Area and Divisions Communications Officer

Job summary

As an Area and Divisions Communications Officer within the CPS Corporate Communications Directorate, you help deliver an effective communications service to Areas and Divisions through internal and external channels.

You manage day-to-day relationships with local media, provide communications advice to colleagues and leaders, and support the delivery of communications plans and activity aligned with national and local priorities.

The role includes handling media enquiries, producing and quality-assuring content for a range of internal and external channels, and supporting the local delivery of national campaigns. You will also help maintain Area and Division channels, including intranet and website content, ensuring information is timely, relevant and accessible.

Working as part of a small team, you will build effective relationships with local media, partners and colleagues, monitor communications activity, and help ensure all work meets CPS brand standards and Government Communication Service requirements.

The Crown Prosecution Service is based in England and Wales. If you’re applying for this role and live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you must let us know when accepting this offer as you need permission to work from your home address if hybrid working is part of your role. There’s no guarantee that we will grant this approval.

You must be aged 16 or over at the point of starting in this role. The expected start date is approximately 8–12 weeks after the application closing date. Candidates are expected to commence employment as soon as possible following the expiry of their notice period. Requests for significantly later start dates may not be accommodated.

These posts are available at the below locations, as part of your application, you're asked to choose your preferred location. We make offers in merit order for each location, based on your first preference.

Hub 1: London
Hub 2: North West and Mersey Cheshire
Hub 3: West Midlands and East Midlands
Hub 4: East of England and South East
Hub 5: North East and Yorkshire and Humberside
Hub 6 Thames and Chiltern and Wessex
Hub 7: Cymru/Wales and South West
Hub 8: CPSD/SEOCID/POC/SCCTD - any CPS office location with regular travel to London and York offices.

Job description

Your roles and responsibilities

• deliver communications plans and activity for Areas and Divisions, ensuring alignment with national and local objectives.
• provide communications advice and support to colleagues and leaders, including media handling and crisis communications.
• handle local and regional media enquiries and maintain day-to-day relationships with local media and partners, escalating complex issues where appropriate.
• produce, quality-assure and publish content for internal and external channels, including intranet and website pages, in line with brand and accessibility standards.
• support the delivery and evaluation of communications activity, including local delivery of national campaigns and continuous improvement of channels and content.

A copy of the full job description is attached.

Person specification

To be eligible to apply, you need to:

• have experience of media handling, public relations, internal communications or corporate communications.
• have an understanding of media law practices.
• have experience of developing integrated communication plans and social media content design and planning.
• demonstrate excellent written and oral communication skills
• experience using adobe creative suite- Photoshop/Premiere Pro

It is desirable that you have the below experience but this is not required to apply:

• stakeholder engagement management experience.

Behaviours

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

• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions

Technical skills

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

• Insight
• Ideas
• Implementation
• Impact

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,935, Crown Prosecution Service contributes £10,410 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).

Join the Crown Prosecution Service and find your purpose.

Why we work for the Crown Prosecution Service

The Crown Prosecution Service is passionate about ensuring that we're a top performing organisation and a great place to work. We're a committed equal opportunities employer, creating a culture where you can bring your whole self to work, and individuality is truly appreciated.

This culture of inclusion is underpinned by our staff networks covering disability, faith and belief, LGBTQI+, race, social mobility alongside our mental health first aiders programme and wellbeing sessions.

The Crown Prosecution Service commits to offer its employees the following experience.

• You can do impactful, purposeful work that’s making a difference to your local communities.
• You are able to learn and grow, with access to the right opportunities and resources.
• We care about your wellbeing.
• We want you to feel valued, trusted and included.

We also offer the following range of benefits:

• Civil Service contributory pension of up to 28.9%
• 25 days’ leave, increasing to 30 days after 5 years
• £350 each year to spend on personal development
• lawyer training programme for all new prosecutors
• an extra privilege day to mark the King's birthday
• competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
• flexible working including flexitime, and a family friendly approach to work
• Cycle2Work scheme, employee savings.

