Deputy Head of Legal Services

Join Us as Deputy Head of Legal Services
Are you a skilled legal professional ready to lead with purpose and make a difference in healthcare?
We’re looking for a dynamic Deputy Head of Legal Services to help shape the future of patient safety, legal governance, and quality care across our Trust.
Why Join Us?
This is more than a legal role—it’s a chance to be part of a compassionate, forward-thinking organisation where your expertise will shape how we care, respond, and grow. You’ll work alongside dedicated professionals, influence real change, and be supported to develop your career in a
meaningful way.
Job description
Working side-by-side with the Head of Legal Services, you’ll lead a dynamic legal team, manage complex and high-profile cases—including inquests, clinical negligence, and liability claims—and ensure the Trust stays fully compliant with legal and regulatory standards. Your work will directly influence how the organisation responds to challenges, learns from incidents, and improves services.
You’ll be the go-to expert for medico-legal advice, collaborating with NHS Resolution, HM Coroners, external law firms, senior clinicians, and operational leaders. Your ability to build strong relationships,
communicate clearly and contribute to our One Culture of Care will be essential.
This is a role where legal insight meets healthcare strategy. You’ll help shape local policies, interpret
national guidance, and ensure legal advice is practical, timely, and aligned with the Trust’s mission to deliver outstanding care.
If you thrive in fast-paced, emotionally charged environments and want to use your legal skills to drive real-world change, this is your opportunity to lead, influence, and grow
About us
Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust is an integrated trust, providing acute and community health services.
Over 7,000 colleagues provide compassionate care from our two main hospitals, Calderdale Royal Hospital, and the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, as well as in our community sites, health centres and
in our patients’ homes. We also are incredibly proud to have almost 170 volunteers here at CHFT.
We serve two local populations; Greater Huddersfield which has a population of around 245,000 people and Calderdale with a population of 220,000 people.
We provide a range of services including urgent and emergency care; medical; surgical; maternity; gynaecology; critical care; children’s and young people’s services; end of life care and outpatient and diagnostic imaging services.
We provide community health services, including sexual health services in Calderdale from Calderdale Royal and local health centres. These include Broad Street and Bowling Mill at Dean Clough.
In 2024/25 we cared for more than 103,000 men, women and children as inpatients (who stayed at least one night) or day cases. There were also more than 490,000 outpatient attendances; almost 185,000 accident and emergency attendances and more than 4,200 babies delivered.
There were more than 369,000 adult services contacts by our community teams as well as 230,000 contacts with our therapy services.
Job responsibilities
For a detailed job description for this vacancy, please see attached Job Description.
Person Specification Qualifications
Essential
Educated to degree level in law/ legal practice (CILEx) with appropriate post graduate level courses or substantial experience at a comparable level
Recent experience/ traineeship managing clinical negligence/ employer liability claims to Masters level equivalent.
Evidence of CPD
Experience
Essential
Previous Coronial/Inquest management experience
Experience of staff management
Able to demonstrate a clear understanding of CPR, the claims process and coronial law and regulations
Strong technical knowledge in areas relevant to legal healthcare practice
Good understanding of the principles of investigations management, root cause analysis techniques and Clinical Governance
Understanding data -- extracts, collates, quantitatively analyses and validates data, recognising alternative solution where necessary
Desirable
Experience of working within a healthcare law setting
Previous experience of managing inquests
Advocacy experience
Implementing risk and case management systems
Experience of quality management processes and quality improvement mechanisms
Teaching / Training experience
Additional Criteria
Essential
Ability to rapidly assimilate a range of complex information and provide advice
Strong problem solving ability and capacity to recognise alternative solutions where necessary
Strong team management and workload management skills
Critical appraisal of wide ranging documents to facilitate assessment of risk and to ensure appropriate & sensitive communication/ management of claims/inquests
Ability to manage, prioritise and deliver a number of projects and work programmes within timescales
Ability to lead and supervise teams and work in a educational and supportive manner
Ability to deal with