Salary and Contract

• Grade A – £52,737 (National) or £58,409 (London – for London office based or home-based workers within the boundary of the M25). Additional homeworking allowance of £581 per annum for those working from home and a recruitment & retention allowance of £2,500 per annum.
• Contracted Hours: Full time 37 hours per week
• Contract Type: Permanent
• Location: Home or office based (flexible location). Hybrid working – 2 days a week from home. CQC offices are in London, Newcastle and Leeds
• Closing Date: Monday 1 December 2025 at 11.59pm

Make a difference

Every role at CQC contributes to our mission. If you’re looking for a new role in Legal Services that gives a true sense of meaning and purpose, then you’ve found it! As a Senior Lawyer, you’ll help ensure our decisions are legally sound, supporting our work to protect people who use health and care services.

Picture this

Imagine leading a team of legal professionals who provide expert advice on everything from criminal prosecutions to inquests, helping CQC take fair and lawful action to improve care across England.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead on complex litigation, including Judicial Review claims and First-tier Tribunal appeals, ensuring CQC’s actions are legally robust.
• Shape strategic legal solutions by working closely with operational teams to manage legal risks early and effectively.
• Lead and support a legal team: Manage, coach and develop legal professionals to deliver high-quality advice and advocacy.
• Provide expert legal guidance: Advise on a wide range of legal matters including enforcement and regulatory activity, and lead on civil litigation and public law proceedings.
• Monitor legal trends: Identify recurring legal issues and use insights to improve how we deliver legal services across CQC.

Qualifications and Experience

• Legal expertise and advocacy: Qualified solicitor, barrister or legal executive with at least 5 years’ experience, including experience of Judicial Review claims (preferable) or transferable skills to demonstrate the ability to rapidly acquire it.
• Leadership and coaching: Show experience of leading legal teams, supporting colleagues’ development and managing complex caseloads.
• Clear communication and problem solving: Evidence of the ability to explain legal issues clearly, develop practical solutions and build trusted relationships with stakeholders.

The Team

As part of the Legal Services Directorate, you will work with colleagues across the whole directorate. You will manage and lead a small team of lawyers and paralegals within the fast‑paced civil litigation team, and work alongside fellow Senior Lawyers to support the whole of the civil litigation team. The team has a varied remit and predominantly deals with appeals to the First‑tier Tribunal (60–100 live appeals at any one time), Upper Tribunal appeals, private law claims, litigated public law challenges and employment law.

A thorough knowledge (or the ability to acquire it) of administrative and public law, civil litigation, regulatory law, employment law and data protection is desirable.

Compliance

To progress your application, you need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. Without valid right to work you won’t be eligible for the role. We do not offer sponsorship for this role. Some roles may also be subject to a satisfactory DBS check.

Application Process

Apply online by creating a profile and completing an application form. Your application will be completely anonymous. We contact every applicant to let them know the outcome of their application, so you will hear from us whether or not you are shortlisted.

For more information on the process, please see our Information for Applicants page. If you’d like an informal chat about the role, contact Sarah Potter, Legal Manager, Civil Litigation at Sarah.Potter@cqc.org.uk. For general enquiries, email recruitment@cqc.org.uk.

Benefits

• Annual leave starting at 27 days per year, rising to 32.5 days with service, plus bank holidays (usually 8 days per year).
• Training and development opportunities.
• Wellbeing initiatives, such as gym discounts and meditation.
• NHS pension scheme, with around 14% employer contribution.
• Discount schemes (including eligibility for a Blue Light card, cost £4.99, valid for 2 years), reward vouchers, car leasing and more.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

We know job descriptions can feel intimidating. Research shows they can cause some people to doubt whether they’re a good fit, especially from under‑represented groups. If this role interests you, we encourage you to apply. Your unique perspective, skills and experience could be exactly what we need.

If you need adjustments to our process, we’ll work with you to remove any barriers. Visit our Accessibility page for more information. We promote a workplace where fairness, respect and inclusion are a priority. See our ED&I page for more about this.

We welcome applications from everyone. Colleagues can find support and community among our many employee networks. This includes people of any:

• Age
• Sex
• Gender identity or expression
• Sexual orientation
• Religion or belief
• Ethnicity
• Disability

Our Core Values and Vision

• Excellence – being a high‑performing organisation.>
• Caring – treating everyone with dignity and respect.
• Integrity – doing the right thing.
• Teamwork – learning from each other to be the best we can.

We are a disability confident employer and a carer confident employer.

Advice on using AI

• AI can support research, structuring and refining your writing, but your application must reflect your real skills and experience.
• Spell‑checking and condensing word counts are great ways to use AI effectively.
• Do not copy and paste AI‑generated answers. These will not help you stand out; we want to hear about your skills and experience.
• Providing false or insincere examples goes against our core values of honesty and integrity and may lead to your application being withdrawn or termination of employment.