct quality and performed in a timely manner. All work will be undertaken with the purpose of assisting the Council to achieve its business objectives.
• To have full responsibility for the efficient management of the budget for the Social Care legal team. To ensure that external legal costs relating their areas of legal work are efficiently and properly managed and that contracts with external providers are managed efficiently and that the quality and service provision represent good value for money and any performance issues are addressed in a timely manner.
• To ensure the team assists and supports the Council in achieving its outcomes successfully. To ensure the team has the skills and competencies to advise on all relevant matters within agreed resources and to demonstrate success by providing regular data to the Head of Legal Services, setting out clearly measured timely quality outcomes.
• To ensure through robust performance management, the delivery of value for money services to high practice standards within a culture of continuous improvement, including providing clear succession planning measures to ensure staff development, progression and effective service continuity.
• To establish and maintain an understanding of the client’s business needs and objectives through building and maintaining professional relationships. Mentoring and encouraging more junior team members so that the client’s objectives are understood and shared throughout the team.
• To ensure through proper delegation and professional supervision arrangements that work is undertaken in the most efficient manner. To ensure that the use of external advice and support is only procured in accordance with agreed procedures and is focused on achieving best value.
• To work with clients to ensure that where practicable activity is moved into client functions where that represents a more effective arrangement.
• Be an integral part of the Management Team of Legal Services, demonstrating a personal commitment to the Council’s values and encouraging and holding to account those values throughout their team.
• To support the Monitoring Officer and the Head of Legal Services & Deputy Monitoring Officer at committee meetings, meetings with senior officers or other important meetings with councillors and external stakeholders.

What kind of experience or qualifications do I need?

We offer ongoing support, training and guidance to help you be the best you can be. But you will need to have:

• Solicitor, Barrister (Supreme Court of England and Wales/English Bar) or Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives or equivalent relevant qualification with relevant experience.
• Evidence of work related continuing professional development in your specialist field.
• Significant experience of working successfully with Members and Directors on complex issues and the development of strategic direction.

If you’re looking to relocate to Somerset, we can offer a relocation allowance of up to £8,000. Somerset is special – with beautiful stretches of sandy coastline, caves, moors, the unique Somerset Levels, cool-list towns, the world’s largest green-field music festival and fantastic local food and produce. It’s all here on your doorstep! Somerset enjoys good road, rail and air travel networks, with access to the rest of the country; London by train in less than 2 hours, and national and international flights from and to Bristol and Exeter airports, easily accessible from the M5 motorway.

What is in it for me?

We are proud to offer an environment that is supportive and rewarding, working as part of a team who are passionate about the work they do to improve the lives of people in Somerset.

We offer great training and development opportunities, with supportive management. As well as this, we have some fantastic employee benefits available:

• We promote a healthy work-life balance and offer flexible working arrangements wherever possible, including working from home.
• Generous annual leave allowance, with the opportunity to purchase additional leave
• Staff discounts in gyms.
• Employee Assistance for the times you may need some support and a variety of employee wellbeing services.
• Auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme and optional pension enhancement through our Additional Voluntary Contribution scheme.
• A Flexible Benefits Scheme via salary sacrifice to obtain a cycle for work and health screenings.
• My Staff Shop offering discounts in shops, online shopping, restaurants, cinema tickets, insurance benefits and more

DBS check

This role requires a criminal background check via the Disclosure procedure.

Supporting documents and information

The salary for the role is Grade 7 – £55,101 per annum.

A supplement allowance of £10,000 per annum is linked to the Principal Lawyer – Social Care, bringing the salary to £65,101 per annum. This allowance is subject to National Insurance, Tax and Pension deductions and will be paid in accordance with standard payroll procedures.

The allowance is time-limited and will expire on 31 January 2028. All supplement allowances are reviewed 18 months from the original approval date and may be adjusted or withdrawn based on organisational need, role changes, or market conditions.

Please note:

If the role is re-evaluated or the salary changes as a result of the Pay and Grading Review, the allowance may be reduced or cease entirely.
If the salary changes due to the NJC Pay Award, the supplement allowance will be adjusted accordingly to maintain the intended pay differential

For more information about the role, you can contact Kehinde Awojobi, Head of Legal, on kehinde.awojobi@somerset.gov.uk.

When completing your application/CV please provide your full employment history and ensure that any gaps in employment are explained. Please start with your current or most recent employment.

Closing date for applications: Sunday 29 March 2026

If you have all the information you need, just hit the apply button – we can’t wait to hear from you.

Apply on the Somerset Council website

Apply now