• Gross per annum at £51,090 – £56,038 FTE (Full Time Equivalent)

• Full-time at 37.5hrs per week, or 0.8 FTE at 30 hrs per week

• Permanent contract

• Member of the Leadership Team, reporting to the CEO (Chief Executive Officer)

• This post can be remote or based in our London office, with a minimum of two days per month in the London office and an ability to attend in-person meetings nationally as needed

• Management responsibilities for our UK legal team: Currently 3 Lawyers, 1 Legal Caseworker, and 1 APBI (Afghan Pro Bono Initiative) Immigration Casework Supervisor, with potential for future growth

Safe Passage is recruiting a Head of UK Legal Team to lead our ground-breaking legal & legal policy work in the UK. The UK Legal team works to ensure that safe, legal routes exist for all people seeking asylum. The team specialises in providing free legal advice and representation to unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the UK.

This is a vital role within the senior leadership team of a young and dynamic organisation, as we enter the second half of our current 4 year strategy and – in turbulent times – look ahead with renewed ambition to champion the rights of refugees and displaced people as they flee persecution, using the law to help them access a safe route to a place of safety.

We are looking for a qualified and experienced leader with strong strategic vision, an ambitious outlook for our legal work, and a creative and initiative-taking approach to leading and managing our legal team in the UK. Experience in a similar role would be welcome, but this could also be your first paid position in the charity sector, or you could be returning to work after time out.

The Head of UK Legal Team will be a UK based qualified solicitor or barrister or have an equivalent qualification from another jurisdiction with sufficient experience working within the UK in a legal capacity, specifically in the area of asylum, immigration & refugee family reunion.

You will drive the development and delivery of our legal strategy in the UK, leading our litigation strategy, supervising and quality assuring all legal casework conducted by the UK legal team, and collaborating closely with colleagues in Greece and France to create a cohesive, powerful, cross-border legal response and framework.

You will report to the CEO of Safe Passage International and lead and supervise a team of 3 Lawyers, 1 Immigration Casework Supervisor (Afghan Pro Bono Initiative) and 1 Legal Caseworker, providing direct legal supervision and overseeing the casework of the team. This team has potential to increase in size over the coming years, subject to funding being secured.

You will work closely with both our Experts by Experience staff members and our Safe Passage Young Leaders, to shape our legal function moving forward. You will also work closely with our International Safeguarding and Protection Manager to ensure that safeguarding principles and practices are at the heart of all we do.

You will also work closely with other staff across the organisation as a key member of the organisation Leadership team;  Working with our Head of Campaigns, you will help shape our campaigning agenda, as well as working closely with the CEO and other Leadership Team colleagues to drive the organisational development more broadly, ensuring we achieve our mission and scale our impact.

Safe Passage International is a registered UK Charity with subsidiary organisations in France and Greece. An independent charity since 2019, our work has assisted over 3,000 refugees to access safe routes to family and protection. We do this by providing legal assistance to unaccompanied children and other refugees across Europe to access safe routes to family reunion and protection. In addition, we have launched ground-breaking new projects assisting refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan. We also conduct advocacy and publicly campaign in support of the rights of refugees and the importance of safe routes for all. SPI currently has a Board of 11 Trustees, and a workforce of 41, including 5 staff in France, 4 in Greece, and 3 in Poland. We are deeply committed to ensuring that the voices of lived experience shape our work.

We value equality and diversity in our organisation, and are striving to build a workforce reflective of the communities we work in. We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith, or disability. People with refugee or asylum-seeking backgrounds are experts by experience and are particularly encouraged to apply.

As a refugee charity, we offer a guaranteed interview for people with lived experience of seeking asylum who meet most of the essential criteria outlined in the Person Specification. If you have first-hand experience of applying for asylum in any country, please let us know in your application.

We respect that people’s identity is not defined by their past experiences and do not expect candidates to describe their lived experience during the interview process unless they wish to.

How do I apply?

For more information on how to apply, please visit our website:
 https://www.safepassage.org.uk/careers-and-volunteering 

Closing date: Sunday 19th November 2023 at 11.59 pm