Job summary
Are you a proactive and enthusiastic communications professional looking to develop your career in the largest NHS community healthcare trust in England?
We are looking for a creative, organised and dynamic Communications Officer to join our central communications team. You will play an active role in planning and delivering our internal and external communications campaigns, creating engaging content for our channels, and leading on specific events.
You'll be joining a team that aims to do our best for our staff and patients and takes pride in what we do while having fun, working collaboratively, and creating opportunities for growth and development.
This is a pivotal role in the team, and you'll be expected to be highly organised to provide a responsive service and able to develop and maintain good working relationships with staff across the Trust as well as external partners and stakeholders.
Main duties of the job
As the Communications Officer, you will work as a key member of the CLCH central communications team, delivering a wide range of internal and external communications activities.
You will plan, deliver and evaluate high quality communications plans and provide communications advice and support on operational matters.
In this role you will support the Trust to build and maintain a positive reputation as a high quality NHS provider and employer of choice in all its service areas.
Creative, organised and with excellent writing skills, you will make a real impact to staff experience and engagement and help to transform our external profile.
The postholder will be expected to act as a communications generalist working across a number of disciplines: internal communications and engagement; external communications and stakeholder engagement; social media; event management; and some media relations.
About us
Central London Community Healthcare (CLCH) is one of the largest community healthcare organisations in London and Hertfordshire, providing our services to diverse communities/boroughs in 11 London Boroughs - Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Hounslow, Kensington and Chelsea, Merton, Richmond, Wandsworth, Westminster - and Hertfordshire.
Just as we care about our patients' wellbeing, we care about yours!
We can offer you:
- A comprehensive induction into the community service followed by a local induction to introduce you to the role
- Single occupancy accommodation in Central London - (we can help you find accommodation in London, support you with your deposit)
- Support with gaining your driving license *T&C's apply
- Car lease scheme *T&C's apply
- Flexible working options
- Annual travel card loan
- Training, support and development in your career
To have a full look at our benefits and what it's like working for us please go here: https://www.clch.nhs.uk/job/pay-and-benefits
At CLCH we appreciate and are proud of the diversity in the communities we serve and the workforce we employ. Applications are open and welcome to anyone, regardless of your age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, and disability. We are proud to say that we follow the workforce race equality standard and 28% of our senior staff (8A and above) are from a BAME background. CLCH also has active BAME and LGBTQI networks.
Job description
Job responsibilities
- Plan, deliver and evaluate communications and engagement plans in line with strategic and operational priorities, ensuring effective delivery of communications objectives.
- Act as the day-to-day point of contact for select corporate and operational services; attending relevant meetings, developing an in depth understanding of the services and providing responsive advice and assistance on operational matters
- Develop content and materials written in engaging, plain English language for a range of formats including news articles, surveys, e-newsletters, blogs, case studies, reports and printed publications
- Develop and publish content across digital platforms, including the external website, staff intranet and social media
- Identify and escalate communications risks and issues to senior members of the communications team for strategic input and handling.
Please refer to the attached Job Description for full list of responsibilities
Job description
Job responsibilities
- Plan, deliver and evaluate communications and engagement plans in line with strategic and operational priorities, ensuring effective delivery of communications objectives.
- Act as the day-to-day point of contact for select corporate and operational services; attending relevant meetings, developing an in depth understanding of the services and providing responsive advice and assistance on operational matters
- Develop content and materials written in engaging, plain English language for a range of formats including news articles, surveys, e-newsletters, blogs, case studies, reports and printed publications
- Develop and publish content across digital platforms, including the external website, staff intranet and social media
- Identify and escalate communications risks and issues to senior members of the communications team for strategic input and handling.
