About this role
This vacancy is only available to existing Civil Servant employees and employees of accredited non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs). Please review the "Eligibility" section before you apply.
### Salary
The national salary range is £42,914 - £46,182 London salary range is £49,325- £53,081 Your salary will be dependent on your base location
Job description
Job role: Communications
Manager – Operational Communications
Role overview
We are looking for an enthusiastic communications professional with experience of working in large organisations and with senior leaders, to lead and deliver operational and wider cultural campaigns and updates to HMPPS staff.
You will:
- help develop and deliver campaigns, updates and strategies which reach and engage the frontline, keeping them up to date with the latest operational and corporate messages
- be comfortable working with senior leaders in a nationally dispersed and hierarchical structure to support their priority messages
- spend time in operational settings, developing good relationships with staff networks and the frontline to better understand how they consume content and champion their needs
- be a champion for GCS standards, supporting the development and upskilling of embedded communicators across the Agency
- be an advocate for insight and evaluation, ensuring all your products are robustly evaluated and are based on evidence
- play an active role in the HMPPS and wider MoJ Communications Team culture
- thrive in a fast-moving, high pressure role supporting people who work in difficult circumstances, often with the most vulnerable and complex personalities
Key responsibilities
- become a trusted advisor to senior leaders, supporting your Head of Communications to deliver impactful and engaging products to the frontline, to those we supervise and their families
- develop and deliver operational campaign strategies that demonstrably reach the audience and drive the changes required by the business
- proactively account manage operational and policy teams. You will champion our standards, ensuring products and communications are designed appropriately for the operational frontline and are planned effectively
- build and nurture a positive relationship with local staff or communication leads, ensuring they are an effective channel for national communications, and they are supported to deliver local campaigns
- working with the content, channel and digital teams, manage and develop corporate channels including the intranet, GOV.UK, social media and where applicable, launchpad and owned newsletters
- respond tactically during times of significant operational pressure, including the ability to develop communications at pace to respond to unexpected incidents.
- develop forward-looking operational campaign plans which feed into our strategic communications priorities, is founded on insight and evidence, and which support our strategic objectives
- lead the commissioning and creation of stories which support the Strategic Communications team to deliver the Agency’s priority corporate objectives and cross-cutting campaigns including Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, reducing reoffending, People Survey strands and senior leader champion areas
- responsible for robust and up-to-date insight and evaluation metrics for your policy area and campaigns, working with content teams and Strategic Communications to maintain your KPIs and ensuring your team actively engage with an evaluation culture
- responsible for the account management of your policy area’s intranet managed content sections and drafting any required updates and news articles for your channels, clearing at the appropriate level
- engage with and be an advocate for internal processes, ensuring you and your team adhere to planning and content standards and policies
- play an active and visible role developing, embedding and championing a positive and supportive team culture. This includes leading cross-team working groups, leading on team projects and supporting the Senior Management Team on ad hoc projects, and encouraging your team to contribute to our shared culture
- take an active corporate role within the team, participating in the daily global rota, media monitoring rota, and presenting at Team Business Meetings
Behaviours
In addition to delivering your core duties and responsibilities, as a member of HMPPS Communications team, you will be expected to:
- support colleagues beyond your own area of responsibility, taking the initiative to work on areas outside your immediate team to help HMPPS Communications achieve its objectives
- create an environment where people feel safe to challenge and know their voice will be heard by effectively managing conflict, misconduct, and non-inclusive behaviour, raising with senior managers where appropriate
- understand your own level of responsibility and empower others to make decisions where appropriate
- take your responsibility as a line manager seriously; be a role model, know well the people you manage, be visible and accessible, give honest and timely feedback, provide stretching and timely objectives and overall inspire your people to produce their best
- invest time to develop a common focus and genuine positive team spirit where colleagues feel valued and respect one another
- promote a culture of following the appropriate procedures to ensure results are achieved on time whilst still enabling innovation
- be responsible in handling public money by ensuring financial accountability on your projects and through your teams; manage project budget, including procuring and managing external suppliers
- adopt a positive, proactive attitude, seeking out opportunities to contribute and improve the running of the HMPPS Communications team
Additional Information
Working Arrangements & Further Information
The MoJ offers Hybrid Working arrangements where business need allows. This is an informal, non-contractual form of flexible working that blends working from your base location, different MoJ sites and / or from home (please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas). All employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estate capacity.
Some roles will not be suitable for Hybrid Working. Similarly, Hybrid Working will not suit everyone’s circumstances. Arrangements will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate(s) and subject to regular review.
For nationally advertised roles: All successful candidates will be appointed to the nearest viable office nearest to their home postcode and on its respective pay scale. This will be at either a HQ building (subject to desk allocation, a Justice Collaboration Centre (JCC) or a Justice Satellite Office (JSO) – See Map . All employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estate capacity).
