Communications Officer

Crown Prosecution Service

Apply before 11:55 pm on Wednesday 11th December 2024

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Details

Reference number

379707

Salary

£35,300 - £37,320

+ £3,150 RRA

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Job grade

Higher Executive Officer

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

CPS - HQ Communications

Type of role

Communications / Marketing
Other

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

Location

London

About the job

Job summary

The Crown Prosecution Service is recruiting a Communications Officer within their Headquarters based team.

The Crown Prosecution Service is based in England and Wales. If you’re applying for this role and live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you must let us know when accepting this offer as you need permission to work from your home address if hybrid working is part of your role. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that this approval will be granted.

Please note that applicants must be aged 16 before starting in the role, start dates would be expected to be 8-12 weeks after the closing date of this advert.

Please note that the below are deemed essential experiences to be eligible to apply for this role: 

Previous experience of working in a communications environment.

Please note that you must be able to meet the essential technical skills detailed below to be eligible to apply for this role:

Government Communications Service’s professional competency framework. This will be assessed against level 2 of the GCS professional competency framework. Please be advised that the panel reserve the right to sift applications on the below criteria only:

Insight – Gather insight on communication usage, needs and preferences. Use this data to inform selection communication channels.
Ideas – Develop communication plans, identifying the most effective channels and tools to engage audiences and maximise reach.
Implementation – Design and select appropriate content to improve the impact of communication (for example, video, photography, and infographics).
Impact – Support the design and delivery of techniques to assess the effectiveness and impact of communication.

For further information on how to apply, please see the Candidate Pack at the bottom of this page.

Job description

Use specialist skills, particularly in relation to writing and design, to produce material for corporate communications channels. Provide advice to colleagues in relation to all corporate communication activities, including the production of material aimed at employees, key stakeholders and the public. Support and lead on aspects of events management as required.

Person specification

You will produce and edit communications on strategically important topics with high organisational visibility.

You will offer corporate communications advice on emerging issues to key stakeholders across headquarters and Areas, including representing the team at cross-Departmental meetings.

You will project manage small multi-channel communication projects, including commissioning and working with external suppliers within set timescales.

You will evaluate the effectiveness of communications against business and communications objectives, reviewing lessons learned to identify areas for improvement and inform future work.

You will attend key criminal justice system communication meetings as the CPS representative, deputising for SSCA as required.

You will use effective communication skills to lead, advise and influence other parts of the organisation, including senior managers, on communications approach, audience and materials.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Making Effective Decisions
Delivering at Pace
Seeing the Big Picture
Working Together

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

Insight:
Ideas:
Implementation:
Impact:

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,300, Crown Prosecution Service contributes £10,226 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Join the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and have a future that matters: Find Your Purpose

CPS is passionate about ensuring that we are a top performing organisation and a great place to work. We are committed to be an equal opportunities employer and creating a culture where everyone can bring their whole self to work and individuality is truly appreciated.

We want to ensure all our employees can thrive at work and home and offer a range of support to achieve a balance. This includes where possible, flexibility of working hours, flexibility to support caring responsibilities and a flexible approach to deployment, which means that where you work (i.e. a court, an office, or a remote setting such as your home) will be based on the kind of work you are undertaking.

This culture of inclusion is underpinned by our staff networks covering Disability, Faith and Belief, LGBTQI+, Race, Social Mobility alongside our Mental Health First Aiders Programme and Wellbeing Sessions.

CPS commits to offer its employees the following experience

Impactful, purposeful work – making a difference to your local communities
The ability to learn and grow, with access to the right opportunities and resources
To care about your wellbeing
To feel valued, trusted and included

We also offer the following range of benefits:

Civil Service Pension
Access to employee savings
Cycle2Work scheme
25 days leave, rising to 30 days after 5 years’ service.
1 extra privilege day entitlement to mark the King’s Birthday.
Competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
Flexible working and a family friendly approach to work.
Childcare vouchers unless already registered with the Government Tax Free Childcare Scheme

Diversity at the Crown Prosecution Service is about inclusion, embracing differences and ensuring our workforce truly reflects the communities we serve. We want you to feel that you belong and can thrive, whatever your background, identity or culture. As a Disability Confident employer, we're happy to support requests for reasonable adjustments and improve your recruitment experience. If you'd like any reasonable adjustments made to our recruitment process, let us know within your application or contact stephen.oneill@cps.gov.uk.

