Legal Adviser

Job summary

Ofsted is looking for a skilled and motivated Legal Adviser to join our Legal Services team. This is an exciting opportunity to work at the heart of a high‑profile organisation, providing expert legal advice that supports our vital regulatory and inspection functions.

The Legal Services team provides expert legal and professional advice across all aspects of Ofsted’s work. We are a supportive, collaborative group of specialists working across a broad range of law, including public law, judicial review, children’s social care law, education law, and litigation relevant to Ofsted’s regulatory role.

You will be confident working across a range of legal issues, able to manage competing priorities, and comfortable collaborating with colleagues and external partners. In this role, you will provide or commission accurate, timely and cost‑effective legal services to support Ofsted’s work, applying sound judgement and clear communication to help the organisation make robust, well‑informed decisions while delivering positive outcomes for children and learners.

This is a fantastic opportunity to further your experience in Ofsted’s well-established team. The post holder will work with high-achieving professionals at all levels, surrounded by a friendly and supportive team. They will have access to amazing benefits, such as flexible working hours, the Civil Service Pension Scheme, and 32.5 days annual leave + 8 bank holidays. We offer a hybrid working model, so you may also choose to spend a proportion of time working from home.

Job description

Please refer to the job specification for further information.

Person specification

Please refer to the job specification for further information.

Qualifications

Qualified Solicitor or Barrister with three years post qualification experience.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Experience and working knowledge of public law matters.
• Experience of providing high calibre legal advice and guidance to senior management, junior colleagues and key stakeholders.
• Ability to think strategically, to identify legal risks and underlying causes in their wider context and identify solutions including provision for value for money.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to convey the legal issue in a clear and simple method.
• Experience of advising on equalities and/or Artificial Intelligence and/or litigation experience. (Desirable)

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £68,635, Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills contributes £19,883 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

Full details of the benefits available can be found in our Ofsted Offer brochure.

Ofsted is devoted to equality, diversity and inclusion. Within our Ofsted Strategy 2023-2027 we have stated that we will improve the representation of under-represented groups across the organisation and publish our progress on this annually. We are always looking to expand on our diverse workforce by recruiting candidates from varied backgrounds and differing experiences. We are proud to be a Disability Confident – Leader, we continually engage with our 5 staff networks for protected characteristics, and highlight the work of our Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Group. We ensure all candidates are treated with fair and open competition, with all appointments being made on merit and we use our Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) to provide assurance to all candidates of this.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Application and shortlisting

The selection panel will assess your application/personal statement explaining how you meet the essential and, where applicable, desirable criteria outlined in the job description and person specification.

You will also be asked to provide information within the “Employer/Activity History” section of the application form. This information is equivalent to the information you would provide on a CV setting out your career history (this may be used in the sifting process).

Assessment and interview

Candidates who pass the benchmark at the shortlisting stage will be invited to an interview where you will be assessed against a combination of the the Civil Service behaviours and the technical/experience skills set out in section 3 of the job specification.

Assessment and interviews will be held during the week commencing 28 September 2026 via Microsoft Teams.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a standard (or equivalent) criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Se