• £45-52,000 gross per annum at 1.0 FTE
• Full-time at 37.5hrs per week, or 0.8 FTE at 30 hrs per week. Permanent contract.
• Member of the Leadership Team
• London office (minimum two days a week in the office preferred, but remote working will be considered)
• Reporting to CEO
• Management responsibilities for 3 Lawyers, 1 Legal Caseworker, and 1 Project Immigration Casework Supervisor

Safe Passage is recruiting a Head of UK Legal to lead and enable continuing and sustainable growth in our ground-breaking work to ensure that safe, legal routes to sanctuary exist for all people seeking asylum.

We are looking for a leader with strong strategic vision and a creative approach to lead and manage our UK legal team. 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.

You will lead the development and delivery of our legal work and strategy in the UK, leading our litigation strategy, overseeing all legal casework conducted by the UK legal team, and lead the legal policy work within the UK.

You will lead a team of 3 Lawyers, 1 Immigration Casework Supervisor (Afghan Pro Bono Initiative) and 1 Legal Caseworker providing legal supervision and overseeing the casework of the team. The rest of your time will be devoted to line management, regulatory compliance, and to strategic thinking, developing and implementing litigation and legal strategies in close cooperation with the Head of Campaigns as well as Directors in France and Greece.

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 recently 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 12 Trustees, and a workforce of 35, including 5 staff in France and 4 in Greece. The Leadership Team is comprised of the CEO and 7 Heads of Departments and Directors from all three countries of the charitable group who report directly to the CEO.

We also run the Safe Passage Young Leaders, a group of young people from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds who come together to campaign on issues that affect them and other refugees and play a growing role in shaping our campaigns and wider 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?

Please read the full Job Description & Person Specification and our ‘How to Apply Guide’ below.

The How to Apply Guide asks candidates to submit a CV and Cover Letter answering four specific questions linked to the Person Specification. Applications can be submitted via email in written form or as digital audio or video files.

We also ask candidates to complete our ‘Equal Opportunities Form’ to help us monitor and improve in our aims to become a truly diverse, representative and inclusive work force.

If you are an expert by experience (a refugee or a migrant with direct, first-hand experience of issues and challenges of the UK asylum or immigration system), you can ask for independent and confidential support with your job application from the Experts by Experience Employment Network (www.ebeemployment.org.uk). Please complete this form to request support and they will confirm if they can match you with a mentor to support your application.

Closing date: Sunday 12th February at 11.59 pm

For an informal discussion about the role, please email hr@safepassage.org.uk

For more detail please see our website, https://www.safepassage.org.uk/head-of-uk-legal-and-arrivals