Lawyer wanting to work for social services/on behalf of vulnerable children

[corduroybear]

I'm an ex-corporate lawyer who left the City three years ago after four years (so not a huge amount of experience) for family (new baby) and health (serious illness diagnosis) reasons. I've since had baby#2 and baby #3 is due at Christmas, after which I want to go back to work.

I've done a lot of volunteering whilst 'off' and am now on the Board of a large not for profit which works to help underprivileged and vulnerable children where I currently live (not in the UK).

Because of this and personal experiences with (the equivalent here of) social services I'm really inspired to use my legal skills to help similar children in the UK (we're moving back permanently in a month) but don't know how-all I can find are jobs in private practice for people to fight social services' decisions. I want to work to help organisations like social services, the NSPCC etc protect vulnerable children and help them find safe futures.

We won't be living in London again, but does anyone know where to look for jobs like this? I realize I'll likely have to go in at the very bottom (my speciality was corporate tax which is obviously not relevant!) and that's fine. I just would appreciate some initial direction.

Thanks.

Bump-anyone?

If you're keen on supporting the work of social services then looking for a position in a local authority legal team would probably be the best place to start.

I guess you need to be looking at the legal departments for the local councils in the areas that you want to work in. ( former Social Worker in a Children and Families team)

I have a friend who has recently given this up, she was in Child Protection for a Local Authority. I think there are 2 things you need to be aware of - she has given it up as she finds it too harrowing after having children. She said it is massively stressful worrying about making the right decisions (given the consequences of getting it wrong). Also, although this doesn't seem to be a major concern for you but LA work is really poorly paid. I think most lawyers outside of London are quite poorly paid compared to other professions, but if you're paying for childcare for your 3 children, you're not going to have much left over.

Thanks for all the advice!

I had come to the same conclusion about needing to do private practice first but thank you for confirming that!

And thanks also for the personal advice. Childcare costs are important but 2/3 of them will be in school/nursery by the time I start which we'd be paying for anyway (whether or not I worked) so hopefully the costs from 'my' salary won't be too high. Good to know about the difficulties after children too: hopefully PP will give me some exposure at least to that.

I was going to say that Chunderella, that I wouldn't have thought it was more than about £30k. The vast majority of solicitors (private practice or LA) haven't had pay increases (well meaningful ones anyway) for quite a number of years.

I know someone who left corporate law in London and went to join a local authority as a lawyer in childcare. FWIW she also dropped her hours which was a real plus. I don't know what level she went in at or how she got the job, but it all worked out well for her.