22850 - Communications Officer

£25,893 - £29,729
1
12 Months
London
London
London CTS Royal Courts of Justice, WC2A 2LL
EO
D
Permanent
Full Time
Communications / Marketing

Band D Communications Officer

Judicial Office

The Judicial Office (JO) is a unique branch of the civil service, independent from Government, 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. Through our specialist teams we support some 22,000 judicial office holders, providing policy, legal and handling advice and operational support.

The role

This is a pivotal role working to support the wider Press and Judicial Communications teams (with ad hoc occasional support to the Reform Communications team). The postholder uses excellent relationships across the JO to support the work of the teams, and provide outstanding support to the judiciary. You will need to publish high-profile judgments and reports; edit, design and produce features for the judiciary’s digital publications; use skills and creativity to update and improve digital media; design creative, eye catching products for campaigns; and understand IT well so that you can provide technical support for judges.

Key duties

  • Act as a first point of contact for the Judicial Communications and Press Teams. Assess queries and either answer them immediately (providing support on Judicial Intranet issues), or refer them to the appropriate staff member. Wherever possible ensure the parameters of the team’s work are maintained and work is directed to the right place.
  • Use WordPress content management system to update the Judicial Intranet and judiciary website within agreed timescales, ensuring that each site is an accurate and useful resource meeting audience needs. 
  • Support team members in delivering the judicial communications strategy.
  • Develop and maintain a network of contacts across JO to ensure online content is up to date, relevant and engaging.
  • Working to the Band B Judicial Content Manager, produce content for the Judicial Intranet and other digital media. Source stories, be a roving reporter, editing contributions, liaising with judges and magistrates at all levels, designing and managing layout and publication. 
  • Produce, or support production by external colleagues, of high-profile judicial documents and reports. 
  • Manage the judicial stationery ordering process and ensure products are delivered quickly and to a high standard.  
  • Administer the team’s finances – tracking invoices and payments, and updating the budget monitoring system, and providing administrative support to the Band A leads.
  • Provide administrative support (including minutes) to the Judges’ Council Standing Committee on Communications under the direction of the Head of Judicial Communications.
  • Provide occasional/holiday cover communications support to the Business Support Team for internal JO engagement activities, such as the People Survey, staff event and regular all-staff meetings.

Essential qualities

  • Experience of using WordPress.
  • Experience working with multiple teams in a difficult and fast-moving environment.
  • Relationship management.
  • Excellent writing, editing and proofreading skills.
  • Strong attention to detail.

Desirable qualities

  • An understanding of the judiciary, and/or the business of courts and tribunals.
  • Communications experience.

For further information about the Judicial Office please see our LinkedIn page https://www.linkedin.com/company/judicial-office/

Working Arrangements & Further Information

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.

Flexible working hours

The Ministry of Justice offers a flexible working system in many offices.

Benefits

The MoJ offers a range of benefits:

Annual Leave

Generous allowances for paid holiday starting at 25 days per year, and rising as your service increases. 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.

Support

  • A range of ‘Family Friendly’ policies such as opportunities to work reduced hours or job share.
  • Access to flexible benefits such as salary sacrifice arrangements for childcare vouchers, and voluntary benefits such as retail vouchers and discounts on a range of goods and services.
  • Paid paternity, adoption and maternity leave.
  • Free annual sight tests for employees who use computer screens.

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.

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.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity.

There is a guaranteed interview scheme (GIS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Interviews are expected to take place w/c 17th Dec and w/c 7th January

13/12/2018, 23:55 hours.

Closing Date: 13th December 2018 at 23:55 hours

If you require any assistance please call 0845 241 5359 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@sscl.gse.gov.uk Please quote the job reference.

To apply for roles in MOJ you will need to confirm your employment history for at least 3 years prior to the date of application so that pre-employment checks (BPSS) can be undertaken. If you have spent significant time abroad (a total of 6 months in the past 3 years) you would be required to give a reasonable account of the reasons why. 

For some roles you will be required to successfully complete National Security Vetting at Counter Terrorism (CTC), Security Clearance (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV) level as a condition of appointment. To meet CTC/SC/DV requirements you will normally need to have been resident in the UK for at least 3/5/10 years prior to the date of application (The level of checks that are required are stated in the advert).

If you do not meet the above requirements, you may still be considered if, for example:

  • You've been serving overseas with HM Forces or in some other official capacity as a representative of HM Government
  • You were studying abroad
  • You were living overseas with parents

In such cases you will need to be able to provide referee cover for the period(s) of residence overseas. The duration of overseas residence and the country of abode will also be taken into account.

Candidate Information

You may be required to provide statements describing your skills and experience relevant to each of the selection criteria. We recommend that you structure any examples as Situation, Task, Action and Result. For more information about the recruitment process 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

In the event of a large number of applications, we reserve the right to undertake the following processes:


  • An automated online test where a benchmark must be passed to progress;
  • A sift on the lead selection criteria. If this happens, the lead criteria will be the first one listed in the advert.

During the selection process, you may be asked to undertake an additional assessment (such as written test). If this is applicable you will be notified of this when you are invited to interview.



if you feel that your application has not been treated in line with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles, please contact SSCL (Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com) in the first instance
Comms - Insight: Core
Comms - Ideas: Core
Comms - Implementation: Core
Delivering at Pace
Managing a Quality Service

We have provided detail of the assessment stages and areas being assessed to help you prepare for completing your application form, and to advise of what will be assessed following this, if you successfully pass the application stage.


Application form stage assessments

Interview stage assessments

There is 1 interview stage for this vacancy.

A Great Place to Work for Veterans

The "Making the Civil Service a Great Place to work for veterans" initiative includes a guaranteed interview scheme to those who meet the minimum criteria to provide eligible former members of the Armed Forces with opportunities to secure rewarding jobs. Allowing veterans to continue to serve their country, and to bring highly skilled individuals with a broad range of experience into the Civil Service in an environment, which recognises and values your previous service in the Armed Forces.
For further details about the initiative and eligibility requirements visit : https://www.gov.uk/government/news/making-the-civil-service-a-great-place-to-work-for-veterans

Redeployment Interview Scheme

Civil Service departments are expected to explore redeployment opportunities before making an individual redundant. The MoJ are committed, as part of the Redeployment Interview Scheme, to providing opportunities to those who are 'at risk of redundancy'.

MoJ are able to offer an interview to eligible candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns. Candidate's will not be eligible for the Redeployment Interview Scheme if they are applying on promotion.

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

· 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

This Vacancy is closed to applications.