Chief Press Officer

From keeping drugs out of prisons and cutting crime, to overhauling sentencing laws and improving support for victims - the Ministry of Justice is one of only a handful of Government departments that can truly dominate the news agenda.

And our press office, bursting with talent, is widely recognised as the gold standard within government for shaping stories and influencing news across print, broadcast, and online. With a diverse remit including prisons and probation, family justice, legal aid and modernising the courts system, our office is always busy and no two days are ever the same.

Our press operation is highly valued by the Lord Chancellor and Ministers for dynamically shaping stories and influencing our department’s work. Our Chief Press Officers play a crucial role in that and you will have real influence and responsibility for driving a dynamic team to even greater heights.

We want insightful, highly-motivated people with excellent news judgement to throw themselves into our busy, friendly team.

As a Chief Press Officer, you will manage a team and be expected to provide leadership for the wider office. Your experience in a busy communications or journalism role will have given you regular contact with ministers and you should be able to confidently provide them with proactive media-handling advice on announcements, visits and speeches. You will set up and manage media facilities, organise interviews, draft sharp reactive statements and brief journalists in order to generate and influence our coverage. You will also play a key role in our Senior Management Team.

About the role

You will lead a team of press officers on one of our exciting briefs - which could include Prisons; Probation; Courts & Law; or Justice & Victims; or our busy, reactive Newsdesk.

Wherever you end up you will be part of a team responsible for delivering a high-quality, 24/7 media relations operation for Ministers, Executive Agencies and officials across the full range of the department’s brief.

Day to day, you will drive your team to seek creative ways to generate media coverage, while taking a front-footed approach to managing the risk of criticism. MoJ is a busy department and much of the work is fast-paced and under pressure. As well as leading on high-profile media issues, you will be expected to develop and coach your team to help them perform at a high standard and continue improving.

You will be expected to hit the ground running, demonstrate your media instinct and show willingness to lead by example. Dynamism and positivity are a must. You’ll quickly become a trusted adviser to Ministers and Special Advisers. And you will bring ideas and energy as part of the senior management team, to help us maintain the high standards and excellent atmosphere in the office.

These roles can be demanding and you will be expected to bring drive and enthusiasm for both management and media handling, as well as press relations know-how and the ability to impress Ministers. But you will meet this challenge with the full backing of our extremely supportive team and you will be given everything you need to succeed and continue developing your skills and career. We place a huge emphasis on learning & development and have worked hard to develop an inclusive culture where everyone’s opinion and insight are treated as important.

Key responsibilities

The precise balance of responsibilities will depend on the role. However, you will be expected to:

• Play an active role in the senior management team - thinking about the wellbeing and capability of the whole office, as well as your own team. You will have the confidence to bring your own ideas and challenge others to ensure sound decision-making.

• Act as a leader in the office - making considered decisions under pressure and giving confidence and clear direction. You will be expected to help the team understand your thought process and decision-making to help their own development.

• Coach your team to bring out the best in their ability and drive their continued development through regular objective setting.

• Manage a modern media team in developing proactive longer-term handling strategies that set the agenda across the full range of channels.

• Help drive the use of evaluation and insight, and contribute to improving the Press Office’s understanding and use of digital communication and the changing media landscape.

• Provide regular media-handling advice on policy briefs to the Lord Chancellor, Ministers, senior officials and colleagues on sensitive, complex and high-profile issues.

• Develop strong relationships with journalists and brief them confidently and accurately, ensuring your team can do the same.

• Anticipate and spot breaking news stories and drive your team to issue swift, robust and appropriate responses.

• Encourage and facilitate collaboration with other MoJ communications functions, departments and agencies.

These posts are site-specific to London and will report to one of the Deputy Heads of News. You will be expected to adopt a hybrid working pattern including substantial time in the office each week. You will also be expected to participate in a management back-up rota for the out-of-hours duty press officers, for which significant additional payments are made. We are a family-friendly organisation, with a number of parents on the existing Senior Management Team, and welcome applications from parents and caregivers.

Essential Criteria

You will have a sharp news sense, be politically savvy and possess excellent media skills garnered from relevant press office experience.

You will have experience of leading others and be able to show evidence of driving high performance. You will have the ability to thrive under pressure, take tough decisions in your stride, and the credibility to instantly impress senior stakeholders, including Ministers.

Experience of working in government communications is ideal, but not essential.

Application process

As part of the application process you are asked to submit a CV and personal statement of suitability.

Your personal statement should be no more than 750 words, explaining why you are interested in the role and how your experience makes you the best candidate.

Please illustrate using examples how you meet the behaviours and technical skills below. For the two behaviours, these can include relevant activities outside of the workplace.

You may also be required to complete a writing and prioritisation exercise on the day of interview.

Behaviours

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

• Making effective decisions

Clarify your own understanding and stakeholder needs and expectations, before making decisions. Ensure decision making happens at the right level, not allowing unnecessary bureaucracy to hinder delivery. Encourage both innovative suggestions and challenge from others, to inform decision making. Analyse and accurately interpret data from various sources to support decisions. Find the best option by identifying positives, negatives, risks and implications. Present reasonable conclusions from a wide range of complex and sometimes incomplete evidence. Make decisions confidently even when details are unclear or if they prove to be unpopular.

• Leadership

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.

More details on these can be found in the  Civil Service behaviours (PDF).

Technical skills

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

Insight

• Gain an accurate and deep understanding of the issues. Provide robust and deliverable communication advice to ministers and policy colleagues. Understand and interpret the emerging news agenda and factors which affect this agenda.

Ideas

• Develop the communication strategy and plan. Demonstrate a robust knowledge of the media landscape. Draw on this expertise to develop innovative, proactive press strategies. Advise on press actions at a senior level and support teams to develop campaigns. Influence the media through proactive forward planning. Develop strategies to protect and improve corporate and government reputation.

Implementation

• Develop and implement effective communication strategies and plans. Display clear authoritative and sensitive spokespersonship. Actively oversee high-profile, sensitive, high-risk subjects and manage contacts with lead journalists. Lead the press planning and advice in crisis scenarios and manage the press team in developing the crisis response strategy.

Impact

• Assess the impact and effectiveness of communication. Evaluate impact to shape direction of future media campaigns and lead on implementation of best practice across the press office.

More details on these can be found in the Government Communication Professional Competency (Technical Skills) Framework (PDF).

Further information

If you have any queries about the application form, terms of employment, the recruitment process or you need any further information about the vacancy you are encouraged to contact:

Anna Rutter, Deputy Head of News: anna.rutter1@justice.gov.uk