Senior Newsplanner

Do you want to work in one of the most interesting, varied and fast-paced departments in Whitehall, coordinating Government announcements that communicate some of the highest profile issues facing the country?

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is looking for a Senior News planner to join its mission to bring together business experts and world-class trade negotiators to support businesses to invest, grow and export, creating jobs and opportunities across the country.

DBT’s news planning team sits at the heart of press office, working with colleagues across the department and beyond, to coordinate media strategies.

This is a chance to join a newly restructured team responsible for processing a range of announcements each week, liaising closely with communications teams, parliamentary colleagues, policy officials, Private Offices, arm’s-length bodies and stakeholders, to ensure the smooth running of Government business, placing news planning at the heart of Departmental decisions.

With a strategic lens, we bring the information together, and liaise with teams to ensure items are sequenced and coordinated to maximise their prominence. We lead on producing the weekly departmental grid and forward looks to spot opportunities and risks, to ensure that plans are aligned with the department’s and Prime Minister’s priorities.

We discuss our upcoming announcements on a daily basis with No10 and meet with them each week, together with our cross-Whitehall colleagues, to pitch our items, help shape the news agenda, and align with the government’s top priorities and themes each week.

The Senior News planner is an exciting revamped strategic role similar to an Editor of a magazine – we want someone who will think creatively about the stories we want to tell on each given week while plotting key moments for the department over the next six months.

This role will at the heart of DBT’s forward planning and horizon scanning function, working with colleagues to strategically ensure they receive the right level of exposure, while managing a News planner who is responsible for the weekly grid.

This is a chance to join a department breaking new ground as it tackles issues and takes opportunities all around the world.

Key accountabilities of the role include:

• Lead on weekly brainstorming sessions and horizon scanning helping to generate creative ideas with colleagues to ensure that there is a strong strategic drumbeat of announcements communicating the DBT story.
• Responsible for the department’s forward look by working with colleagues across DBT, Arm’s-Length Bodies (ALBs) and external organisations to discuss announcements and external activities to understand how they align with our forward planner, and strategically shape these stories and effectively pitch to No10’s planning team.
• Act as one of the main point of contacts with No10’s planning team and ensuring that our announcements are reflected and prominent within wider Government plans. Support the News planner who represents DBT at the weekly cross-Whitehall meeting at No10.
• Manage the News planner to ensure that the departmental two-week grid is accurate and of high-quality, reflecting DBT’s priorities and includes parliamentary business, cross-Whitehall activity, upcoming statistics, and ALB and external activity.