Senior Internal Communications Adviser (Ref: 13986)

Job summary

Please refer to Job Description

Job description

Senior Internal Communications Adviser

SIO – Band B

Location: National with a base at one of the following MOJ hubs: London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, Nottingham. For this role you will work from one of these MOJ hubs.

About the team and the role

This is a great opportunity to join the proactive, highly respected, happy and award-winning MOJ internal communications team.

We are looking for an experienced, high-performing and collaborative communications professional to join our team and establish themselves as a trusted adviser to senior leadership.

You will play a role in developing and delivering outstanding communications to inform and inspire thousands of staff, motivating them to maximise their performance to deliver crucial services in a wide variety of roles and locations.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is one of the largest government organisations, with more than 95,000 staff in offices, courts and prisons across the country.

Our team leads on communications to our HQ staff and works closely with colleagues in MOJ’s agencies, including HMPPS and HMCTS.

In 2025 we were named the Best Public Sector Communications team in the UK by the Institute of Internal Communications (IOIC). It’s a great place to work.

We build strong relationships with leaders, and partner with key stakeholders, to provide strategic and reactive communications advice and delivery activity, to support and enable MOJ to achieve its priorities.

Across the team, our approach focuses on: engaging colleagues in the organisation’s purpose; building and influencing the organisation’s culture; and supporting leaders to communicate effectively with their people, including leading through change.

We advise our senior leaders and other colleagues on communications for the MoJ’s priorities and shape overall departmental strategies.

Job Description

Our approach is based on building strong relationships with leaders, and partnering with key stakeholders, to provide strategic and creative communications advice, and deliver activity, to support and enable the organisation to achieve its priorities. You will play a leading role in ensuring that MoJ’s staff understand and buy in to our organisation’s mission, our shared values and our current priorities.

The role includes providing regular communication advice and support to the Director General of People and Capability and his senior team to keep the 1,200 HR professionals in the People and Capability Group engaged and informed.

The role may include delivering high-quality events with staff and senior leaders, supporting major transformation programmes and leading targeted behaviour change campaigns.

The role may also include work to support delivery of the team’s wider communications objectives.

Essential criteria

Trusted adviser

• Excellent communications judgment and proven ability to advise and influence senior stakeholders on internal communications strategy, making decisions and plans based on insight and evaluation.
• Being proactive in building and maintaining collaborative relationships with colleagues at all grades across the organisation, including senior stakeholders.
• Play a role in leadership of the team, ensuring our work is effective and innovative.

Behaviours and mindset

• A curious and adaptable mindset, with a drive to improve the service you deliver.
• Being comfortable operating in ambiguity in a complex operating environment.
• Confidence in deciding where to focus attention and finding solutions when given different opinions and priorities and multiple sources of information.
• Ability to work under pressure, manage competing priorities and changing deadlines.

Communications capabilities

• Experience leading both in-person and online events.
• Experience in turning complex policy language into easy-to-understand creative copy, with excellent drafting skills.
• Have creative ideas and ability to deliver outstanding content and campaigns for our internal channels.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of work to deliver continuous improvement.
• Strong planning and organisational skills, including delivering communication products to tight deadlines.
• Excellent grasp of the end-to-end communication process: experience developing and delivering communication plans from objective through to evaluation.

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your behaviours, strengths, and experience.

Behaviours

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

Civil Service competencies https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a815610ed915d74e33fda4b…

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

GCS competencies: https://www.communications.gov.uk/publications/competency-framework/

Insight. And specifically:

• Be alert to emerging issues and trends which might impact or benefit own and team’s work.
• Develop an understanding of own area’s strategy and how this contributes to Departmental priorities.
• Actively encourage ideas from a range of sources and stakeholders and use these to inform thinking.
• Identify a range of relevant and credible information sources and recognise the need to collect new data when necessary from internal and external sources.
• Recognise patterns and trends in a wide range of evidence/data and draw key conclusions.
• Actively seek input from a diverse range of people.

Stage 1: Application and Sift

As part of the application process you will need to provide:

• A CV
• A statement of suitability of up to 750 words aligned to all elements of the Essential Criteria above. Note that if we get a high volume of applicants we will sift on the Insight competence, so do make sure you include this within your application.

Stage 2: Interview

If you are successful at the sift stage, you will be invited to a blended interview. At interview stage you will be assessed against the behaviours and experience listed in this vacancy, plus strengths. The interview will take place in person at MOJ’s London HQ. It will include a panel interview, and written activity.

Technical 1

GCS Insight

- Be alert to emerging issues and trends which might impact or benefit own and team’s work.
- Develop an understanding of own area’s strategy and how this contributes to Departmental priorities.
- Actively encourage ideas from a range of sources and stakeholders and use these to inform thinking.
- Identify a range of relevant and credible information sources and recognise the need to collect new data when necessary from internal and external sources.
- Recognise patterns and trends in a wide range of evidence/data and draw key conclusions.
- Actively seek input from a diverse range of people.

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:

• Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £42,914, Ministry of Justice 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.

• 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 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.

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@gov.sscl.com

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/13986?entityId=13986