Diversity at the Crown Prosecution Service is about inclusion, embracing differences and ensuring our workforce truly reflects the communities we serve. We want you to feel that you belong and can thrive, whatever your background, identity or culture. As a Disability Confident employer, we're happy to support requests for reasonable adjustments and improve your recruitment experience. If you'd like any reasonable adjustments made to our recruitment process, let us know within your application or contact rachel.seagraves@cps.gov.uk.

The Crown Prosecution Service has fixed rates for its Higher Executive Officer grade – a developing rate (the starting salary) and a spot rate (the maximum salary). Applicants typically join us on the developing rate and, after completing a 18-month development period, move to the spot rate – this is subject to your line manager confirming that you’re performing the role to a satisfactory standard.

If you’re joining the Crown Prosecution Service on a lateral transfer from another government department, you should contact us about the impact on your salary and the implications of any time you’ve already spent at that grade before applying or accepting an employment offer. Your salary may be adjusted if your location changes when you join us. This adjustment also takes into account any existing allowances that may have previously been consolidated into your basic pay – there’s no guarantee that you can retain these when you transfer.

We want to ensure our employees can thrive at work and home and offer a range of support to achieve a balance. This includes flexibility of working hours, flexibility to support caring responsibilities and a flexible approach to deployment. We offer a hybrid working policy. You must spend at least 40% of your contracted hours over a four-week period at court, in an office or another official workplace depending on business need and the kind of work you're doing.

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.

Recruitment process

The recruitment process consists of an online application, interview and assessment. These are expected to take place on the week commencing 3rd and 10th August 2026.

Your interview takes place online through Microsoft Teams. A member of our recruitment team will be in touch with guidance. If you have any queries about this, contact rachel.seagraves@cps.gov.uk.

You should keep these dates free or notify us if you're not available. We'll make every effort to accommodate your date preferences but we can't guarantee it.

Assessment

We ask you to complete an assessment as part of the recruitment process for this role. We will provide details immediately before your interview.

Personal statement

We ask you to complete a personal statement of no more than 750 words. You need to address the technical skills required for this role: Government Communications Service (GCS) professional competencyframework. This will be assessed against level AIO/IO of the GCS professional competency framework. Please be advised that the panel reserve the right to sift applications on the below criteria only:

• Insight

  • Review existing sources of insight (including previous communication activity) to understand the overall context for communication and audience influences/influencers.
  • Use insight to identify target audiences and partners, support decision making and help inform the overall communication approach.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the communication objectives and how these support the overall policy objective

  Ideas

  • Develop outline communication plans, identifying the most effective channels and tools to engage audiences and maximise reach.
  • Design and develop engaging, targeted content and messages suitable for use across a range of channels.
  • Demonstrate an awareness of how channels work together and complement each other.
  • Explore opportunities to use low/no cost channels, including earned, owned and paid-for channels.

  Implementation

  • Adhere to all relevant policies, legislation and guidance for delivery of communication (including for example propriety, diversity, language, social media, and corporate branding guidelines and requirements).
  • Demonstrate good written and oral communication skills. Write clearly, concisely and accurately.
  • Select appropriate visuals to improve the impact of communication (for example, photography and infographics).
  • Monitor plans and provide status updates to ensure communication plans are delivered on time and to budget.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of value for money in communication delivery. Ensure that suppliers are delivering quality communication products.

  Impact

  • Support the design and delivery of techniques to assess the effectiveness and impact of communication.

Behaviours

You are also asked to complete a statement of no more than 250 words for each of the following behaviours, setting out how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience match the specified behaviours and requirements:

1. Working Together
2. Delivering at Pace
3. Making Effective Decisions

In addition, you need to demonstrate the following experience required for this role:

• have experience of media handling, public relations, internal communications or corporate communications.
• have an understanding of media law practices.
• have experience of developing integrated communication plans and social media content design and planning.
• demonstrate excellent written and oral communication skills.
• experience using adobe creative suite- Photoshop/Premiere Pro

You also need to demonstrate the Crown Prosecution Service or Civil Service values.

