Communication Manager (Ref: 23457)

Job summary

Please refer to Job Description.

Job description

Wales Office

Job Description for Communication Manager

Job Title: Communication Manager

Pay Grade: SEO

Salary: £42,914 - £46,182 (National) / £49,325 - £53,081 (London) Your salary will be dependent on your base location

Location: Ty William Morgan, Cardiff, CF10 1EP / Gwydyr House, London, SW1A 2NP

Contract: Permanent

Reports to: Head of Communication

Clearance: SC (See Additional Information)

About the Wales Office:

The Wales Office is the face of the UK Government in Wales and the voice of Wales in Westminster. We support the Secretary of State for Wales and the Ministerial team in representing Wales at the heart of Government. We work in partnership with other Government Departments and other stakeholders to deliver a stronger Wales within a strong United Kingdom.

Our departmental values are Commitment, Collaboration and Quality. These shape how we operate in a challenging, demanding, and fast paced environment which requires flexibility, transparency and professionalism.

The Wales Office has two sites, one in Cardiff and one in Whitehall. The successful candidate will be based in Cardiff or London, but travel between sites and elsewhere may be required in order to build relations with colleagues and stakeholders.

About the team:

The Wales Office Communications Team is a high-performing team that helps connect people across Wales with the work of the UK Government. We provide strategic communication advice to ministers and senior officials, manage media relations, deliver digital and social media content, and support ministerial visits and events.

Working at the heart of government, we collaborate closely with colleagues across Whitehall and the Government Communication Service to ensure UK Government delivery is communicated clearly, effectively and in ways that matter to Welsh audiences. We combine insight, evaluation, creativity and strong news judgement to deliver communication that is audience-focused, evidence-led and impactful.

The team is ambitious about modern government communications. Alongside supporting ministers and managing daily media activity, we are increasingly focused on direct-to-citizen communication, using digital channels and partnerships to tell authentic stories about the impact of UK Government policies and investment in communities across Wales.

As part of a small team, you will have the opportunity to work across multiple communication disciplines, take ownership of significant projects and develop strong relationships with senior decision-makers. No two days are the same, making this an ideal role for a communicator who enjoys variety, challenge and the chance to make a visible impact.

About the Role:

The Wales Office is seeking an experienced integrated communicator to play an important role in developing and delivering strategic communication that supports UK Government priorities across Wales.

You will develop expert communication advice for ministers and senior officials, helping to shape and deliver integrated communication strategies that build understanding of UK Government priorities and their impact across Wales.

This is a varied role spanning strategic communication, media relations, campaigns, digital communication and reputation management. You will work across disciplines to ensure communication activity is insight-driven, audience-focused and aligned with wider UK Government objectives.

A key aspect of the role will be supporting the Head of Communication to develop and deliver longer-term communication strategies across Wales Office priority policy areas. The successful candidate will lead the development of thematic communication plans, ensuring activity is informed by audience insight, aligned to ministerial priorities and evaluated to demonstrate impact and continuous improvement.

By joining a communications team, you will become a member of the Government Communication Service, a profession of over 7,000 communicators working in government departments, agencies and arm’s length bodies. You’ll benefit from continuous professional development from our new learning and development curriculum, a network of skilled communicators sharing best practice, mentoring opportunities, and more.

For more information on how becoming a part of the Communications Profession can support your career and development please visit the GCS careers page.

Key Responsibilities

We are looking for motivated and creative individual to join us and embark on an exceptional career in government communications.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Strategic communication – support the Head of Communications in developing and delivering long-term communication strategies across priority policy and thematic areas, ensuring communication activity supports ministerial objectives and organisational priorities.
• Insight and evaluation – lead the development of audience insight, evaluation and communication performance reporting. Use evidence and data to shape communication activity, identify opportunities and provide strategic recommendations to senior leaders.
• Press office resilience and reputation management – provide expert media handling support, contribute to proactive and reactive communications activity, support major announcements and issues management, and provide resilience during periods of high operational demand, including participation in the out-of-hours rota.
• Relationships – develop and maintain strong working relationships with ministers, private offices, special advisers, senior officials, journalists, stakeholders and other government departments.
• Prioritising – understand government, departmental and ministerial priorities so you can communicate key messages clearly, accurately and creatively.
• Each member of the team takes part in an on-call system, for which there is an allowance, to take calls out-of-hours from the media. This is done on a rotational basis, and full training will be given.

The job description is not intended to be exhaustive, and it is likely that duties may be altered from time to time in the light of changing circumstances and after consultation with the postholder.

Person Specification

Please evidence how closely you match the essential criteria in your Statement of Suitability, which is up to 750 words.

Essential:

• Experience of developing strategic communication strategies that support organisational and ministerial objectives.
• Experience of using audience insight, research, evaluation and performance data to develop communication activity and measure success.
• Experience of providing strategic communication advice to senior stakeholders.
• Ability to identify emerging risks and opportunities and translate complex issues into effective communication approaches.
• Excellent understanding of the national news agenda, social media landscape and communication handling; strong news judgement and political awareness.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience producing high-quality content for a range of audiences and channels
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills - producing high-quality written content such as statements, press releases and briefings, for a range of different stakeholders and audiences.
• Strong organisational and planning skills, comfortable managing multiple priorities and working to tight deadlines.
• Strong networking skills with the confidence in building and maintaining a network of internal and external contacts.
• Strong team collaboration skills, work effectively as part of a team; contributing to shared goals, supporting colleagues and fostering a positive team environment.

Desirable:

• An ability to speak and write proficiently in the Welsh language is desirable for this post.

Recruitment Process:

This campaign will be undertaken using the Civil Service Success Profile framework. You will need to provide evidence in your application to cover the following behaviours:

• Seeing the Big Picture (Lead Behaviour) (Application & Interview)
• Communicating and Influencing (Interview Only)
• Delivering at Pace (Interview Only)

In the event of a high volume of applicants, we will sift only on the lead behaviour to create a shortlist for interview.

Technical Skills

We'll assess you against these Government Communication Service (GCS) technical skills during the selection process:

• Ideas: Turning evidence, insight and policy objectives into effective communication strategies.
• Impact: Evaluating communication activity and using evidence to improve future performance.

Additional Information

The Wales Office is not an employer in its own right and staff recruited to work at the Wales Office will be employees of the Ministry of Justice who provide employment services on our behalf.

This role requires SC level clearance. Applicants for National Security Clearance (SC) must be resident in the UK for 5 years immediately prior to their application for Security Clearance. If you have spent significant time abroad (a total of 6 months in the past 3 years), you would be required to give a reasonable account of the reasons why.

If you do not meet the above requirement, you may still be considered for the role if, for example:

• You have been serving overseas with HM Armed Forces or in some other official capacity as a representative of HM Government.
• You were studying abroad.
• You were living overseas with parents.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

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

• Ideas: Turning evidence, insight and policy objectives into effective communication strategies.
• Impact: Evaluating communication activity and using evidence to improve future performance.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £42,914, Wales Office contributes £12,432 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).

• 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 employer contribution of 28.97%
• 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

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

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) 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 : SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team
• Email : moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk
• Telephone : 0345 241 5359

Recruitment team

• Email : moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If 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-recruitm…

https://jobs.justice.gov.uk/careers/JobDetail/23457?entityId=23457