Immigration caseworker jobs

Job Title: Legal Project Officer

Organisation: Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA)

Duration: Four years 

Location: Hybrid / London (our anchor day is in London on a Tuesday, and there are often evening meetings in London, with occasional other travel within the UK) 

Reports to: Legal Officer and Director of Strategic Litigation and Advice

Annual leave: 25 days per annum, plus bank holidays and the week between Christmas and New Year off. 

Salary: £31,000 to £33,000 per annum starting salary, depending on skills and experience, NB. pension is 5% of salary

Working Hours: 35 hours per week, plus 1 hour lunch break (NB. evening working is required to attend any scheduled evening meetings, which ordinarily finish no later than 7pm). 

Application deadline: 11:30pm on Saturday 25 April 2026

Interviews are anticipated to be held on 14 and 15 May 2026. Shortlisted candidates will be notified by Friday, 1 May 2026..

Applications from individuals only – no agencies. Please do not use artificial intelligence in completing your application form.

Please submit a completed ILPA application form and equalities monitoring form as a Word document or in another editable format. If an application is not submitted in this format, it will not be considered. 

About the Role

The Legal Project Officer coordinates two projects which sit at the heart of ILPA’s legal policy and strategic legal coordination work.

The Legal Project Officer will work closely with the Legal Team (Legal Director and Legal Officer) to run ILPA’s Working Groups and with the Director of Strategic Litigation and Advice in a key role to coordinate strategic legal advice and litigation. The Legal Project Officer also works closely with the rest of the ILPA Secretariat, including the Chief Executive, Content and Digital Channels Manager, Training Manager, and with Trustees, ILPA and SLAC members, the SLAC Steering Committee and convenors of ILPA’s Working Groups.

You will support the organisation and running of ILPA’s thematic Working Groups, which provide a valuable forum for ILPA members to share best practice and discuss issues of current importance, assisting with agenda-setting, presenting updates, following-up on action points, answering queries, and preparing meeting summaries. The overall aim of these activities is to improve immigration, asylum and nationality law, policy and practice. 

You will work with the Director of Strategic Litigation and Advice to develop partnerships with NGOs and legal professionals around the UK and to coordinate all Strategic Legal Advice Committee (SLAC) meetings. These meetings will be held online, across the UK. Each SLAC group will hold four meetings per year as well as emergency meetings where necessary. You will be responsible for the minute taking of all SLAC meetings. You will work with the Director of Strategic Litigation and Advice to set member-led meeting agendas, identify member training needs, facilitate training, update the SLAC website, and feed in to monitoring and evaluation of the project. You will be responsible for coordinating SLAC Steering Committee meetings.

About you

The position would suit a self-motivated individual who is passionate about the sector and is looking to further their career in the immigration world, through coordinating and organising these two projects at ILPA.

You may be keen to be working at the heart of the systemic changes following Brexit, recent significant legislation, including the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, Illegal Migration Act 2023, Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024, Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, and government initiatives to “reduce net migration” such as the increased Minimum Income Requirement for family visas, the suspension of the refugee family reunion route, and earned settlement and family returns proposals. 

You will have an interest in strategic litigation and how it can be used to protect and promote the rights of those discriminated against on the basis of their migration status. You will be passionate about being involved in the coordination of a unique and exciting project that brings the third and legal sectors together in developing strategic litigation. 

Given the complexity of immigration, asylum and nationality law, we do not expect applicants to have expertise in every area, but an understanding of the law and excellent critical analysis skills are key. Any successful applicant will be able to attend ILPA training to further their knowledge.

Main responsibilities

1. To liaise, work with, and gather evidence from ILPA and SLAC members to support advocacy and knowledge-sharing in the sector;

2. To coordinate and contribute to internal and external meetings;

3. To coordinate ILPA’s thematic working groups and SLAC meetings, including by attending evening meetings, agenda-setting, participating, drafting minutes/meeting summaries, and working with the Secretariat, ILPA’s thematic Working Group co-convenors, and SLAC’s Steering Committees to take forward agreed actions;

4. To handle queries relevant to ILPA’s thematic Working Groups and SLAC sent by members and others where appropriate, such as by forwarding these on to relevant individuals and drafting responses;

5. To manage SLAC’s Steering Committees;

6. To monitor, organise, and disseminate information, communications, and updates, which will often relate to law, policy, and litigation relevant to SLAC and ILPA’s thematic Working Groups

