Senior communication officer (public confidence) (Ref: 12719)

Job summary

Please refer to Job Description

Job description

Senior communication officer (public confidence)

Grade: Band B/SEO

Location: Royal Courts of Justice, London

Overview

The Sentencing Council for England and Wales is an independent non-departmental public body and part of the Ministry of Justice family of arm’s-length bodies. The Council produces guidelines that provide a sentencing framework for the judiciary throughout the courts in England and Wales. The Council also has a statutory remit to improve public confidence in the criminal justice system and sentencing in particular.

The sentencing of offenders is an issue of great public interest, with high-profile cases frequently attracting the attention of the media and Parliament, and the context is changing. The government is implementing reforms recommended by the Independent Sentencing Review and the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts that will make fundamental changes to the structure of sentencing and how the courts work.

The Council is chaired by a Court of Appeal judge and has 14 members, including judges from every level of the criminal court jurisdiction, the Director of Public Prosecutions, a barrister, a chief constable and other senior representatives from the fields of offender rehabilitation, victim welfare and the academic study of criminal law.

Our principal stakeholders are judges and magistrates, but the guidelines are also used by a range of other criminal justice professionals and are of particular significance to victims and witnesses.

The Sentencing Council is supported by the Office of the Sentencing Council, a high-performing, multi-disciplinary team of policy makers, lawyers, statisticians, researchers and communication professionals.

The communication team is responsible for managing all communication and reputation issues; planning and delivering high-quality communication activities to support the Council’s work to improve public confidence in sentencing; providing a strategic engagement function and a press office; and delivering digital reforms.

Job description

The Senior communication officer (public confidence) will take a leading role in developing and delivering communication and stakeholder engagement activities to support the Office of the Sentencing Council public confidence and communication strategy.

The post-holder will also provide support as required for the Council’s press office.

The post-holder is expected to acquire a thorough knowledge of the Council’s work and the environment within which we operate. They must be able to present complex legal information in a way that is engaging and easily understood by non-expert audiences.

The post reports to the Head of communication and digital and involves engagement with the most senior levels of the judiciary and senior criminal justice professionals.

Key responsibilities

Responsibilities of the role

• Developing a thorough understanding of the Council’s guidelines, consultations, research, analysis and other work, and the context within which the Council functions, in order to communicate the Council’s work and key messages to non-experts accurately and completely.
• Developing and delivering public confidence communication strategies and activities to improve knowledge and understanding of sentencing among criminal justice focused stakeholders and public audiences, including victims of crime, witnesses and offenders.
• Contributing to the Council’s strategic engagement work, identifying engagement opportunities, developing briefs for stakeholder meetings, compiling content for presentations and speeches and working with stakeholders and partners.
• Developing and maintaining an appropriate social media profile for the Council, planning and developing content and monitoring performance.
• Supporting the Council’s press office when required, handling media enquiries and drafting news releases, articles, bulletins, briefings and lines for external media and internal, criminal justice channels. Occasionally providing an out-of-hours press contact.
• Writing content for the Council’s website, blog and social media accounts.
• Representing the Communication team at meetings and public engagements, as required, and contributing to the effective running of the office.

Skills and qualifications

Essential criteria

Excellent written, verbal and presentational skills, including the ability to assimilate complex issues quickly and draft clear, concise, engaging copy for a range of audiences and channels.

Experience of working on public-facing communication activities or campaigns, or experience of stakeholder engagement.

Sound news sense and an awareness of political context.

Ability to work autonomously and proactively to tight deadlines.

Desirable criteria

Experience of building credibility at a senior level, for example with senior judiciary, Ministers or senior officials.

Experience of working in a press office and handling enquiries from journalists.

Experience of working on communication within the criminal justice system would be an advantage, as would experience of working with the judiciary.

Membership of the Government Communication Service and/or the Chartered Institute of PR, Public Relations and Communications Association, Chartered Institute of Marketing or other professional body.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service

Technical skills

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

• Competency 1: Insight
• Competency 2: Ideas
• Competency 3: Implementation

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £49,325, Ministry of Justice contributes £14,289 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 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 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 criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist 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.

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.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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/12719?entityId=12719