Senior communications and engagement officer

Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust; Greater London; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A progressive NHS mental health trust in North London is seeking a Senior Communications and Engagement Officer to enhance patient care through effective communication. The role involves producing high-quality content and engaging with diverse audiences. Ideal candidates will have strong writing skills and experience in digital media, and a degree or equivalent qualification. The position offers a supportive environment with opportunities for growth and flexibility in work locations.

Benefits

NHS Discounts

Generous annual leave

NHS pension scheme

Qualifications

• Understanding of effective communication and engagement methods.
• Experience of working under pressure to tight deadlines.
• Ability to create and maintain databases to support engagement.

Responsibilities

• Play a full role in communications and engagement activities.
• Produce high quality content including written, digital, and audio-visual materials.
• Demonstrate strong adherence to accessible communication formats.

Skills

Excellent writing skills

Experience with digital and social media

Strong interpersonal skills

Ability to manage multiple priorities

Education

Educated to degree level or equivalent

Tools

PowerPoint

Job description

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK's leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board.

Thank you for your interest in the North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT). This is an exciting time to join us and be part of our journey to improve mental health care across North London and deliver excellent services to our local people. We will achieve this through the North London Way, as we:

• Collaborate at every level by living our values to create the right conditions for us all to work together.
• Develop our new Trust culture, to help make our new Trust a great place to work and to receive great care.
• Empower our teams to lead the planned improvements in our services, by skilling them and giving them the tools to make the changes.
• Focus on delivering excellence at every level to improve our performance and ensure consistently high-quality care across all our services.
• Ensure that research, quality improvement, and technology lead the way and are embedded in our services.
• Take a trauma informed approach to everything we do

We proactively welcome diversity in our workforce and pride ourselves on being an inclusive employer. We aim to recruit from our local communities and provide opportunities to all including apprenticeships, veterans, care leavers and more.

The North London Way to deliver: Better Mental Health, Better Lives, Better Communities.

Our trust website is: https://www.northlondonmentalhealth.nhs.uk/

Job overview

This is an interesting and worthwhile role, where you will work in a new and progressive NHS mental health trust in north London which puts safe, responsive and effective patient care at the heart of everything we do.

Just one year old, North London NHS Foundation Trust is on the cusp of opening a second MHCAS - mental health crisis assessment centre, or "A&A for mental health" - the first area of the country to have two.

We are committed to looking after patients close to home, either in the community or in our award-winning modern inpatient facilities.

And we believe in looking after our staff, with every support service focused on improving how we make the work of clinical staff easier, more effective, more rewarding, and with zero frustrations.

You will work with a team of committed and experienced communications and engagement colleagues, who jointly look after the full range of internal, external, corporate and digital communications.

We want to make communicating well - with our staff, our service users, our stakeholders, and our wider community - the simplest and easiest thing to do. And we want you to help us.

Can you help us?

Main duties of the job

You will have excellent writing skills, be skilled and experienced in using digital and social media, have the ability to manage a range of priorities, and be unfazed by working to tight or changing deadlines. You will need to be able to work with people at all levels, in a busy, pressured, diverse and completely awesome organisation, which is both respected and expected by a wide range of audiences to deliver on demanding expectations.

Main duties:

Play a full role in the communications and engagement activity of the Trust, producing high quality content, including written text, digital content, and audio-visual materials, demonstrating a strong commitment to accuracy, Plain English, audience engagement, and responsiveness.

Demonstrate a strong and effective commitment to forward planning, including full use of our bespoke Forward Planner, and identify opportunities and risks for activity to support delivery of Trust communication priorities and key messages, taking account of external and internal drivers and demands as appropriate.

Demonstrate a strong adherence to accessible communications formats and design, and work to best practice principles with regard to consistent brand voice and visual identity across all formats.

Working for our organisation

North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.

Our Five-Year Strategy:

1. We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.
2. With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all
3. We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care.

Why NLFT?

• We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.
• We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
• NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme
• Excellent internal staff network

In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Play a full role in the communications and engagement activity of the Trust, producing high quality content, including written text, digital content, and audio-visual materials, demonstrating a strong commitment to accuracy, Plain English, audience engagement, and responsiveness.

Demonstrate a strong and effective commitment to forward planning, including full use of our bespoke Forward Planner, and identify opportunities and risks for activity to support delivery of Trust communication priorities and key messages, taking account of external and internal drivers and demands as appropriate.

