12222 - Head of Stakeholder & Communications

£37,608 - £45,129
1
12 Months
London
London
102 PETTY FRANCE LONDON, SW1H 9AJ
SEO
PB SEO Inner London
Permanent , Secondment
Available as permanent appointment or as secondment for up to 3 years
Full Time
Communications / Marketing, Press Relations

We require a Head of Stakeholder and Communications to work in Business Improvement and Development Directorate at the Parole Board.
The Head of Stakeholder and Communications will report to the Director of Business Improvement & Development and will be responsible for leading on independent, confident, clear and honest communication across the Parole Board, Parole system and with the Media. You will also be responsible for supporting our Senior Management Team, including the Parole Board Chair and CEO in engagement across the Parole system and with the media in order to achieve our strategic priorities. As we are a small organisation there will be the potential to get involved with a broad mix of stakeholder and communications work. This is an exciting time to work at the Parole Board especially as we celebrate our 50th anniversary this year.

Job Purpose

Leading independent, confident, clear and honest communication across the Parole Board, Parole System and with the Media.

Support the Senior Management Team including the Parole Board Chair and CEO in engagement across the Parole System and with the Media.

Being a small organisation there is the potential to get involved in a broad mix of stakeholder and communications work, e.g. press, digital, events, strategy, proactive/reactive.

You will supervise staff and work directly with the Chair and CEO at an exciting time as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Parole Board

Background

The Parole Board is an independent body that works with its criminal justice partners to protect the public by risk assessing prisoners to decide whether they can safely be released into the community.

Every week, the Parole Board holds on average 250 paper reviews and 140 oral hearings to consider whether to release prisoners who have committed serious offences. These decisions are of life changing importance to the victims of the offences concerned, the prisoners themselves and their respective families. The Parole Board's decisions are therefore rightly subject to intense scrutiny. The importance of these individual decisions is at the heart of the work of the Board.

The Parole Board carries out its responsibilities to assess prisoners for release as part of wider efforts by its criminal justice partners to reduce re-offending. The Parole Board has a key role to play by ensuring resources and capacity are not wasted by keeping individuals in prison because of inefficiencies in the parole system and that the parole system supports rehabilitative processes.

The Parole Board will be celebrating its 50th anniversary from July 2017 and will be running a series of events, publications and other initiatives over the year to mark the occasion.

The Parole Board has five overarching strategic aims:

  1. Safely eliminate the backlog of outstanding cases that are delayed due to capacity constraints by the end of 2017;
  2. Work with partners to ensure that by the end of 2017 the majority of IPP prisoners have been safely released, or where risk is not judged to be manageable in the community, have clear plans in place that will enable them to progress;
  3. Ensure the Board's remit is focused on those cases where its expertise is of most value and does not detract from partners' rehabilitative responsibilities;
  4. Ensuring that the Board's cultural and procedural approach to risk is consistent with the successful implementation of its other strategic objectives.
  5. Ensuring that staff and members of the Board work in partnership to continuously improve our processes, whilst treating all with respect and humanity.    

Person Specification

The Head of Stakeholder and Communications must have:

  • The ability to collaborate across the criminal justice system to deliver the best results for the Parole Board whilst upholding the Board’s independence at all times.
  • The ability to influence others to support the Parole Boards strategic priorities.
  • The ability to make effective decisions, often under pressure.
  • Excellent organisation skills to ensure work is delivered accurately and to tight deadlines
  • Excellent writing skills, including grammar and punctuation, as a significant proportion of your time will be spent proofing and writing advice to senior managers, briefings, lines to take, official press releases and staff messages
  • Is innovative and open to new ideas to improve our work and the way we work
  • Is a team player who motivates, engages and supports others

Job Description

Core

Press and Media

  1. Develop media practice and strategies
  2. Oversee the daily management of media and press activity, including the management of social media
  3. Seek opportunities to promote Parole Board activity in the media, including digital media and carry out evaluation of media coverage
  4. Advise colleagues on the best practice for media and press handling, and provide a point of escalation
  5. Establish and maintain effective relationships with relevant journalists and press officers in other organisations

Strategic Communications

  1. Liaise with colleagues across the Parole Board, including the CEO and Chair to understand and determine their communications requirements, including supporting both CEO and Chair at interviews and events.
  2. Use information to draft communications; tailoring messages for specific audiences and ensuring channels are identified, developed and used effectively.
  3. Ensure all communications and interactions with staff and stakeholders are consistent, timely and reach the intended audiences.
  4. Set the Parole Boards Priorities for the Stakeholder Strategy and Communications Plan and put these into effect.

Stakeholder Management

  1. Maintain a strategic overview of stakeholder activity, tracking and monitoring engagement.
  2. Assessing and prioritising stakeholder groups, focusing efforts on those who you wish to influence.
  3. Using multiple channels to engage stakeholders on a range of issues.
  4. Engage stakeholders and members in development work where appropriate, leading events, campaigns and presentations where appropriate.
  5. Overseeing the improvement and further development of the staff intranet and Parole Board website to provide engaging and informative resources for staff, stakeholders and the public.

Continuous Improvement

  1. Support your team and colleagues in continuously improving the way that they work and in undertaking their duties and responsibilities.
  2. Support your staff members development needs, and their growth as communications professionals
  3. Role model professional behaviours in line with the Parole Board’s vision, values and competence framework
  4. Other tasks appropriate to the role as assigned from time to time by the Head of Transformation or Director of the Business Development and Improvement Directorate.

Core Competencies.

  1. Leading and Communicating
  2. Seeing the Bigger Picture
  3. Collaborating and Partnering
  4. Managing a quality service

Desirable Skills

  • Press, Media and Digital Media experience.
  • Experience of running media campaigns and internal communications is also desirable.

 


The job holder must be able to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in English or (when specified in Wales) Welsh.

The Parole Board offers a range of benefits:

Annual Leave

Generous allowances for paid holiday starting at 23 days per year, and rising as your service increases. Additional paid time off for public holidays and 2.5 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 Parole Board 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.

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.

 

 

The target date for interviews is week commencing 28th August.

25/08/2017, 23:55 hours.

Closing Date: 25th August 2017 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.

Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

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
Leading and Communicating
Seeing the Big Picture
Collaborating and Partnering
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.