Head of Communications & Engagement
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Apply before 11:55 pm on Wednesday 16th October 2024
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About the job
Job summary
The Elections Directorate is a welcoming and inclusive team. We are responsible for a challenging and dynamic policy landscape, always in the public eye, covering electoral policy and law. This includes how elections are run, who can participate and how elections and campaigning are regulated.
We are at the start of an exciting new programme of work to implement key manifesto commitments set out by the new Government, through primary and secondary legislation, and digital and operational delivery.
The commitments include:
- Increasing engagement of young people by enfranchising 16 and 17 year olds
- Encouraging participation by improving voter registration
- Reforming voter identification rules to improve accessibility for all electors
- Strengthening the political finance framework
We are looking for a Head of Communications & Engagement to design and deliver stakeholder engagement and external communications; crafting a narrative, getting the right input from practitioners, academia, civil society and the electorate and landing the resulting reforms in Parliament and the sector. This is an exciting time to join our team, shaping a high profile and ambitious programme of work that continues to draw significant attention within Parliament, across the media and from a wide variety of commentators interested in how our democracy works.
Job description
The Elections Directorate works with a range of stakeholders including local government elections teams, the Electoral Commission, ministers, parliamentarians, the devolved administrations, civil society organisations and other government departments.
The Head of Communications & Engagement will:
- Design and deliver the overarching strategy for stakeholder engagement across the Directorate’s work, across policy development, digital service design and delivery, and operational implementation of the reforms by local authority election teams
- Work closely with the elections sector, managing the stakeholder governance framework and ensuring the necessary strategic and detailed input from the sector to support policy and planning
- As the work moves into delivery, design and deliver the change programme, working across each project to identify the sector requirements to support change delivery (such as training, funding, etc) and managing delivery against plan
- Lead on external communications and handling, including with press office and on Parliamentary and wider publications
- Manage the Directorate’s presence at external events and conferences, including Ministerial speeches and interventions, to drive engagement
- Manage the cross-Directorate briefing and correspondence function, including Ministerial briefing for stakeholder engagement. Ensure consistency of message as well as timely responses to correspondence and PQs
- Lead and manage the high-performing team of around 10-12 FTE
Person specification
- Proven leadership and management skills, ability to set the agenda and prioritise for a busy engagement team, and quality assure briefings and communications
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience of translating complex messages into quality written products for a range of audiences, and the ability to write succinct, clear advice and briefings
- Significant experience of stakeholder management and/or communications
- Strong planning and project management skills, including in delivering products and announcements at pace in a sensitive environment
- Excellent relationship management skills and the ability to build productive working relationships with internal and external stakeholders
- The ability to work under pressure to urgent or shifting deadlines, including the ability to work flexibly on quickly changing or multiple priorities
- Experience and confidence in working with ministers or senior leaders, specifically in communications in government
- Experience in working with digital services and/or teams
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Leadership
- Working Together
- Delivering at Pace
Benefits
- Learning and development tailored to your role
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
Things you need to know
Selection process details
As part of our pre-employment checking process we will be using your CV to confirm your job history. Please note that by providing us with your CV you are consenting to us using the information enclosed as part of the checking process.
CV and Cover Letter Declaration
We recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - this is called name blind recruitment.
Please remove references to your:
- name/title
- educational institutions
- age
- gender
- email address
- postal address
- phone number
- nationality/immigration status
You will need to merge your CV and covering letter into one document. When submitting your application Applied will ask you to upload a CV, when doing this you should upload your merged document of your CV and covering letter.
Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that your application would be viewed by different assessors.
At sift, through your CV and covering letter we will be assessing:
Experience
Your covering letter should be no more than 750 words. In your CV and covering letter, please include:
a. why you are interested in the role;
b. how you meet the essential skills and experience required
The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of the following success profiles elements:
Behaviour: Leadership, Working Together, Delivering at Pace
Strength: The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.
Ability
In full the campaign will test the below Success Profile Elements:
Experience: Yes - Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description
Behaviour: Leadership, Working Together, Delivering at Pace
Strength
Ability
Please contact the vacancy manager if you have any questions about the role.
We do not consider direct CV applications – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs:
Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign
Grade 6 salary
- The salary for this role is £61,599 (National).
- For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges.
Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.
Benefits
Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018:
Any move to MHCLG from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk.
For further information about the benefits available to MHCLG employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack.
Location
- Leeds
- Manchester
- Wolverhampton
There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role.
Sift and Interview dates
Sifting is envisaged to take place W/C 21 October 2024 with interview dates to be confirmed. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall.
Reserve List
In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details on a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@communities.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list.
CTC (Counter-terrorism Clearance):
Important note
Successful candidates for roles based in our 2 Marsham Street building must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check and the process can take up to 8 weeks to complete.
Please note that successful candidates will need to pass the CTC security checks – this requires you to have been resident in the UK for the past 3 years. Please refer to the MHCLG Notes on Security Clearance section of our Candidate Pack for further information on Counter Terrorism Clearance (CTC).
Candidates should also note that with effect from 1st August 2018 the department will also check all applicants who are successful at interview, against the Internal Fraud Database (IFD) held by the Cabinet Office. In accordance with the Civil Service Internal Fraud Policy, any applicant who is included on the IFD will be refused employment by MHCLG. Please see the Candidate Pack for further information on the Internal Fraud Database.
Candidate Pack Information
Please see attached Candidate pack for further information.
Internal Fraud Database
The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to MHCLG as a participating government organisations. MHCLG then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.
For more information please see: Internal Fraud Register
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Nationality requirements
Working for the Civil Service
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).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : Becca Crosier
- Email : becca.crosier@communities.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : recruitment@communities.gov.uk