We want to ensure our employees can thrive at work and home, and offer a range of support to achieve a balance. This includes flexibility of working hours, flexibility to support caring responsibilities and a flexible approach to deployment. We offer a hybrid working policy. From September 2024, you must spend at least 40% of your contracted hours over a four-week period at court, in an office or another official workplace depending on business need and the kind of work you're doing.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

Recruitment Process

The recruitment process will consist of an online application, interview and assessment which are expected to take place on 8th & 9th January 2025.

Your interview will be conducted online via Microsoft Teams. A member of our recruitment team will be in touch with further guidance. If you have any queries about this please contact stephen.oneill@cps.gov.uk

You should keep these dates free or notify us if you are not available. We will make every effort to accommodate you in your preference for dates; however we cannot guarantee that they will be met.

Assessment

Please note, you will be asked to undertake an assessment as part of the recruitment process for this role, details of which will be provided immediately prior to your interview.

Personal Statement

You will also be asked to complete a personal statement of no more than 1250 words setting out how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience, match the requirements as detailed in the Candidate Pack. You will also need to address the core behaviours for this role, detailed in the behaviours section of the candidate pack, which are;

Making effective decisions
Delivering at pace

In addition, you will need to demonstrate the following experience/technical skills required for this role, detailed in the experience/technical section of the candidate pack, which are:

Previous experience of working in a communications environment.

Insight – Gather insight on communication usage, needs and preferences. Use this data to inform selection communication channels.
Ideas – Develop communication plans, identifying the most effective channels and tools to engage audiences and maximise reach
Implementation – Design and select appropriate content to improve the impact of communication (for example, video, photography, and infographics).
Impact – Support the design and delivery of techniques to assess the effectiveness and impact of communication.

In addition you will need to demonstrate the CPS or Civil Service Values.

You will not be required to upload your CV however, when submitting your application there is a ‘CV section.’ You will be required to provide information regarding your employment/academic history for the past 3 years.

Please note that it is the candidate’s responsibility to provide the specified application information in the requested format to ensure that they are considered for the post.

Please note, if you are unable to cover 3 years through employment/ academic, a character reference will be required for clearance purposes.

Strengths

Please note, strengths will be tested at interview stage, the strengths being tested will not be shared in advance of the interview.

Use of AI

Candidates must ensure that their applications, including personal statements and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note, that plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

Other

This is a full-time post. However, requests for flexible, part-time working and job share will be considered, considering at all times the operational needs of the Department.

Clearance Required

The successful applicant will be required to secure DBS clearance.

If successfully appointed, you will be asked to complete the Character Enquiry Form and Nationality and Immigration Questionnaire.

(If you are an internal member of staff, you will not be required to undergo this DBS check as you will already hold this clearance).

The job you are applying for is covered by Article 3(a) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, consequently Section 4(2) of that Act does not apply.

For the reasons outlined above you are required to disclose all previous convictions and cautions, including spent convictions. Failure to make a full declaration will result in the withdrawal of an offer of employment if our checks reveal convictions that have not been disclosed.

Waiting List

Candidates who are recommended by the selection panel but not appointed to the current vacancy will be placed on a waiting list for 12 months and may be offered another post, should any further vacancies for a Communications Officer arise in their chosen location. CPS may also approach candidates on the waiting list to fill other roles requiring similar knowledge and experience, including in other locations.

Feedback

Feedback will not be provided until the vacancy is complete, please note that written feedback will not be provided for candidates who do not pass the application stage.

Fair Processing Notice (FPN)

From April 2018, the CPS will provide a Fair Processing Notice (FPN) to all new applicants after they have been successful at interview. These candidates will be informed that, as one aspect of pre-employment screening, their personal details – name, National Insurance Number and date of birth - will be checked against the Internal Fraud Database (IFD) and that anyone included on the IFD will be refused employment unless they can demonstrate exceptional circumstances.

The Strategic Resourcing team in the CPS will, on behalf of the vacancy holder, inform applicants when they are refused employment because of their inclusion in the IFD.

Civil Service Commissioners

If you are dissatisfied with the recruitment process and wish to make a complaint, please contact Strategic.Resourcing@cps.gov.uk with your concerns.

If you remain dissatisfied and wish to make a further complaint, please click on the following link to the Civil Service Commissioners complaints page https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/civilservicerecruitmentcomplaints/

Civil Service Commissioners Recruitment Principles can be found here –

https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/

Details of the Civil Service Nationality Rules are located at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules

Candidates will be subject to UK immigration requirements. For the most up-to-date information on the requirements of working in the UK, please go to the UK Visas and Immigration website: https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

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)
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)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) 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 (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.