Head Of Creative And Channels

Head of Channels and Creative, Office of the Public Guardian

National, with regular travel to our offices in Birmingham, Nottingham and London.

Overview

Are you a motivating and inspiring leader with a passion for producing engaging and creative content?

We are looking for a talented digital communications professional to lead our channels and creative team. You will oversee the design and delivery of outstanding content for the public and OPG staff, making sure this aligns to organisational priorities during a time of modernisation.

You will also be part of the OPG communications senior management team, contributing to the organisation’s overall communications plan.

You will be up-to date with industry trends and will support your team to develop our use of social and digital channels, making best use of content to enhance engagement with staff, our partners, and the public.

You’ll have overall responsibility for the planning and production of our in-person and online events, with a focus on delivering quality engagement that reflects the diversity and expectations of our audiences.

The role is varied and challenging so you’ll have a flexible approach, a can-do attitude, and strong relationship management skills. It’s essential that you are confident in working closely with senior leaders and representing the team across the communications mix.

You will join an ambitious, innovative, and happy team. You will get the opportunity to continuously develop your own skills and expertise to further your professional growth and a enjoy a supportive working environment.

About the role

The role forms part of the senior leadership of a professional communications team supporting OPG to achieve its business objectives during an exciting time for the agency.
We are looking for someone who has substantial leadership experience with the confidence to advise senior leaders across communications disciplines, as well as be accomplished in developing digital media strategies and producing impactful creative content for a range of online and offline uses.

You will:

• Lead a team of three – our channels and creative lead, digital engagement manager and events and engagement manager.
• As part of the OPG communications senior management team jointly set the overall strategic direction and resourcing of the team, as well as supporting wellbeing and promoting learning and development opportunities.
• You will build strong relationships across the OPG, including with senior leaders, and confidently deputise for other senior management team members and the Head of Communications when required.
• Have responsibility for the quality, impact, and continuous improvement of OPG social media activity. Ensuring our output is insight-led and audience driven so it is making a difference and meets strategic business goals.
• Ensure that your team is appropriately skilled and uses knowledge of cutting-edge digital communications tactics to provide recommendations to colleagues on planned activity, challenging where appropriate to ensure the right product or approach is delivered.
• Lead innovative engagement beyond owned channels including no-cost partnerships and engagement strategies, maintaining and creating new contacts in this area.
• Ensure work is delivered on time and within budget, including managing agency relationships to commission content, ensuring the final product meets the brief, is on brand.
• Lead continuous improvement of the delivery of our internal and external events calendar including our annual staff awards
• Ensure the integrity of OPG’s corporate identity and branding are maintained and enhanced internally and externally.
• Manage the team, allocating work, appraising performance, ensuring appropriate resources to meet communications priorities.

About you

• You have substantial leadership experience, and the ability to inspire people to create engaging content that drives behaviour change.
• You have a track record of managing high-performing Creative and Channels teams, ensuring they have the right skills and resources to thrive.
• You have excellent strategic planning skills, with an ability to direct your team towards achieving short-term and long-term communications objectives.
• You are an accomplished digital communications practitioner and have proven digital campaigning experience, management of corporate social media channels including ‘X’, LinkedIn and Facebook, and experience working with partners, and you can coach your team in these skills.
• You have experience of managing agency relationships and commissioning content ensuring that partners deliver to requirements.
• You have experience of contributing to organisational-level communications strategies and designing digital communications plans that align to organisational goals.
• You have knowledge of other communications disciplines and are confident at giving advice on handling communications beyond the digital specialism.
• You are comfortable interpreting data and analytics to support the accurate and effective evaluation of communications outputs.
• You have practical experience of Adobe Creative Suite.
• You have excellent written and verbal communications skills.
• You have experience of event planning or management.
• You can respond positively and quickly to unexpected developments and manage conflicting priorities.
• You have personal impact, and the ability to get to grips with complex issues.

About our organisation

The Ministry of Justice is one of the largest government organisations with more than 65,000 staff in offices, courts and prisons across the country.

The department is delivering ambitious plans to make sure prisons are safe, secure and provide genuine rehabilitation, to provide a modern courts and justice system and to support our world-leading legal sector.

Within the MoJ, this role is leading Creative and Channels communication activity for the Office of the Public Guardian, an executive agency of MoJ.

OPG’s role is to support people who may lack the mental capacity to make certain decisions for themselves, such as about their health and wellbeing or financial affairs. It enables people to plan so that someone they trust can support them, or make certain decisions for them, if they lose capacity in the future. OPG also supervises people appointed by the court to help manage someone’s affairs where they’ve lost mental capacity. This could be due to age-related conditions such as dementia, mental illness, ill health, or an accident.

Across MoJ we are guided by our shared values – purpose, humanity, openness, and togetherness. We believe in our purpose, providing justice for our society; we care about each other and those we work with, we show them humanity; we are open to learning and innovating, both in ourselves and the things we do; and we want to work together, collaborating with colleagues throughout MoJ and far beyond.

