Job Description

Are you looking for an opportunity to work in an exciting team on issues that really matter and have a significant social impact? We are looking for two highly skilled and passionate communications professionals to join the Recruitment and Retention Communications team within the Ministry of Justice's award-winning Communications Directorate. You will help us deliver impactful communications that support some of the Ministry's most important workforce priorities, ensuring we attract, engage and retain the people needed to deliver justice across England and Wales.

The successful candidates will join us at an exciting time as we expand our outreach events activity and strengthen communications and engagement to support magistrates’ recruitment and retention, alongside existing retention work with prisons and probation. These are newly created roles, offering a rare opportunity to shape and develop new areas of work that are directly linked to ministerial and departmental priorities.

The Recruitment and Retention Communications team delivers high-impact, insight and audience led communications that help ensure the Ministry of Justice has the people it needs to deliver its priorities. Our work supports recruitment and retention across a range of critical operational and judicial roles, helping to protect the public, reduce reoffending and enable swift access to justice. These roles sit in a team that works across employee engagement and internal communications, stakeholder communications, outreach activity, partnership development and strategic communications planning.

Role Overview

We are recruiting for two roles within the team. While both roles sit within the same team and share a common purpose, one post will lead on outreach events and retention communications and the other will focus on developing and managing strategic collaborative partnerships.

Both these roles require individuals who are confident building new relationships, identifying opportunities and creating communications activity where there is no established model or blueprint. You will be comfortable working proactively and autonomously, influencing a wide range of stakeholders and turning insight into practical communications activity that delivers measurable outcomes.

Candidates will go through a single recruitment process and may be matched to either role based on their experience, strengths and preferences.

A brief overview of the roles is as follows:

Role one - Outreach events and retention: You will help develop strategies and communications activity that supports recruitment fairs, open days, educational partnerships, employer engagement and community outreach that generate awareness, engagement and recruitment outcomes. You will work with press, digital and wider communications teams to promote events and engagement activity, ensuring audiences are reached through the most effective communications channels.

You will also be managing communications projects and workstreams, ensuring effective planning, delivery, risk management and evaluation.

Alongside this will you will continue our consultancy work with prisons and probation on retention communications.

Role two - Magistrates employer collaboration: You will help develop strategies and influence employers at a senior HR level to support magistrates' recruitment, securing sustainable two-way relationships, where employers enable their staff to volunteer as magistrates. You will also build advocacy relationships and partnerships with professional bodies, educational institutions and community groups to recruit more magistrates and help reach new and underrepresented audiences

You will also work with colleagues across MoJ, HMCTS, Judicial Office, and policy teams to ensure that existing magistrates’ communications activity is co-ordinated and effective.

Person Specification

The two roles have several key requirements including:

• Experience developing and delivering communications strategies, campaigns and engagement activity. You will support the development and delivery of insight-led communications strategies and campaigns that engage audiences, support recruitment and retention priorities and strengthen stakeholder understanding of key workforce challenges.

• Resilient, solution-focused and innovative. You will be resilient, comfortable identifying opportunities, solving problems and developing creative approaches to communications challenges. You will bring fresh thinking and a willingness to test new approaches.

• Self-motivated: These roles require a high degree of proactivity and ownership. You will be expected to take initiative, identify and create opportunities, build relationships and drive activity forward, rather than respond to a fixed pipeline of work. You will be comfortable working with ambiguity and building new approaches, products and relationships where no established model exists.

• Using insight and evaluating impact. Your work will be informed by audience insight and aligned to Ministry of Justice priorities. You will develop objectives, KPIs, implementation plans and evaluation measures that demonstrate impact and support continuous improvement.

• Effective collaboration and relationship management. You will build strong and productive relationships with colleagues and stakeholders across the Ministry of Justice, HMCTS, HMPPS, Judicial Office and external organisations. You will use these relationships to support delivery, manage risks and identify opportunities to improve communications outcomes.

• Building partnerships and engagement networks. You will be confident identifying, developing and maintaining productive relationships with stakeholders and partner organisations to support recruitment and retention goals.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. You will produce high-quality content and communications across a range of formats and channels, tailoring your approach to suit different audiences and purposes.

• Line management. These roles may include day to day line management responsibility for the team’s communications officer. This includes supporting them with their objectives, priorities and learning and development.

• Ability to manage competing priorities and deliver high-quality work at pace. You will manage a varied workload effectively, maintaining quality and meeting deadlines in a fast-paced environment.

• Adaptable and flexible to change. You will be expected to lean into any urgent or changing priorities as they arise.

Travel Requirements

These national roles will involve occasional travel across England and Wales to attend stakeholder meetings, outreach events, engagement activity, magistrates' events and to operational sites.

Application process 

We will be using success profiles to assess your communication and delivery abilities. Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours - GOV.UK  

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a CV and a personal statement.

Your personal statement should demonstrate your suitability in no more than 1,000 words and explain:

• Why you are interested in the role.

• How your experience makes you suitable for the position.

• How you meet the essential requirements.

• You should also give examples demonstrating the three Civil Service behaviours outlined below Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours - GOV.UK

Please indicate if you have a preference for the events or partnerships role, or if you would like to be considered for both roles. If you are successful at interview whilst we cannot guarantee it, we will do our best to accommodate candidates in their chosen role.

Please note that feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.

At written application stage we'll assess you against these three behaviours below.

Civil Service Behaviours 

Communicating and Influencing  

Communicate purpose and direction with clarity, integrity and enthusiasm. Respect the needs, responses and opinions of others. 

Delivering at pace 

Deliver results efficiently and to deadlines.

Working together 

Form effective partnerships and relationships with people both internally and externally, from a range of diverse backgrounds, sharing information, resources and support. 

If invited to interview, we will assess you on the three civil service behaviours outlined above and also the Civil Service strengths and Government Communications Service (GCS) technical competencies

Civil Service strengths Success Profiles: Strengths - GOV.UK

Adaptable

You can adapt to variations in work or environment. Your effectiveness is not affected by change. You are flexible and versatile. You act as an advocate for change.

Catalyst

You are self-motivated to act towards achieving a goal. You are confident using your own initiative to take forward actions.

Resilient

You have inner composure, recover quickly from setbacks and learn from them.

Government communication service technical competencies Government Communication Professional Com

Ideas

Initiate and lead the development of proactive communications. Work constructively with other communications, policy colleagues and partners to gain expert advice and opinions.  

Implementation

Develop and implement effective communication strategies and plans. Work with stakeholders and partners to deliver communication.

Impact

Analyse and evaluate communications to assess the effectiveness and inform future activity.  

Candidates that pass the application sift stage will be invited to have an interview. They will be expected to undertake a short presentation task before the interview and will be asked to present on the task at interview. Candidates will be given more information about the presentation, when invited to interview.

Security Clearance and Residency

If you are successful at interview, we will work with you to acquire the appropriate security clearance. This is a straightforward process for most people but generally requires you to have been resident in the UK for at least the last five years.