Head of Communications – HMPPS (Adult Prisons and Youth Custody Service)

Grade: 7

Location: London, National

Contract Type: Permanent

Working Pattern: Full-time, Flexible working

Number of Posts: 2

Reserve List: 12 Months

Role Type: Communications / Marketing

Advertising: Cross Government

About HMPPS

HMPPS is here to prevent victims by changing lives. We work with our partners to carry out the sentences given by the courts, either in custody or the community. We reduce reoffending by rehabilitating the people in our care through education and employment. The agency is made up of HM Prison Service, Probation Service, Youth Custody Service and a headquarters focused on creating tools and learning to support the frontline.

Established in 2017, the Youth Custody Service aims to create a safe, decent, and nurturing environment that provides outstanding levels of care and support for all children in custody. The YCS aims to be a provider of high-quality children’s services, where skilled, enthusiastic staff have the tools and capability to work with children to meet their individual needs and develop children to lead rewarding, constructive crime free lives upon their release.

The HMPPS Communications team are part of the Ministry of Justice Communications function. We lead and manage the communications to over 60,000 frontline operational staff, prisoners and their families in the adult and youth estates and people on probation.

We support longer term and future focused campaigns to drive improvements in security, safety and stability as well as planning and responding to operational crisis.

We are responsible for supporting HMPPS’s senior leaders to manage the Agency’s relationship with its most senior stakeholders including our inspectorates, arms-length scrutiny bodies, and third sector partners, ensuring we protect and enhance the reputation of HMPPS through effective communication and engagement.

We own and manage the Agency’s corporate channels from the intranet to external social media, events and sites well as newsletters, bulletins and GOV.UK.

We are an award-winning multi-discipline team consisting of operational internal communications, corporate communications, stakeholder management, content design and production, social media, events and strategic communications and planning.

About the Roles

Both roles are part of the HMPPS Communications Senior Management Team and report the Grade 6 Head of Operational Communications.

Adult Prisons

You will lead the team responsible for communications across the adult prison estate. This includes developing and delivering strategic campaigns, crisis communications, and behaviour change initiatives. You will advise senior leaders, including governors and the Director General of Operations, and oversee relationships with our prisoner-facing channels such as Inside Times and National Prison Radio.

Youth Custody Service (YCS)

You will lead the team responsible for communications in the YCS, promoting its vision to provide high-quality services to the small number of children in custody. This includes developing and delivering strategic campaigns, overseeing stakeholder engagement, and producing engaging content for young people. You will advise senior leaders including the Executive Director and Ministers, and maintain a network internally and in the wider youth justice sector.

Key Responsibilities

·       leading the operational communications across your areas, from developing, executing and evaluating communications campaigns to providing clear and timely information to operational frontline staff, prisoners and their families

·       acting as senior communications advisor to leaders across HMPPS and the wider MoJ, from governors in establishments to the CEO and ministers as required, representing communications on relevant senior leadership and governance boards as needed

·       working closely with HMPPS Executive Directors and the Director General of Operations to communicate important strategic priorities, policy changes and operational updates

·       bringing together colleagues across the wider HMPPS Communications Team and MoJ Communications Directorate to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy for your area’s  communications

·       working closely with the Ministry of Justice Press Office on external media enquiries and proactive opportunities relating to the service, and External Affairs and Employee Relations on external stakeholder engagement

·       collaborating with a range of internal partners to deliver effective communications for the adult prison estate from leading on crisis communications and informational and behaviour change campaigns.

·       ensuring your team’s professional practice aligns to best practice as stipulated by the Government Communications Service

·       leading the commissioning and creation of stories which support the Strategic Communications team to deliver the Agency’s priority corporate objectives and cross-cutting campaigns

·       ensuring robust and up-to-date insight and evaluation metrics for your policy area and campaigns, working with content teams and Strategic Communications to maintain your KPIs and ensuring your team actively engage with an evaluation culture

·       responsible for the delivery strategy for all prison channels in your portfolio such as the intranet, GOV.UK andany newsletters, ensuring they meet user needs, are up-to-date, conform to our editorial standards and are regularly evaluated

·       engage with and be an advocate for internal processes, ensuring you and your team adhere to planning and content standards and policies

·       play an active and visible role developing, embedding and championing a positive and supportive team culture. This includes leading cross-team working groups, leading on team projects and supporting the Senior Management Team on ad hoc projects, and encouraging your team to contribute to our shared culture

·       take an active corporate role within the team, participating in the daily global rota, media monitoring rota, and presenting at Team Business Meetings

Behaviours

In addition to delivering your core duties and responsibilities, as a member of HMPPS Communications team, you will be expected to:

·       support colleagues beyond your own area of responsibility, taking the initiative to work on areas outside your immediate team to help HMPPS Communications achieve its objectives

·       create an environment where people feel safe to challenge and know their voice will be heard by effectively managing conflict, misconduct, and non-inclusive behaviour, raising with senior managers where appropriate

·       understand your own level of responsibility and empower others to make decisions where appropriate

·       take your responsibility as a line manager seriously; be a role model, know well the people you manage, be visible and accessible, give honest and timely feedback, provide stretching and timely objectives and overall inspire your people to produce their best

·       invest time to develop a common focus and genuine positive team spirit where colleagues feel valued and respect one another

·       promote a culture of following the appropriate procedures to ensure results are achieved on time whilst still enabling innovation

·       be responsible in handling public money by ensuring financial accountability on your projects and through your teams; manage project budget, including procuring and managing external suppliers

·       adopt a positive, proactive attitude, seeking out opportunities to contribute and improve the running of the HMPPS Communications team

Behaviours Assessed

- Leadership

- Communicating and Influencing

- Seeing the Bigger Picture

- Changing and Improving

- Making Effective Decisions

Selection Process

This vacancy uses Success Profiles and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

You will be asked to submit:

- A CV

- A Statement of Suitability (max 500 words) explaining your motivation and how your experience aligns with the role

CVs will support your application but will not be scored. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a blended interview (strength-based and behaviour-based questions).

Candidates invited to interview will be asked to prepare a presentation.