Head of Media and Public Relations

Job summary

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution, and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime, and migration.

The ONS Media and Public Relations team provides:

• Creative and cross-disciplinary communications strategies to advance the organisation’s reputation, covering traditional media and social media channels as well as PR opportunities.
• Media handling of ONS statistics and analyses including briefings, press releases and corporate digital content, and ensuring accurate reporting and understanding of the more than 600 publications ONS produce each year.
• Proactive media advice and engagement for the Permanent Secretary, National Statistician and Deputies.
• Reactive response to media enquiries.
• Media and PR handling advice and support for colleagues across the ONS.
• Media and presentation training to build colleague capability on working with the media.

Job description

The Head of Media and PR leads all media and public relations engagement for the ONS. The post holder builds productive and proactive relationships with senior leaders and media contacts, devising and delivering effective campaigns and interventions towards the achievement of strategic objectives, while supporting and nurturing a team of talented press officers.

They also deputise for the Deputy Director of Communications.

We’re looking for someone who would relish a role demanding strong strategic thinking across a fascinating range of topics, and the ability to respond at pace to emerging issues, including out of hours support. You will build the confidence of senior colleagues throughout the organisation, while bringing insight and best practice from your communications networks.

Key Responsibilities:

• Leading and developing the Media Relations Office – supporting a proactive, creative team that seeks out opportunities to highlight the work of the ONS and pre-empt negative commentary, tackle misinformation and ensure swift rebuttal where that appears.
• Supporting three G7 Team Leaders to lead on proactive multi-disciplinary communications strategies supporting economic statistics, population and Census 2031 preparations and for key figures including the National Statistician, and to develop their teams to support their delivery.
• Maximising the synergy between press, public relations, social media and other ONS channels, working closely with counterparts from across the communications and digital publishing directorate.
• Providing trusted media and PR advice to senior leaders, statisticians and analysts.
• Commissioning and setting high standards for developing high quality editorial content on corporate and statistical issues, including articles and press releases, briefings and media statements for news outlets, social media and other channels.
• Commissioning and generating story ideas, proactively building positive relationships with senior journalists, editors and commentators – and supporting the team to do the same.
• Nurturing talent within the team – encouraging career development, and opportunities for creativity and new ideas, and cross-directorate working.
• Building capacity within the team and across the organisation on working with the media, through overseeing training and coaching.
• Being an active leader within the Government Communications Service (GCS) to help grow the capability of our people and share best practice for communications delivery, including innovative activity and use of new technologies.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Proven track record of leading a fast-paced media relations team for a large organisation communicating complex and sensitive information, or leading an editorial team as a professional senior news journalist.
• Strong evidence of visible, collaborative and inclusive leadership, motivating others, supporting colleague development and championing diversity.
• Experience of designing, implementing, and evaluating proactive communication strategies to support organisational objectives, while demonstrating sound resource, finance and risk management to deliver against KPIs.
• Strong political awareness and understanding of the media and social media landscape, and ability to identify communications risks and opportunities.
• Experience in using excellent interpersonal skills to build organisational capability for engaging with the media, including, but not limited to, coaching and preparing spokespeople for challenging media interviews, and communicating with a wide range of audiences including citizens.

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together
• Leadership

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £68,199, Office for National Statistics contributes £19,757 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.

Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.

Inclusion & Accessibility

At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.

As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.

If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.

ONS are committed to flexible ways of working that support a healthy work-life balance. ONS has already considered how this job could be right sized for applicants working flexibly and we are happy to explore options with you about working part time, in a job share or flexibly, in line with our hybrid working policies.

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 and Experience.

For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.

At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)

• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records

• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency

• Security Services records

ONS are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants are expected to hold a valid right to work in the UK when employment commences. If you are applying on a time-limited visa, this will need to be valid for at least 18 months.

To work at the ONS, candidates must meet both UK right to work and security clearance requirements (where applicable).

If you are unsure whether you meet the appropriate right to work or security clearance eligibility criteria, please refer to the guidance on Gov.uk or contact the recruitment email provided in the advert before applying. Failure to meet these requirements will result in your application being rejected and employment offers being withdrawn.

Application Process

Number of Stages: 2 stage process

Stage 1: Application

Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1 – Application

The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, CV (no more than two pages), skills, experience, and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.

A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum word count allowed is 1000, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.

In instances where a high number of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted, and candidates will be invited to interview based on merit order, i.e., those with the highest scores.

Stage 2 – Interview

If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert.

You will be required to provide a 5 minute presentation at interview. The presentation topic will be emailed to candidates who have passed the initial online application stage, 1 week prior to interview. This presentation will assess candidates against the Success Profiles Behaviour 'Working Together'.

Interviews will be held in person at one of our Offices, this may be at Newport, Titchfield (Fareham) or London. You will be asked to confirm your preferred interview location preference in one of the questions when completing your application.

A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.

Important Dates:

The Sift will be conducted w/c 11th May

Interviews will be conducted w/c 18th May

Dates are subject to change.

For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.

Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

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 : Sarah Southerton
• Email : scs.recruitment@ons.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : scs.recruitment@ons.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact recruitment.complaints@ons.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission

Attachments

2721 Advert 1A Permanent - ONS London Inclusive v1-00 Opens in new window (pdf, 83kB)