Demonstrate a strong adherence to accessible communications formats and design, and work to best practice principles with regard to consistent brand voice and visual identity across all formats.

This is not an exhaustive list, Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification for more information on the role requirements and duties.

Person specification

Education and qualifications

Essential criteria

• Educated to degree level or equivalent (eg. part completion of a relevant apprenticeship or further related study)

Desirable criteria

• Post graduate diploma or working towards a specialist post- graduate qualification eg Chartered Institute of Public Relations diploma or Chartered Institute of Marketing
• Evidence of continued learning and development

Previous experience

Essential criteria

• Understanding of range of effective communication, marketing and engagement methods, and how these can be applied to this role's purpose, aims and key priorities, with examples of personal delivery for successful outcomes
• Experience of working under pressure to tight deadlines while maintain high standards of accuracy and detail
• Experience working across partnerships in support of a shared aim

Desirable criteria

• Strong understanding of mental health issues

Skills knowledge and abilities

Essential criteria

• Evidence of working to delegated authority demonstrating appropriate autonomy and escalating beyond, and able to articulate an understanding of how this would work in this role,
• Evidence of devising, implementing and refining communications and engagement plans in collaboration with internal and external colleagues for St Pancras Development workstreams across the year to support agreed outcomes
• Ability to create, maintain and use external and internal databases and information resources (grids, distribution lists, content management tools) to support strong and effective engagement with the St Pancras Development programme
• Strong interpersonal skills and evidence of building and maintaining good relationships with internal and external stakeholders and able to articulate an understanding of how this would work in this role
• Evidence of creating and overseeing production of materials that would be equivalent to Programme-related communication and engagement products, including publications, newsletters, 'snackable' video and audio content,
• Ability to receive, synthesise and communicate effectively highly complex, sensitive or contentious information, and be able to identify the most important information and how best to disseminate it, including to appropriate audiences through appropriate routes
• Excellent content creation including writing skills and the ability to identify good news stories to raise the profile of agreed Trust programmes services, and accomplishments,
• Understanding of good practice relating to organisation of events and/or meetings
• Excellent writing and digital / IT skills with knowledge of a range of different tools and software including PowerPoint with the ability to create slide presentations of high quality and to tight deadline
• Experience of being able to undertake regular and systematic reviews and audits to ensure the ongoing effectiveness and development of external communications.
• Able to build effective relationships with colleagues, including at executive level, both internally and externally
• Excellent organisational and planning skills

Desirable criteria

• Ability to write press releases and to pitch these to media contacts, both locally and nationally

Communication and interpersonal

Essential criteria

• Excellent multi-tasker who works well under pressure in busy environments
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate effectively with people at all levels including senior leaders across north central London
• Tenacious
• Professional manner
• Attention to detail

Other

Essential criteria

• Willingness to carry our administrative tasks when occasionally required
• Flexible approach to work, including able to work across different times and locations
• Open to learning and continual improvement

References will be required to cover your last 3 years of employment/training. One has to be from your current or most recent employer and the others from your previous employer. The references should be from persons with management responsibility or HR.

If you have been unemployed for a period of four years or more, please give the details of your last employer and one character referee of your choice (not members of your family). If more applicable, references will be requested from your teacher or head of faculty. Please ensure you provide full contact details.

Vacancies that are advertised as Fixed Term Contracts will also be available as secondment opportunities for substantive internal staff.

Please be aware that your documents eg. Passport/NI Card, will be electronically scanned using Home Office accredited Verification System.

Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts, we will close vacancies before the stated closing date once the first 50 applications are received. Therefore, please apply as soon as possible.

All non-medical posts with the Trust are subject to a probationary period of six months, during which time you will be required to demonstrate to the Trust's satisfaction, your suitability for the position in which you will be employed.

Should you not hear from us within three working weeks of the closing date for this post, then regretfully in this instance, you have not been shortlisted.

By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at improving efficiencies within the NHS both to make costs savings for NHS organisations but also to save you time when your employment transfers.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

This post will require a submission for Disclosure to be made to check for any unspent criminal convictions.

Documents to download

• Job description for senior comms and engagement officer (PDF, 352.4KB)
• person spec for b6 role on St P Dev (PDF, 216.6KB)
• Functional requirements (PDF, 384.6KB)
• A comprehensive guide for candidates (PDF, 875.7KB)