Please refer to the attached Job Description for full list of responsibilities
Person Specification
Education/Qualification
Essential
- GCSE English Language or equivalent
- Postgraduate diploma or equivalent level qualification or experience in marketing, communications, journalism, or public relations
Desirable
- Training and/or experience in project management, financial management or supporting change management processes
- Evidence of continued professional development
Experience
Essential
- Experience in a specialist communications/public relations role within a dedicated communications team/agency, or of working in the media
Desirable
- Experience of working in the NHS or public sector
Skills & Knowledge
Essential
- Excellent oral and written skills
- Strong editing and proofreading skills
- Demonstrable experience of producing a wide range of communications materials for different channels, such as newsletters, leaflets and press releases
- Experience of using content management systems and writing for the web
- Experience of using social media channels for an organisation/ company, including the use of analytics
- Evidence of design creativity both in briefing external agencies and in developing in-house materials
- Ability to create content for digital channels, including video production and editing
- Previous project management experience or experience working on large-scale projects that have an element of communications or staff engagement
- Meeting and event organisation, including speaker invites and/or placement
- Knowledge of branding and marketing (colour schemes, logos, social media)
- Good understanding of evaluating and measuring performance and improving engagement across digital channels
- Good analytical skills: able to digest, analyse, interpret and communicate complex information
- Ability to determine the appropriate course of action where analysis and judgement of a range of complex and potentially conflicting information is required
- Effective interpersonal, negotiating and influencing skills
- Ability to establish positive relationships with people at all levels
- Ability to establish and maintain effective networks both within and outside the organisation
- Ability to multi task and work under pressure
- Ability to deliver on tight deadlines
- Excellent and highly developed time management skills with the ability to prioritise a varied workload and recognise and respond to conflicting priorities or sudden unexpected demands and adjust work as required
- Good working knowledge of maintaining confidentiality and implementing data protection legislation requirements
- Excellent knowledge of the full range of Microsoft Office applications (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Publisher)
- Advanced keyboard skills
Desirable
- Knowledge of how the media works and current issues/change.
- Knowledge of how the NHS works and current issues, priorities and strategic change.
Key Attributes
Essential
- Able to work as part of a team and autonomously
- Self motivated, flexible and takes initiative
- Willingness to travel and work in an agile way from multiple Trust sites to fulfil the requirements to the post, including occasional working of unsocial hours
Person Specification
Education/Qualification
Essential
- GCSE English Language or equivalent
- Postgraduate diploma or equivalent level qualification or experience in marketing, communications, journalism, or public relations
Desirable
- Training and/or experience in project management, financial management or supporting change management processes
- Evidence of continued professional development
Experience
Essential
- Experience in a specialist communications/public relations role within a dedicated communications team/agency, or of working in the media
Desirable
- Experience of working in the NHS or public sector
Skills & Knowledge
Essential
- Excellent oral and written skills
- Strong editing and proofreading skills
- Demonstrable experience of producing a wide range of communications materials for different channels, such as newsletters, leaflets and press releases
- Experience of using content management systems and writing for the web
- Experience of using social media channels for an organisation/ company, including the use of analytics
- Evidence of design creativity both in briefing external agencies and in developing in-house materials
- Ability to create content for digital channels, including video production and editing
- Previous project management experience or experience working on large-scale projects that have an element of communications or staff engagement
- Meeting and event organisation, including speaker invites and/or placement
- Knowledge of branding and marketing (colour schemes, logos, social media)
- Good understanding of evaluating and measuring performance and improving engagement across digital channels
- Good analytical skills: able to digest, analyse, interpret and communicate complex information
- Ability to determine the appropriate course of action where analysis and judgement of a range of complex and potentially conflicting information is required
- Effective interpersonal, negotiating and influencing skills
- Ability to establish positive relationships with people at all levels
- Ability to establish and maintain effective networks both within and outside the organisation
- Ability to multi task and work under pressure
- Ability to deliver on tight deadlines
- Excellent and highly developed time management skills with the ability to prioritise a varied workload and recognise and respond to conflicting priorities or sudden unexpected demands and adjust work as required
- Good working knowledge of maintaining confidentiality and implementing data protection legislation requirements
- Excellent knowledge of the full range of Microsoft Office applications (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Publisher)
- Advanced keyboard skills
Desirable
- Knowledge of how the media works and current issues/change.
- Knowledge of how the NHS works and current issues, priorities and strategic change.
Key Attributes
Essential
- Able to work as part of a team and autonomously
- Self motivated, flexible and takes initiative
- Willingness to travel and work in an agile way from multiple Trust sites to fulfil the requirements to the post, including occasional working of unsocial hours
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.
