Paralegal

Job Title - Community Care Paralegal - Legal Practice Unit (Colchester)

Contract - Permanent

Hours - Part time, 28 hours per week (4 days - Ideally 3 full days and 2 half days) [Potential to increase to 5 days following training and gained experience]

Salary - £23,000 - £24,000 (pro rata and depending on experience)

Location - Colchester, CO3 3DA

About Coram

Coram is committed to improving the lives of the UK’s most vulnerable children and young people.

We support children and young people from birth to independence, creating a change that lasts a lifetime.

Coram is the UK’s oldest children’s charity founded by Thomas Coram in London helping vulnerable children and young people since 1739. Today, the Coram group helps more than one million children, young people, families and professionals every year by providing access to the skills and opportunities they need to thrive.

One of the members of the Coram group, Coram Children’s Legal Centre (CCLC) is the UK’s specialist centre for children’s rights in education, immigration, community care and family law, and provides significant international legal systems consultancy. The centre is located on the Coram Campus in central London with a second office in Colchester. We champion access to justice through information and advice, legal practice and representation, policy and strategic litigation.Our Legal Practice Unit provides advice and representation primarily under legal aid contract.

Our Colchester office also houses The Child Law Advice Service which provides free legal information and advice on family and education law. The office is close to the town centre which enables close working with nearby agencies, and has easy access to two mainline train stations.

About the role

We are recruiting a paralegal to join CCLC’s friendly and committed Community Care team and work with a small but dedicated team of experienced solicitors.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone with a keen interest in upholding the rights of vulnerable children and young people who is seeking to progress their legal aid career in the charity sector. Our lawyers benefit from a good work-life balance and realistic financial and chargeable hour targets. We advise children and young people up to the age of 25, and families, on a wide range of community care and public law issues. After training, the role can be split between working from home/office-based with flexibility as to the balance between the two, dependent on team requirements.

Our community care team works closely with colleagues in the Immigration and Family teams, as well as with other organisations within the Coram group, including Coram Voice and the Migrant Children’s Project. The successful applicant will be able to demonstrate a passion and commitment to upholding the rights of vulnerable children and young people.

As well as conducting casework for individuals, our community care team undertakes strategic litigation for the wider benefit of children, young people and families, and is actively involved in policy issues impacting our client base.

Flexible working arrangements will be considered subject to operational needs.

For further information on CCLC please our website.

To apply for this role, please click on the 'apply now' button below to complete the application. Please note, we will be interviewing as applications come in so please apply as soon as possible. The closing date could be extended until we find the right candidate.

Closing Date: 2nd February 2026 at midnight

Interview Date: W/c 9th February 2026

Coram is an equal opportunities employer and we believe a diverse workforce enables us to improve the services to the children and families we help. We are genuinely committed to encouraging candidates from all sections of the community we seek to support. This includes those from global majority ethnic backgrounds, those that identify as LGBQT+, those with disabilities, those with lived experience of care, those with neuro-diversity, and those from other groups who are underrepresented at Coram.

If applicants feel comfortable, we would encourage them to draw on lived experience as well as professional experience in their personal statement as part of their application.

We are committed to the safeguarding of children and where appropriate will require the successful applicant to undertake a check from the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Registered Charity No. 312278.