Interview/Assessment

We use behaviours to help us understand your experience, to see if you're a good fit for the role. You are assessed against HEO in the Civil Service success profiles behaviours framework. We are assessing 3 behaviours at interview stage:

1. Working Together - interview
2. Delivering at Pace - interview
3. Making Effective Decisions - interview

Essential Experience and the GCS Technical Framework is assessed at application, interview and assessment.

CV

You’re not required to upload your CV. However, when submitting your application there is a ‘CV section’. You are required to provide information about your employment and/or academic history for the past three years. The CV section will be used as supporting evidence, it won’t be assessed.

It’s your responsibility to provide the specified information in the requested format to ensure that you're considered for the post.

If you're unable to cover three years through employment or academic history, you must provide a character reference for clearance purposes.

Other

This is a full-time post. We do consider requests for flexible, part-time working and job share, always considering the operational needs of the department.

Please note that the CPS is unable to offer visa sponsorship. Therefore, if you require visa sponsorship to work in the UK, you will not meet the eligibility criteria for this role.

Clearance

If successful, you are required to securea Disclosure and Barring Service check and Security Check clearance, for which you must have a current valid UK address.

If successfully appointed, we ask you to complete a character enquiry form, nationality and immigration questionnaire and national security vetting form.

If you're a Crown Prosecution Service member of staff, you won’t need to do a Disclosure and Barring Service check as you already hold this clearance.

The job you’re applying for is covered by Article 3(a) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, consequently Section 4(2) of that Act doesn’t apply.You’re required to disclose all previous convictions and cautions including spent convictions. Failing to make a full declaration will result in withdrawing your offer of employment if our checks reveal convictions that haven’t been disclosed.

To be cleared to Security Check clearance level, you have to be able to meet the residency requirement in the Cabinet Office guidance. For the Crown Prosecution Service, this is three years within the last five years.

Reserve list

If you're recommended by the selection panel but not appointed to the current vacancy, you’re put on a reserve list for 12 months. You may be offered another Area and Divisions Communications Officer post in the CPS if a vacancy comes up during this period. We may also approach candidates on the waiting list to fill other roles that require similar knowledge and experience.

Fraud check

The Crown Prosecution Service provides a Fair Processing Notice to all new applicants after they’ve been successful at interview. These candidates are informed that, as one aspect of pre-employment screening, their personal details – name, National Insurance number and date of birth – are checked against the Internal Fraud Database. We won't employ anyone included on the database unless they can demonstrate exceptional circumstances.

The Strategic Resourcing team in the Crown Prosecution Service will, on behalf of the vacancy holder, inform applicants when they are refused employment because of their inclusion in the Internal Fraud Database.

Civil Service Commission

If you’re dissatisfied with the recruitment process and wish to make a complaint, please contact Strategic.Resourcing@cps.gov.uk with your concerns.

If you remain dissatisfied and wish to make a further complaint, please click on the following link to the Civil Service Commission complaints page Recruitment Complaints - Civil Service Commission

Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles can be found at https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/

Details of the Civil Service Nationality Rules are located at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules

Candidates are subject to UK immigration requirements. For the most up-to-date information on the requirements of working in the UK, please go to the UK Visas and Immigration website at https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.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).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).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 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 Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).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.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil 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

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Rachel Seagraves
• Email : rachel.seagraves@cps.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : strategic.resourcing@cps.gov.uk

Attachments

Area and Divisions Communications Officer Opens in new window (pdf, 183kB)CPS Terms and Conditions Opens in new window (docx, 255kB)NEW CPS Personal Statement Guidance 2023 Opens in new window (docx, 269kB)