7. To assist with facilitating SLAC training events, and feed into the monitoring and evaluation.

Person Specification

Essential knowledge, experience, skills, and qualities:

1. A law degree, postgraduate qualification in law, or other relevant qualification in law; 

2. Experience of working in or with immigration, asylum and nationality law in the UK, such as in a caseworker or paralegal role;

3. Experience of building and managing effective professional relationships with a range of people, with demonstrable ability to communicate effectively in challenging situations;

4. Relevant legal knowledge, skills and judgment, including:

   1. an ability to navigate and understand the Immigration Rules and Government guidance,

   2. a general understanding of UKVI processes, and

   3. an ability to clearly communicate legal and technical information orally and in writing;

5. Excellent attention to detail;

6. Excellent planning, coordination, organisational, time management, strategic problem-solving and independent working skills, including:

   1. an ability to take a proactive approach to independent working, 

   2. managing workstreams effectively, 

   3. confidently taking responsibility for tasks and decisions, 

   4. meeting tight deadlines, and 

   5. taking a calm and diligent approach to problem solving;

7. Commitment to the principles of a non-racist, non-sexist, just, and equitable system of immigration, asylum and nationality law; 

8. Commitment to the principles of equality, diversity, and inclusion, and taking a proactive approach to espousing these principles; and

9. Commitment to be a champion of ILPA by positively encouraging your team, identifying and encouraging opportunities for growth, and celebrating success.

About the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association

The Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) is a charity and a professional association the majority of whose members are barristers, solicitors, advocates and IAA (previously OISC) regulated advisers practising in all aspects of immigration, asylum and nationality law. Academics, non-governmental organisations and individuals with a substantial interest in the law are also members.

Founded in 1984 by leading practitioners in the field, ILPA exists to promote and improve advice and representation in immigration, asylum and nationality law, through an extensive programme of training and disseminating information and by providing research and opinion that draw on the experiences of members. ILPA is represented on numerous government, official and non-governmental advisory groups and regularly provides evidence to parliamentary and official inquiries.

The Secretariat does not give advice to members of the public on individual cases but works closely with members to ensure that they are enabled to do their best for their clients. It runs ILPA’s busy training programme and produces a wide range of information for members and non-members.

The objectives of ILPA are:

• To promote the advising and representation of immigrants;

• To provide information to members and others on domestic and European immigration, asylum and nationality law; and

• To secure a non-racist, non-sexist, just and equitable system of immigration, asylum and nationality law practice.

ILPA is an equal opportunities employer. We acknowledge that the legal and charitable sector can be less accessible to people from minoritised or racialised communities and people from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds. We are committed to unsettling the status quo. In this role you will wear many hats and we recognise that the successful candidate may not have all the skills and experience listed in the personal specification. We welcome an application from you if you can see yourself in this role and have an appetite to gain new skills, knowledge, and experience. We encourage applications from individuals who have lived experience of the UK immigration or asylum system or of the hostile environment.

We also encourage applications from people who have previously unsuccessfully applied for roles at ILPA. We will consider each application afresh. We appreciate that individuals are always learning, growing, and adding to their knowledge and experience.

About the ILPA Team 

You would be joining a small team, of around 10 team members. Under our current hybrid work policy, we have one anchor day (currently a Tuesday), in which you will be expected to work from an office setting in London, together with team members living in England and Scotland. On average, once a month, there will be a Working Group meeting in the evening that you will need to run in London. The rest of the time you will ordinarily work remotely or wherever conferences, training events, or meetings might take place. 

Purpose

Our Immigration Team works closely with Birmingham City University (BCU) to run the Immigration Law Student Clinic, a key source of free accredited immigration advice for people in Birmingham who cannot afford legal support.

The role involves supervising students as they research and prepare legal advice, coordinating day‑to‑day clinic activity, and supporting casework within CELC’s immigration team. You will recruit, train, and mentor students, ensuring they have an excellent student experience and helping them develop practical legal skills while ensuring clients receive an excellent service.

