Digital Communications Manager

Job responsibilities

Communications planning and delivery

Acting as lead communications specialist, scope, research, plan and refine a communications strategy for the Electronic Patient Record programme and associated projects.

Develop and coordinate creative, accurate and effective communications materials for a range of audiences to support the delivery of the programme and associated projects, e.g. web pages, presentations, newsletters, media releases.

Coordinate and facilitate events, including engagement sessions and workshops, using persuasion to facilitate collaborative working and agreeing outcomes.

Liaise with third party suppliers to ensure a co-ordinated approach to communication around the programme.

Collect and analyse data to ensure ongoing evaluation of all communications activities; adapt plans and activities based on the findings: e.g. undertaking audits or surveys and analysing findings.

Create and deliver reports on the communications activities and outcomes.

Work with the External Affairs team to respond to media enquiries about the programme and difficult organisational situations in a professional and timely manner, ensuring governance and policies for sensitive or complex queries and situations are followed.

Receive, interpret and communicate highly complex, sensitive information in ways that are easily accessible, carefully targeted and appropriate to the audience. This will include staff at all levels of the Trust, clinicians, patients and the public.

Engage our staff about the potential of our evolving digital programme and ensure we provide timely information to different audiences through a range of Trust and partner communications channels.

Work closely with Trust senior managers, the programme team and members of the project implementation teams to ensure stakeholders are effectively engaged and communicated with.

Ensure all Trust information meets NHS corporate identity guidelines and the Trusts own style and brand guidelines.

Sourcing and commissioning work / resources to support communication for the programme, ensuring budgets and timescales are met.

Horizon scan national and regional publications and social media and feed back into the organisation on anything relevant to the programme.

Liaise with Communications teams in other Trusts which have implemented / are implementing comparable digital programmes to share best practice and lessons learned; amend plans in accordance with the findings

Support an effective communications and engagement programme with all stakeholders

Act as an ambassador for the Trusts EPR programme, and develop and maintain effective networks and relationships with internal and external contacts

Governance

Provide reports to relevant governance bodies in relation to the progress and ongoing monitoring of communication processes.

Contribution to the Communications and Engagement team

Participating in and contributing to effective departmental and project meetings in a style consistent with the Trusts organisational values.

Following departmental policies and procedures as they apply to the duties undertaken by this role.

You will be part of the teams on-call rota.

Leadership

Promoting the wider public good in all actions, acting in a morally, legally and socially appropriate manner in dealings with stakeholders and members of the portfolio teams and the organisation

Identifying, addressing and resolving differences between individuals and / or interest groups

Empowering and inspiring others to deliver successful projects; providing specialist communications training, sharing knowledge and skills with communications and project staff

Developing and managing teams

Establishing and maintaining close working partnerships with key managers within both the Digital Programmes Department and Digital Healthcare Departments.

Ensuring that the project involves the communications team in relevant aspects and that their roles are clearly defined and understood

Constantly seeks to drive up the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of the service the team provides, including supporting policy reviews and proposing changes to ways of working

Ensuring the team is effective, supported and achieves a level of team wellbeing based on the Trusts respective values and behaviours framework.

Ensuring all policy and service developments are impact assessed in respect of equality and clinical safety requirements.

Supervision of Communications Officers assigned to work on projects.

Training & Qualifications

Essential

• Educated to degree level or equivalent, or be able to demonstrate an equivalent level of knowledge
• Highly specialist knowledge, underpinned by practical experience of digital and visual communications practices.
• Evidence of continued professional development in communications and engagement

Desirable

• Postgraduate PR, journalism or marketing professional qualification e.g. CIM, CIPR, or equivalent level of experience
• Professional membership of a body relevant to engagement, communications or marketing

Experience

Essential

• Knowledge of marketing communication approaches and procedures
• Supporting the development of digital communications e.g. web and social media
• IT literacy and competency relevant to communications - reports, analysis and presentations, web and social media
• Evidence of success in delivering effective communications for a complex project delivering improvements
• Experience of devising, planning, implementing and evaluating effective communications and engagement strategies
• Broad experience across communications functions including internal and external communications, media relations (both proactive and reactive) and staff engagement
• Experience of working with highly complex and/or contentious information; able to analyse, edit and present this information for various internal and external audiences and publications
• Experience of using social media to communicate and engage effectively with internal and external audiences

Desirable

• Knowledge of engagement and communications best practice in the NHS
• Social marketing campaign development
• Knowledge of NHS clinical systems
• Ability to demonstrate a good understanding of NHS structures and current issues
• Experience of supporting large-scale system change
• Selecting, developing and leading teams in a matrix management environment
• Assessing the skills and competence of individuals within a team and identifying their development needs

Analytical and Judgement skills

Essential

• Able to review highly complex and sensitive information which requires analysis, interpretation and comparison of a range of options

Skills

Essential

• Ability to co-ordinate communications campaigns, including events
• Takes responsibility for own learning, development and behaviour - actively seeks to develop and demonstrate own competence
• Ability to inspire confidence and trust, command respect and create a sense of community amongst those involved in this area of work
• Ability to prepare and present reports to detailed specifications for Trust and others as requested
• Encourages a culture of openness

Planning and organisation skills

Essential

• Excellent organisational skills and ability to work under pressure and manage a varied and often challenging workload
• Able to work in a fast-paced environment handling challenging issues and remaining calm under pressure

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Essential

• Able to demonstrate a commitment to and understanding of the importance of treating all individuals with dignity and respect appropriate to their individual needs.
• All staff are expected to engage in compassionate and inclusive leadership in the provision of high-quality care and interactions with others

Other requirements specific to the role

Essential

• Ability to work under pressure to tight deadlines.
• oAbility to travel independently across UHL's three Hospital sites: Leicester Royal Infirmary, Glenfield Hospital, Leicester General Hospital, our community hospital sites and County Hall in Glenfield.

Commitment to Trust Values and Behaviours

Essential

• Must be able to demonstrate behaviours consistent with the Trust's Values and Behaviours

Communication and relationship skills

Essential

• Excellent communication skills, able to confidently present highly complex information and ideas in a straightforward, consistent, compelling, engaging style with appropriate language and tone for a range of audiences
• Well-developed relationship building and networking skills and able to develop excellent working relationships across organisational boundaries

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).