We provide a truly flexible culture including working from home, job-sharing and part-time work to support our people in being the best they can be.

In this role you will become part of the Government Communications Service (GCS), the professional body for government communicators

OPG has offices in both central Birmingham and Nottingham, but also the opportunity to work from one of the Ministry of Justice collaborations hubs based in locations across the country. Wherever you are based occasional travel to the OPG offices will be required, this will include monthly team meetings and to meet specific business needs.

Please note – we will routinely recruit individuals at the bottom of our salary scale for all our communications roles.

Assessment

You will be asked to submit a CV and statement of suitability. Interviews are expected to take place remotely.

We will use Success Profiles as part of this recruitment exercise. Details of the Success Profiles competencies can be found online: Success Profiles: Civil Service Behaviours

If you’re invited to attend an interview, we will ask you about your competencies in the following areas:

Managing a quality service
Including: Demonstrate positive customer service by understanding the complexity and diversity of customer needs and expectations. Deliver a high quality, efficient and cost-effective service by considering a broad range of methods for delivery. Ensure full consideration of new technologies, accessibility, and costings. Make clear, practical, and manageable plans for service delivery. Ensure adherence to legal, regulatory and security requirements in service delivery. Proactively manage risks and identify solutions. Establish how the business area compares to industry best practice. Create regular opportunities for colleagues, stakeholders, delivery partners and customers to help improve the quality of service.

Leadership
Including: Promote diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity, respecting difference and external experience. Welcome and respond to views and challenges from others, despite any conflicting pressures to ignore or give in to them. Stand by, promote or defend own and team’s actions and decisions where needed. Seek out shared interests beyond own area of responsibility, understanding the extent of the impact actions have on the organisation. Inspire and motivate teams to be fully engaged in their work and dedicated to their role.

Required Government Communication Service specialist competencies and behaviours.

IDEAS – DIGITAL:

• Lead on the use of digital and social media to engage and involve citizens, staff and all other partners to encourage community participation.

• Develop innovative digital communication strategies.
• Draw on knowledge of emerging trends in digital services and social media and apply this knowledge when developing content and Channels.

IMPLEMENTATION – DIGITAL:

• Be an advocate for digital engagement and social media and share expertise to build capability across communication teams and the wider Department.
• Lead the development and implementation of digital content management strategy.

Details of the Government Communication Service competencies can be found online: https://gcs.civilservice.gov.uk/professional-development/competency-framework/

Working Arrangements & Further Information

The MoJ offers Hybrid Working arrangements where business need allows. This is an informal, non-contractual form of flexible working that blends working from your base location, different MoJ sites and / or from home (please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas). Some roles will not be suitable for Hybrid Working. Similarly, Hybrid Working will not suit everyone’s circumstances. Arrangements will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate(s) and subject to regular review.

For nationally advertised roles, the successful candidate(s) will be appointed to a MoJ office location, which may include their nearest Justice Collaboration Centre or Justice Satellite Office. This will be discussed and agreed on the completion of pre-employment checks.

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.

MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain their grade on lateral transfer.

All candidates who are currently in receipt of Mark Time / Pay Protection should ensure they are familiar with the new policy on permanent and temporary promotion which can be found on the employee intranet.

Flexible working hours

The Ministry of Justice offers a flexible working system in many offices. Standard full time working hours are 37 hours per week. MoJ welcomes part-time, flexible and job-sharing working patterns, where they meet the demands of the role and business needs. All applications for part-time, flexible and job-sharing working patterns will be considered in accordance with the MoJ’s Flexible Working policy.

Benefits

The MoJ offers a range of benefits:

Annual Leave

Annual leave is 25 days on appointment and will increase to 30 days after five years’ service.

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.

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.

Support

• A range of ‘Family Friendly’ policies such as opportunities to work reduced hours or job share.
• Access to flexible benefits such as voluntary benefits, retail vouchers and discounts on a range of goods and services.
• For moves to or from another employer or moves across the Civil Service this can have implications on your eligibility to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. You may however be eligible for alternative government childcare support schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. More information can be found on GOV.UK or Childcare Choices. You can determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.
• Paid paternity, adoption and maternity leave.
• Free annual sight tests for employees who use computer screens.

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. Should you feel that the recruitment process has breached the recruitment principles you are able to raise a formal complaint in the following order

• To Shared Service Connected Ltd (0845 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com);
• To Ministry of Justice Resourcing team (resourcing-management-office@justice.gov.uk);
• To the Civil Service Commission (details available here)

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As a Disability Confident employer, MoJ are committed to providing everyone with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, talent and abilities, by making adjustments throughout all elements of the recruitment process and in the workplace. MoJ are able to offer an interview to disabled candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns.

For more information on applying for a role as a candidate with a disability or long-term condition, please see our Disability Confident Scheme Frequently Asked Questions webpage.

You will be able to request reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process within the application form. If you need additional help completing the application form, please contact the SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team.

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.