For current MoJ employees, your base location will need to be changed to the nearest viable office (to your home postcode), either at a HQ building, JCC or JSO within the National Office Network and moved its location’s respective pay scale (any legacy arrangements/locations will need to be amended).
Some of MoJ’s terms and conditions of service are changing as part of Civil Service reform. The changes will apply to staff joining MoJ who are new to the Civil Service. Staff joining MoJ from other civil service employers will transfer onto the new MoJ terms if they are already on 'modernised' terms in their current post or onto 'unmodernised' MoJ terms if they are on 'unmodernised' terms at their current post. Details will be available if an offer is made.
MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain their grade on lateral transfer.
All candidates who are currently in receipt of Mark Time / Pay Protection should ensure they are familiar with the new policy on permanent and temporary promotion which can be found on the employee intranet.
Flexible working hours
The Ministry of Justice offers a flexible working system in many offices. Standard full time working hours are 37 hours per week. MoJ welcomes part-time, flexible and job-sharing working patterns, where they meet the demands of the role and business needs. All applications for part-time, flexible and job-sharing working patterns will be considered in accordance with the MoJ’s Flexible Working policy.
Benefits
The MoJ offers a range of benefits:
Annual Leave
Annual leave is 25 days on appointment and will increase to 30 days after five years’ service.
There is also a scheme to allow qualifying staff to buy or sell up to three days leave each year. Additional paid time off for public holidays and 1 privilege day. Leave for part-time and job share posts will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.
Pension
The Civil Service offers a choice of pension schemes, giving you the flexibility to choose the pension that suits you best.
Training
The Ministry of Justice is committed to staff development and offers an extensive range of training and development opportunities.
Networks
The opportunity to join employee-run networks that have been established to provide advice and support and to enable the views of employees from minority groups to be expressed direct to senior management. There are currently networks for employees of minority ethnic origin, employees with disabilities, employees with caring responsibilities, women employees, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.
Eligibility
Staff on fixed term appointments must have been recruited through fair and open competition.
Vacancies advertised “cross-government” are only open to all Civil Service employees and employees of accredited non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) who were appointed on merit following a fair and open competition; or were appointed to a permanent post through an exception in the Civil Service Commissioners' rules.
Support
- A range of ‘Family Friendly’ policies such as opportunities to work reduced hours or job share.
- Access to flexible benefits such as voluntary benefits, retail vouchers and discounts on a range of goods and services.
- For moves to or from another employer or moves across the Civil Service this can have implications on your eligibility to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. You may however be eligible for alternative government childcare support schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. More information can be found on www. www.GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/tax-free-childcare) or Childcare Choices (https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/) . You can determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/ .
- Paid paternity, adoption and maternity leave.
- Free annual sight tests for employees who use computer screens.
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code 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 . Should you feel that the recruitment process has breached the recruitment principles you are able to raise a formal complaint in the following order
- To Transformative Business Services (0345 241 5359 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) );
- To Ministry of Justice Resourcing team ( [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) );
- To the Civil Service Commission (details available here (https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/recruitment-complaints/) )
As a Disability Confident employer, MoJ are committed to providing everyone with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, talent and abilities, by making adjustments throughout all elements of the recruitment process and in the workplace. MoJ are able to offer an interview to disabled candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns.
You will be able to request reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process within the application form. If you need additional help completing the application form, please contact the TBS Recruitment Enquiries Team.
For more information on applying for a role as a candidate with a disability or long-term condition, please watch our animated videos .
Diversity & Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy .
Redeployment Interview Scheme
Civil Service departments are expected to explore redeployment opportunities before making an individual redundant. The MoJ is committed, as part of the Redeployment Interview Scheme, to providing opportunities to those who are 'at risk of redundancy'.
MoJ is able to offer an interview to eligible candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns. Candidates will not be eligible for the Redeployment Interview Scheme if they are applying on promotion.
Civil Service Nationality Rules
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) https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families (https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fsettled-status-eu-citizens-families&data=05%7C01%7Cchristopher.jeffery%40soprasteria.com%7C8a2293860362402c15da08dbf4cff146%7C8b87af7d86474dc78df45f69a2011bb5%7C0%7C0%7C638372946312587803%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=s%2BxUsev%2BGeeK%2FLgTUjpjfTJu%2FjpKQZ%2BQPJXNduvik3Q%3D&reserved=0)
- 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) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules
Reserve list
A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles.
Contact Information
MoJ:
If you require any assistance please call 0345 241 5359 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail [email protected]
Please quote the job reference 22925
HMPPS
If you require any assistance please call 0345 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail [email protected]
Please quote the job reference 22925
A sift based on the lead behaviour, Communicating and Influencing, may be held if a large number of applications are received. If a large number of applications remain after the initial sift, your application will be progressed to a full sift, where all behaviours will then be considered.
Strengths will be assessed but these are not shared in advance. To learn more about Strengths and how they are assessed please click here (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles/success-profiles-strengths).
Use of Artificial Intelligence (Al)
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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.