About the job

Job summary

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy 

The Department for Education (DfE) is looking for a confident, experienced and innovative digital leader to work the Head of Digital Engagement and take our creative content, social channel management and digital engagement to the next level. 

Home to some of the most important policy agendas in Government, DfE is committed to serving its audiences, which have a huge appetite for information and engagement, both online and through social media platforms.

We engage a diverse range of audiences including: parents and teachers on Facebook;  young people choosing their next step in education or future career paths on Instagram; employers and sector professionals on LinkedIn and journalists, commentators, parliamentarians and key stakeholders on X.

Your work will have a far-reaching and significant impact on the reputation of DfE and the Government. Working with Ministers, special advisers, senior officials, No.10, comms colleagues and other departments across government, you will play an instrumental role in the effective delivery of our communications strategy.

Job description

Role Responsibilities:

• Lead a team of seven social media experts, digital content producers and designers, creating and commissioning stories and ideas, co-ordinating the output and ensuring content is of a high standard.
• Responsible for the ownership and management of DfE social media channels, content operations and production, helping to identify efficiencies and refine processes to improve output and delivery.
• Build the team’s reputation within the DfE, across government and externally as a centre of excellence, driving a culture of creativity and innovation and developing new approaches to insight and evaluation.
• Together with the Head of Digital Engagement and Creative Content, develop and implement a refreshed DfE Digital Communications strategy, which aligns to the annual DfE and GCS communication strategies.
• Cultivate a close working relationship with the web publishing and customer experience teams, supporting on digital strands of a new customer engagement strategy, helping people access the information they need online.
• Stay abreast of developments and trends in digital publishing, helping to identify the publishing and social listening tools, and opportunities to utilise AI technology that will take the department’s digital content to the next level.
• Ensure that the team identifies and builds effective relationships with digital influencers and outlets, maintaining strong partnerships with key digital leaders across government and partner organisations.
• Foster relationships at the highest levels (ministers, senior officials, special advisers, private offices, other government departments) and with peers across the Communications division to inspire confidence in our team’s approach, and advise and ensure propriety with ministers’ personal accounts.
• Oversight of the ownership and procurement of new hardware and equipment that helps the team to continue to produce work of the highest quality and greatest impact.
• You may be required to deputise for the Head of Digital Engagement and Creative Content at Senior Leadership Team meetings and take part in an out-of-hours duty rota.

Candidate Engagement Session

A candidate engagement session will be held on Friday 26 July at 2pm, chaired by Richard Moore, Head of Social Media. This session will provide you with more information on the role and your chance to ask any questions.

For the MS Teams link to this session please contact resourcing.businesspartners@education.gov.uk.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• A social media native, with a passion for, and detailed knowledge of, digital communications and industry best practice.
• Significant editorial experience, knowing what makes a compelling story or engaging piece of content.
• A track record of leading social media or content production teams in a fast-paced communications environment and being a strong, visible and supportive leader.
• Skilled in delivering innovative, creative and strategic solutions to challenging briefs and delivering engaging and audience-focused digital strategies and products.
• Ability to quickly build strong relationships and deal confidently with senior individuals.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with an ability to turn complex policy issues into plain English in an engaging way and also provide clear, expert advice to very senior figures.
• Good analytical skills, capable of interpreting and drawing lessons from audience insights and social media performance data.
• Comfortable working either alone or collaboratively, bringing together colleagues from within your team or from different disciplines to work together effectively.
• Proven ability to juggle multiple immediate priorities and long-term projects, work well under pressure and deliver at pace.
• Experienced in writing for digital platforms and their audiences, creating and/or commissioning multimedia, multiplatform content including graphics, photography and video for consumption on digital channels. 

Benefits

Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department’s transfer / promotion policies.

As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK, with an average employer contribution of 27%.

You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years’ service. In addition, all staff receive the King's Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days’ bank and public holidays.

We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.

Most DfE employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending at least 60% of their time in an office or work setting. Changes to these working arrangements are available in exceptional circumstances but must be agreed with the line manager and in line with the requirements of the role. 

Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DfE, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.  

As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

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

Application

To apply for this role, you will be required to provide a CV and Statement of Suitability (max word count 500 words). We will use your CV and Statement of Suitability to assess your experience and suitability for the role against the essential criteria listed in the person specification above. 

To confirm, the maximum word count for the Statement of Suitability is 500 words. Please adhere to this limit as anything over 500 words will not be taken into account. 

Interview

At interview you will be asked question to assess your experience in line with the essential criteria listed above.  

At interview, you will be asked questions around the behaviours listed below:

• Delivering at Pace
• Leadership

At interview, you will be asked questions around the technical skills listed below:

• Ideas: Digital
• Impact: Digital
• Insight: Digital

Candidates will also be required to take part in a scenario exercise and present their approach to the panel. The exercise will be assessed against the Leadership behaviour. 

Interviews will be held in person on a date TBC.

Other Information

In your application, please don’t include personal information that identifies you.

This means we can recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - it's called name blind recruitment (opens in a new window).

Please ensure that you remove from your application, all references to your:

• name/title
• educational institutions
• age
• gender
• email address
• postal address
• phone number
• nationality/immigration status

We understand that you might use AI and other resources for your application; however, please ensure all information you provide is factually accurate, truthful, and original and doesn’t include ideas or work that isn’t your own. This is so that your application is authentically and credibly your own.

We reserve the right to raise the minimum pass mark in the event of a high volume or strong field of candidates.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK from the location options provided and not from overseas.

The government is committed to supporting apprenticeships, enabling people to learn and progress in a role whilst earning. We want to monitor the number of people who have completed apprenticeships who are now applying to progress further in their career and are asking this question to all candidates, on all vacancies. You will be asked a question as part of the application process about any previous apprenticeships you have completed. Your response to this question will not affect your application and it is not a requirement of the role to have completed a previous apprenticeship.   

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check maybe carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstance some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Department of Education of your intention by emailing Pre-Employment.Checks.DFE@education.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Department for Education do not cover the cost of travel to your interview/assessment unless otherwise stated.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.

Candidates will be posted in merit order based upon location preference. Where more than one location is advertised you will be asked to state your preferred location.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

Terms and conditions of candidates transferring from ALBs and NDPBs

Bodies that are not accredited by the Civil Service Commission and are not able to advertise at Across Government on Civil Service jobs will be treated as external new starters and will come into DfE on modernised terms and conditions with a salary at the band minimum.

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission but do not have civil service status will be offered modernised terms and will not have continuous service recognised for leave or sickness benefits. Salaries should be offered at band minimum, but there is some flexibility where this would cause a detriment to the individual.

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission and do have Civil Service status will be treated as OGD transfers. Staff appointed on lateral transfer will move on to pre-modernised DfE terms (unless they were on modernised terms in their previous organisation). Staff appointed on promotion will move on to modernised DfE terms. Staff will transfer over on their existing salary (on lateral transfer) and any pay above the DfE pay band maximum will be paid as a mark time allowance. Staff moving on promotion will have their salaries calculated using the principles set out in the attached OGD transfer supplementary information.

Reasonable adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Department of Education via centralrecruitment.operations@education.gov.uk soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Any move to Department for Education (DfE) will mean you will no longer be able to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/ 

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.