Ministry of Justice

Senior Resourcing Press and Communications Manager – South East/National

Band B/SEO

Permanent

Salary

South East/National

Job description

The Recruitment and Retention Communications (RRC) team sits within the Ministry of Justice’s award-winning communications team. We pride ourselves on having an excellent and supportive team culture, a focus on innovation and making a difference to people’s lives.

We are looking for a passionate external communications professional to join the Resourcing Communications external team. The individual will join a team which aims to generate extensive and creative press coverage to reach national and local audiences and tell the amazing stories going on in prisons, probation and the wider justice system. Helping to increase the number of applicants for justice system roles and to get our staff the recognition and praise they deserve. 

For too long prisons and the wider justice system have been overlooked, there is not enough recognition of the amazing work that goes on every day, incredible stories of compassion, progress against extraordinary odds, and rehabilitation.

You will primarily work as part of an ambitious and exciting team who will be responsible for increasing understanding of the work delivered every day by prison officers, probation officers and magistrates . Your objectives will include placing positive, creative, national, consumer and regional press and external communications, raising awareness and consideration of our roles as an employment opportunity and career. This role would be ideal for someone with a background in PR/press/journalism and media.

Working as part of a team of central and regional communications experts, you will achieve these objectives by going out and about to visit staff  in your regional area, building close relationships with key prisons and probation offices and local media outlets and finding and placing the stories that inform the public about the justice system work and the role our staff play in delivering that. This will also include opportunities to promote our staff on a national (print, broadcast and online) level, as well as local feature articles and broadcast packages.

The role could also include wider communications e.g. supporting local engagement, which might include community outreach work and also working in close collaboration with our digital and marketing teams and central Ministry of Justice Press Office.  

Your media coverage will not only be used externally to raise awareness of justice roles, but will be vital to help raise staff morale, showing them their excellent work reflected in the local media.  

You will ensure all of your work is executed to brilliant standards, within an existing culture of continuous improvement and innovation, and evaluating the impact of communications on an ongoing basis. You will also be expected to develop strong networks both internally and externally.  

Your interpersonal skills will be first rate and you will be at ease engaging with senior internal and external stakeholders for example policy teams and senior staff, eg prison governors and Heads of Probation Delivery Units who you may need to liaise with to generate media coverage.

Person specification

The role has several key requirements including: 
 

·                  Expertise in delivering creative press/PR and external communications

You will think creatively to challenge the often-negative narrative about work in the prison, probation service and magistracy. We want to do this by telling stories at a national and regional  level about the great work the prison, probation and court service and its people do. This includes keeping the public safe, delivering justice, rehabilitating offenders by offering training, support and opportunities, and helping offenders move forwards with their lives. We want the work of frontline staff to be recognised by the public as on a par with other frontline services such as police officers and healthcare workers, and for traditional stereotypes to be challenged. You will be expected to proactively look for other communications opportunities to bring new approaches and uphold best practice.

·     Political and news judgement to spot and mitigate risks

You will have excellent judgement, which will enable you to identify potential reputational risks in the work you propose, adequately weigh up the risk and reward to decide how to proceed, seek appropriate sign-off and ensure mitigations are in place. 
 

·                  Using insight and evaluating the impact of your work.

You will work to ensure that your work aligns with the MOJ annual communications strategy and to Departmental and cross-government priorities. Your work should be based on relevant audience insight, set outcomes, have an implementation plan, and include evaluation metrics to measure the impact of press coverage.

·       Effective collaboration.

You are expected to build positive effective working and collaborative relationships internally and externally. You will be able to use these relationships to unblock issues, manage risks, and deliver more effective communications. You will be working closely alongside an internal communications retention colleague, press office, digital and marketing colleagues.

• Proactive, solution-focussed, self-motivated and innovative

You are a positive, proactive self-starter who is able to drive activity forward communications at pace, from initial planning to completion. You are solution-focussed, proactive and resilient. and are able to come up with new, innovative and creative ideas to extend the reach communications. You are also able to come up with practical solutions to barriers and challenges that arise.

·        Resilient and flexible

You will be resilient and flexible and able to overcome challenges that crop up in your work and to help to find solutions to unblock and resolve issues.

This press role will involve some travel to visit prisons, probation offices, courts and media outlets in the South-East region. As some prisons can be remote, a full driving license and own car is essential. Mileage will be paid as expenses. When not out on visits, this role will be home or office based.

Application process

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

https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a CV and a personal statement.

Your personal statement should demonstrate your suitability in no more than 1000 words that highlights the reason you are interested in the role and how your experience makes you the best candidate for the role requirements.

In your statement you should also make particular reference to the Civil Service behaviours set out below.

Civil Service Behaviours - Civil Service behaviours 

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

Communicating and Influencing

Communicate with clarity, integrity and enthusiasm. Respect the needs, responses and opinions of others.

Working together

Form effective partnerships and relationships with people both internally and externally, from a range of diverse backgrounds, sharing information, resources and support.

Changing and improving

Understand Seeks out opportunities to create effective change and suggest innovative ideas for improvement. Review ways of working, including seeking and providing feedback

For candidates invited to interview

If you are invited to interview, we will be assessing you again on the Civil Service behaviours outlined above, and also against the four GCS core technical behaviours outlined in the Government Communication Professional Competency Framework.  These include: 

Government communication service (GCS) technical behaviours

• Ideas – Support the development of proactive communications. Work constructively with other communications, policy colleagues and partners to gain expert advice and opinions.
• Implementation – Deliver communications plans in an efficient and timely manner to deadline.
• Impact – Analyse and evaluate communications to assess the effectiveness and inform future activity.

 Candidates that pass the application sift stage will be invited to have an interview. They will be expected to undertake a short presentation before the interview and will have an opportunity to present on the task at interview. Candidates will be given more information about this ahead of time.

Please note that that feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

·       Name : Charlotte Corsan, Head of External Communications – Prison Resourcing Communications team

·        Email : charlotte.corsan@justice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

·       Email :Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com

Security clearance and residency

If you are successful at interview, we will work with you to acquire SC security clearance. This is a straightforward process for most people but does, generally, require you to have been resident in the UK for at least the last five years.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

Benefits

Alongside your salary, Ministry of Justice contribute towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

·       Access to learning and development

·       A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance

·       A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity

·       A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

·       Annual Leave

·       Public Holidays

·       Season Ticket Advance

For more information about the recruitment process, benefits and allowances and answers to general queries, please click the below link which will direct you to our Candidate Information Page.
 
Link: https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

Things you need to know

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 Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

·       individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020

·       Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. I you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles and would like to raise this, please contact SSCL (Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com) in the first instance. If the role has been advertised externally (outside of the Civil Service) and you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/civil-service-recruitment/complaints/