Responsibilities

Working closely with Birmingham City University the Law Clinic Supervisor will:

• Recruit and select students for involvement in the clinic
• Undertaking inductions with new students, in line with the Law Centre's Clinic practices ,including training on CELC systems and processes
• Develop and maintain student training manuals, policies, template letters, referral forms etc.
• Assess client cases prior to allocation to students
• Manage overall clinic calendar, allocating client cases to students
• Supervise all elements of student work, providing guidance to ensure accuracy and quality of research undertaken and advice provided
• Maintain accurate records of student inductions and supervisions
• Sign-off and submittance of applications
• Advise students to access other CELC teams for legal guidance where necessary e.g. family law, employment, housing etc.
• Create a positive and nurturing environment for students to learn practical casework skills  
• Monitor and report performance of the clinic to CELC and Birmingham City University
• Work positively with the Law Centre’s Clinic Lead and the other clinic leads in delivering the overall partnership and wider clinical legal education

· Ensure that the Clinic is run in line with the Team’s priorities and the strategy and priorities of the Law Centre

• Undertake professional development to ensure legal expertise is current and up to date

The Law Clinic Supervisor will also:

• Demonstrate their commitment to the aims and principles of CELC
• Abide by policies and procedures as set out in the Office Manual and Staff Handbook
• Attend Immigration and all CELC team meetings and away days
• Contribute towards the effective daily running of CELC
• Undertake any other task reasonably required within the context of the post

Person Specification

Essential

• A non-judgmental attitude and commitment to social justice and the aims of CELC

• One or more of the following professional qualifications: IAA registration at L2 or above, qualified solicitor, qualified barrister, Senior caseworker accreditation with the Law Society Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme.

• Experience in the delivery of legal support to clients
• Experience in supervising and developing others
• Excellent organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple tasks and

provide realistic timescales for completion

• Ability to work sympathetically and effectively with a wide variety of individuals i.e. clients, students, and stakeholders
• Ability to work well with others, be polite under pressure and to work as part of a team
• Self-motivated - able to work independently and on own initiative
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• An understanding of the importance of confidentiality
• Experience of using IT systems including Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook

Desirable

• Experience of designing delivery of training to individuals and groups
• Experience of working with students
• Experience of working with the public and in a busy and demanding environment
• Experience of using a case management system
• Experience of using Microsoft Teams and SharePoint  

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This is a new post to support efficient administration at HMC, ensuring the smooth running of HMC’s office and providing essential support to the CEO.

We are a busy team supporting a large number of vulnerable people and working hard to deliver impactful services in a challenging external environment. In a small team with limited resources, we all wear multiple hats and this will be a varied and busy role juggling tasks across multiple areas.

This role offers a rewarding opportunity for a highly organised person who is as comfortable delivering public-facing services as they are working alone in deep focus to complete an administrative task or write a report. The ideal candidate is confident speaking to and supporting others, and enjoys administrative tasks, creating and maintaining structure and working in a supportive capacity.

Please review the full Job Description & Person Specification for details of the role.

Anawim are looking to recruit a qualified IDVA (Independent Domestic Violence Advocate) to join their Central Services team. 

Central Services is dedicated to providing comprehensive support to women through our Casework and Drop-in projects. These projects aim to address various challenges faced by women in Birmingham. 

Casework Project offers specialised support in key areas including, Domestic Violence – IDVA, Children and Families, Accommodation, Substance Misuse, Multiple Complex Needs, Trauma.

Caseworkers will be required to provide individualise support, practical advice and signposting on a range of matters such as money management, benefits, homelessness, drug treatments, parenting, children’s education, healthcare, legal and immigration issues, mental health, training education and employment opportunities.Women may also present with issues such as self-harm, suicidal ideation and safety planning. 

From our Birmingham centre, Anawim provides trauma informed services including holistic support and advocacy to enable women to reach their potential 

Our Vision statement:  

A world where women are safe, free, valued and equal members of society. 

Our Values: 

Anawim believes in the intrinsic value of every person and welcomes each women without judgement 

We are deeply committed to listening to our women and building services around their needs 

We help women to navigate the complex challenges they are facing and we do all that we can to support them for as long as they needs us 

Anawim empowers women to make positive changes to turn their lives around, helping them, one step at a time – to become independent 

We want the best for our women and to make sure their basic needs are met.We won’t rest until we’ve done all we can to keep them safe. 

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The Community Manager role is responsible for the coordination and delivery of HMC's Wednesday Service, including the management of all volunteers involved in the delivery of the service and oversight of our popular Holistic Advocacy service, delivered by volunteers.

This is a new post which recognises the importance of our Wednesday Service and the focus and resources required to deliver it effectively, whilst also recognising and seeking to empower the vital role our volunteers play in sustaining and enriching our services.

Please review the full Job Description & Person Specification for details of the role.