Legal Manager – Inquiries Team

Grade A - £68,348 (National) or £74,204 (London – for London office based or homebased workers within the boundary of the M25) – There is also an additional homeworking allowance of £600 per annum for those working from home. Plus, a recruitment & retention allowance of £2,500 per annum

Contracted Hours: Full-time 37 hours per week

Contract Type: 12 Month Fixed Term or Secondment Opportunity

Location: Home-based

Closing date: Sunday 17 May 2026 at 11.59pm

Make a differenceEvery role at CQC contributes to our mission, If you’re looking for a new role in Legal Services that gives a true sense of meaning and purpose, then you’ve found it. As a Legal Manager – Inquiries Team, you’ll help CQC respond openly, fairly and lawfully to public inquiries that shape safer health and care for everyone.

Picture this

You’re leading a skilled legal team through complex, high‑profile inquiries, helping CQC tell its story clearly, meet legal duties, and learn lessons that improve care. You balance legal expertise, people leadership and calm decision‑making in a fast‑moving environment where your work really matters.

As a Legal Manager in the Legal Services Directorate you might:

Lead CQC’s preparation for a major public inquiry, coordinating evidence, drafting corporate witness statements and meeting tight statutory deadlines. Help shape how CQC learns from inquiry findings, influencing improvements across digital, operational and knowledge systems.

The role

You’ll play an important part in delivering our mission. In this role, you’ll:

Lead and manage an inquiries sub-team: Oversee a multidisciplinary legal team, plan and prioritise work, allocate cases, and support people to deliver high‑quality outcomes while looking after wellbeing. Provide expert legal direction: Act as CQC’s senior legal lead on public inquiries and investigations, advising on risk, approach and compliance, and escalating issues where needed to senior leaders. Coordinate briefings and engagement: Ensure clear, timely briefings for the Executive, Board and senior colleagues, while managing relationships with inquiry teams, legal partners and both external and internal stakeholders.

Show Us

We will be looking for specific skills, knowledge and experience in your application form:

Leading legal teams: Experience managing qualified legal professionals, including workload planning, quality assurance, coaching and performance support in a complex environment. Handling public inquiries or public law work: Experience advising on public inquiries, inquests or significant public law matters, including preparing submissions, witness statements, or acting as a legal representative. Clear legal communication at senior level: Experience drafting and presenting complex legal advice or briefings for senior leaders, explaining risks, options and recommendations in plain language.

If this sounds like a role where your experience can make a real difference, apply today to join a workplace where your impact is felt every day.

Compliance

Note For Internal Candidates

This is a secondment/fixed term opportunity. Please read the recruitment and selection policy section on secondments. You must discuss your application with your line manager before applying.

To progress your application, you’ll need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. Without valid right to work you won’t be eligible for the role. We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role. Some roles may also be subject to a satisfactory DBS check.

Next steps

If you apply, you’ll need to create a profile and complete an online application form. Your application will be completely anonymous. Please see our information for applicants for more details on the process. We contact every applicant to let them know the outcome of their application, so you will hear from us whether or not you are shortlisted.

You can read the full details of the role in the Job Description

If you’d like an informal chat about the role – Suleman Patel, Deputy Director of Public Inquiries at Suleman.Patel@cqc.org.uk. For general enquiries, please email recruitment@cqc.org.uk.

The Benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits, including:

Annual leave starting at 27 days per year, rising to 32.5 days with service, plus bank holidays (usually 8 days per year). Training and development opportunities. Wellbeing initiatives, such as gym discounts and meditation. NHS pension scheme, with around 14% employer contribution. Discount schemes (including eligibility for a Blue Light card, at a cost of £4.99 and valid for 2 years), reward vouchers, car leasing and more!

Please see our benefits page for the full list.

Equity for all

We know job descriptions can feel intimidating. Research shows they can cause some people to doubt whether they’re a good fit. This happens more often to people from underrepresented groups (e.g. ethnic minority backgrounds). If this role interests you, we encourage you to apply. Your unique perspective, skills, and experience could be exactly what we need.

We want every candidate to feel supported and able to do their best. If you need adjustments to our process, we’ll work with you to remove any barriers. Visit our accessibility page for more on this. If you’d like to chat, please contact recruitment@cqc.org.uk. Please note, if you have previously informed us of adjustments you need for interview or within your role these are not carried over and must be discussed for each individual application you make.

We promote a workplace where fairness, respect and inclusion are a priority. Diverse teams make our work better, help us deliver our mission and make our culture stronger. See our ED&I page for more about this.

We Welcome Applications From Everyone, And Colleagues Can Find Support And Community Among Our Many Employee Networks. This Includes People Of Any

Age Sex Gender identity or expression Sexual orientation Religion or belief Ethnicity Disability

Values and vision

We are guided by our core values, which shape our work and our culture.

Excellence – being a high-performing organisation.

Caring – treating everyone with dignity and respect.

Integrity – doing the right thing.

Teamwork – learning from each other to be the best we can.

We are a disability confident employer and a carer confident employer.

A Note on AI

About

AI tools can be great for research and refining ideas, but we want to learn about you. If you use AI or Chatbots to help you with your application, keep these points in mind:

AI can support research, structuring and refining your writing, but your application must reflect your real skills and experience. Spell-checking and condensing word counts are great ways to use AI effectively. Do not copy and paste AI generated answers. These will not help you stand out; remember we want to hear about your skills and experience. Providing false and insincere examples goes against our core values of honesty and integrity and may lead to your application being withdrawn or termination of your employment.