Legal Services Officer

We are seeking a Legal Services Officer, to play an important role in supporting the delivery of the diverse and dynamic Legal Services required to support one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching Trusts. King’s has a unique profile of local services and focused tertiary specialties together with an international reputation for its work in liver disease and transplantation, neurosciences, fetal medicine, cardiac and blood cell cancer.

This is an interesting and varied role and presents an exciting opportunity for an individual who has an interest in health law and legal practice. This could be an ideal opportunity for someone with a law degree seeking to gain valuable practical experience on the path towards a career in the legal profession.

We are looking for someone who can demonstrate the King’s Values. At King’s we are a Kind, Respectful Team. We show compassion and understanding and bring a positive attitude to our work. We promote equality, are inclusive and honest, speaking up when needed. We support each other, communicate openly and put our patients at the centre.

The post holder will work closely with the Patient Safety, Patient Experience, and Quality Governance & Risk Management to provide support to our clinically led care groups across all of our sites. We are looking for someone who is enthusiastic and engaging who enjoys working in a fast-paced environment consistently delivering high quality outputs. We need someone who can truly demonstrate the King’s values in their interactions with our internal and external stakeholder interactions.

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of c£1 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and more than 15,000 staff based across South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local and specialist services across its five sites. The trust-wide strategy of Strong Roots, Global Reach is our Vision to be BOLD, Brilliant people, Outstanding care, Leaders in Research, Innovation and Education, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at the heart of everything we do. By being person-centred, digitally-enabled, and focused on sustainability, we aim to take Team King’s to another level.

We are at a pivotal point in our history and we require individuals who are ready to join a highly professional team and make a real, lasting difference to our patients and our people.

King’s is committed to delivering Sustainable Healthcare for All via our Green Plan. In line with national Greener NHS ambitions, we have set net zero carbon targets of 2040 for our NHS Carbon Footprint and 2045 for our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus. Everyone’s contribution is required in order to meet the goals set out in our Green Plan and we encourage all staff to work responsibly, minimising their contributions to the Trust’s carbon emissions, waste and pollution wherever possible.

Claims Handling

• Manage the litigation claims against the Trust for clinical negligence and employer/public liability cases in accordance with pre-action protocols, Civil Procedure Rules and NHS Resolution reporting requirements. This is a claims handling function – panel will be appointed on all active claims and so the role is to respond to requests from panel who handle the day-to-day management of active files.
• Investigate claims for loss of personal property or damage to property and make recommendations on reimbursement.

Inquests

• To assist the Associate Director of Legal in the conduct of Coroners’ Inquest cases by completing all preliminary and administrative tasks in the preparation of all such cases, including:
• Acting as primary liaison point with the Coroner’s Office and maintaining a professional and amicable working relationship with the various Coroners’ Officers;
• Management of frequent, unexpected and urgent requests for information and/or assistance from Coroners’ Officers which may require reprioritisation of work, exercising judgement having regard to the particular circumstances;

Analysis and Data Management

• Responsible for maintaining the data within the Trust’s inquests and claims database (Datix), ensuring that the data is accurate and up-to-date.
• Provide relevant information to the Associate Director of Legal as requested in order to form the wider Trust with regards to trends within the inquests’ and claims’ portfolio.

Please see the attached Job description and person specification for the full main duties and responsibilities