Senior Communications Officer, SEO, Judicial Office (Ref: 91474)

Ministry of Justice

Apply before 11:55 pm on Wednesday 30th October 2024

 

Details

Reference number

374579

Salary

£45,824 - £50,039
A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Job grade

Senior Executive Officer
SEO

Contract type

Permanent

Type of role

Communications / Marketing
Other

Working pattern

Full-time

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

This position is based at London CTS Royal Courts of Justice, WC2A 2LL

Job summary

Please refer to job description.

Job description

Senior Communications Officer

Overview

The Judicial Communications team for judges and magistrates is looking for an experienced Senior Communications Officer (SIO) to add to a reliable and trusted communications team based at the Royal Courts of Justice. 

The Judicial Office is completely independent of the Ministry of Justice and provides a trusted service to the judiciary across England and Wales. The candidate will be joining a multi-disciplinary comms team and be able to access professional support and expertise.

For candidates within the Civil Service this post is available on level transfer or on promotion.

The Judicial Office

The Judicial Office is an arm’s length body of the Ministry of Justice. We are a unique branch of the civil service, dedicated to supporting the judiciary and promoting judicial independence, to maintain confidence in the rule of law. We help the Lord Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals fulfil their responsibilities to the judiciary, in an ever-evolving justice system. We provide operational support, policy, legal and handling advice through a number of specialist teams.

The judicial Office was established following the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, to support the Lord Chief Justice as Head of the Judiciary in his statutory and other leadership and administrative functions. It delivers a wide range of functions for the senior judiciary and to more than 20,000 judicial office holders including legal and policy advice, communications, international, training (through the Judicial College), human resources, welfare, library and information services. Through the independent Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, we deal with complaints about the conduct of judicial officeholders. The Judicial Office also provides support to the Chief Coroner and to the Judge Advocate General and supports the Lord Chancellor on certain of his judiciary-related functions.

The role

Reporting to the Head of Judicial Communications, you will be responsible for implementing strategies that help shape the broader culture within the judiciary. This role entails using innovative solutions to help encourage Judicial Office Holders to engage with content that leads to the desired behavioural change. The role will involve thinking strategically, working with partners and creating content for the judicial website, social media channels and internal communications. You will work collaboratively and flexibly with the wider communications team and other colleagues across the Judicial Office to meet broader objectives.

Key duties   

  • Build strong and effective relationships with colleagues across the Judicial Office (and HMCTS and MoJ as appropriate) to gain early involvement with the judicial communications aspects of their work, providing expert advice on audience segmentation and channels. Work with this network to develop engaging content that support judicial and JO objectives.
  • Support the Head of Judicial Communications to plan, implement and assess communication strategies.
  • Identify, design and develop content for the judicial website, social media channels and internal communications.
  • Advise on the design, production and distribution of communications from the judiciary, for the judiciary, ensuring internal content is consistent across channels and tailored for different jurisdictions and judicial audiences.
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of existing communications methods and channels, using insight to support future communications across the entire Communications Team.
  • Support and represent the team internally and externally as necessary.
  • Participate in the social media out of hours rota, for which an additional allowance is paid.

Essential qualities

  • Communications experience in creating content for a range of audiences.
  • Understanding audience needs and producing tailored content.
  • Experience of working with multiple teams in a fast-moving environment.
  • Ability to build strong relationships.
  • Strong attention to detail.

Desirable qualities

  • Knowledge of website/intranet content management systems
  • An understanding of the judiciary, and/or the business of courts and tribunals.
  • Videography/filming and editing experience.

Behaviours

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

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

  • Seeing the Big Picture
  • Making Effective Decisions
  • Communicating and Influencing
  • Managing a Quality Service

In addition, at interview you will be tested on technical competencies from the Government Communications Framework.

You are encouraged to become familiar with the Government Communications Framework (Government Communication Service (GCS) competencies), and will be tested on the ideas and implementation technical criteria recorded within at SIO level, particularly under the ‘Campaigns/Marketing and Digital’ disciplines.

Application

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application form no later than (2 weeks after the advert goes live). The application will include:

1.A CV setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant to the person specification for this role, including details where applicable of numbers of people managed, relevant achievements in recent posts, together with reasons for any gaps within the last two years.

2.Answers to the standard behaviour questions (max 250 words)

Please note that we are unable to provide feedback to those candidates who are not shortlisted for interview. Written feedback will be made available (on request) to those candidates who attend interview.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

Interview

Candidates invited to interview will be assessed on the Behaviours laid out above, and Civil Service StrengthsTechnical Skills (Government Communication Service (GCS) competenciesat SIO level, will be tested on the ideas and implementation competencies.

You will also be asked to give a 5 min presentation, without visual aids, on the following:

“Can you give an example of an innovative communications piece of work/campaign you have delivered which helped lead to a successful outcome in your target audiences?”

Person specification

Please refer to job description.

Behaviours

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

  • Seeing the Big Picture
  • Making Effective Decisions
  • Communicating and Influencing
  • Managing a Quality Service
  • Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

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

  • Ideas
  • Implementation
Alongside your salary of £45,824, Ministry of Justice contributes £13,275 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

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, 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 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 the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
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@gov.sscl.com
  • Telephone : 0845 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. I 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-recruitment/complaints/

Share this page