About the job

Job summary

​HMICFRS independently assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of police forces and fire and rescue services – in the public interest. We promote improvements in policing and fire and rescue services to make everyone safer. 

We are independent of the Government, police and fire and rescue services. We ask the questions that we believe the public wish to have answered and produce major reports that shine a light on issues at the very heart of policing and fire and rescue services.   

​Our reports are widely covered by the media and help inform the public of the performance of their local police forces and fire and rescue services. You can find out more about HMICFRS on our website and see some of our recent reports.  

Working at HMICFRS gives you an opportunity to make a real difference to the quality of local police and fire and rescue services and the lives of the public.   

​HMICFRS is a unique organisation with staff seconded or loaned from across the Civil Service, police forces and fire and rescue services. As short-term, contracted staff, our Associates work alongside these staff and play an important part in contributing to the success of our inspection programme.   

​We set ourselves high standards, taking great pride in the quality of work we achieve and the opportunities we create for our staff. 

​Find out more 

​If you would like to talk to someone about this role and what it’s like working for HMICFRS we would be pleased to hear from you.  Please contact recruitment@hmicfrs.gov.uk  and we can arrange for someone to contact you​.

Job description

If you are an exceptional media relations specialist, with a sound news sense, the confidence to influence and advise senior leaders, and a demonstrated ability to deliver high-performing media campaigns, then we want to hear from you. 

Our work is in the news every day. From reviewing how a police force handled its investigation into a serial killer, to uncovering racist, homophobic and misogynistic behaviour in fire and rescue services, we have no shortage of interesting topics to communicate to our audiences through the press and social media.  

The Head of Media leads a team that is responsible for managing the press office and our social media channels (Twitter/X and LinkedIn).  

The successful candidate will be responsible for setting and implementing the organisation’s annual media and social media strategies. You will lead your team to plan and deliver media and social media content and campaigns to ensure the key messages from our reports reach the right audiences, through the right channels, and at the right time. 

As the most senior media relations professional within HMICFRS, the Head of Media plays a critical role in protecting and promoting the reputation of the organisation by continually identifying risks and opportunities and providing sound media handling advice to senior leaders. You will build close relationships with His Majesty’s Inspectors, gaining their trust as the first point of contact for any media handling advice.  

We publish new reports every week, which attract both regional and national media interest. You will take responsibility for ensuring we have media handling plans and products in place for all upcoming reports. You will maintain a horizon scan of external and internal events and reports to ensure we maximise all communications opportunities and manage any reputational risks.  

You will have strong news awareness and excellent judgement, always backing up your media handling recommendations with clear evidence. 

You will build proactive relationships with home affairs journalists and actively identify opportunities for the promotion of our key messages. You and your team will write press releases and opinion pieces, respond to reactive enquiries from journalists, arrange media interviews for our spokespeople and host press conferences. You will anticipate questions from journalists, draft lines to take and brief spokespeople on how to handle challenging questions.  

You will lead through your team to produce innovative and engaging social media content, including video and graphics, building on our work to grow our social media presence – particularly on LinkedIn. 

As a member of the Government Communications Service (GCS), you will champion best practice and adherence to the highest professional standards. You will ensure your team’s work is fully evaluated and will test new ideas. You will adapt your future strategy and approach based on your learnings.   

Please note this role is a fixed term position to cover maternity leave. 

Responsibilities 

• Run HMICFRS’s media team.
• Leadership of the Media Manager and Social Media Manager. 
•  Key part of the HMICFRS Communications senior leadership team. 
•  Provide support for the out-of-hours on call rota.  
• If based outside of London, the successful candidate would be expected to travel regularly to the London office to help manage media interviews, which often take place early in the morning. 

Person specification

Essential Criteria  

• Experience of working in a busy press office or media relations environment.  
• A strong news sense and a track record in the development and delivery of high-performing media strategies to reach target audiences.
• Experience of developing messaging and overseeing the creation of consistent and high-quality communications products and events, including press releases, opinion pieces, reactive statements, press conferences and media interviews.  
• Experience of identifying and managing reputational risks, and providing advice to senior leaders on how to mitigate these risks. 
• Ability and experience in building evaluation models that track communications inputs, outputs and outcomes, linking them to organisational objectives.
• Ability and confidence to influence at a senior level to build consensus and support for your plans.
• Ability and confidence to brief senior leaders ahead of media interviews.
• Experience of building effective relationships with journalists and using these relationships to identify proactive media opportunities.
• Experience of line management, including managing the workload of more junior team members and empowering their professional development.

Desirable Criteria 

• Experience of supporting the design and delivery of social media content and campaigns. 
• Experience of leading a team of communications professionals. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £57,000, His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services contributes £15,390 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

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

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a Personal Statement Max Word Limit ​750​.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form. 

The CV is for information purposes only and will not be marked. 

The first stage of the sift will be carried out on your personal statement which should be aligned to the essential criteria. If you do not meet the essential criteria, your application will not progress further. For those who do meet the essential criteria, their application may progress to the second stage of the sift process. 

The second stage of sift is based on the lead behaviour Seeing the Bigger Picture.       

If your application progresses to a full sift, all behaviours will then be considered.   

If successful at sift stage, you will be invited to an interview where you will be tested against the Success Profiles behaviours and experience based on the essential criteria stated in the advert. 

In addition, interview candidates will be asked to complete a written test based on the behaviours/essential criteria.  Further details will be disclosed prior to the interview.  

Behavioural statements 

You need to provide specific examples of when you have demonstrated particular skills or qualities for each of the four Civil Service behaviours listed. Your examples must also show how you meet the Essential criteria and skills listed in the job description. 

We recommend that you use the Situation, Task, Action and Result (STAR) method to help make sure your examples are clear and highlight your skills and qualities. Each example should set out what you have done, how you completed the task and the results of this action to allow the panel to assess how you meet the required behaviours. 

Please make sure you have provided sufficient information – it is not enough to submit a list of bullet points. Please refer to the Success Profiles (opens in a new window) to make sure you are familiar with what is required for each behaviour. You will not be expected to meet every single aspect of every behaviour, but must show a good range or depth for each behaviour to be successful at the sift stage. 

Sift & Interview Dates 

Sift w/c 11 March 2024

Interviews by Video Link w/c 3 April, w/c 8 April 2024 

We often have similar roles available at different grades.  Should candidates be placed on a reserve list we may be able to offer a similar role or a lower grade role without the need for you to go through a further selection process. 

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not overseas.  

Further information

For meaningful checks to be carried out, individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 3 years if the role requires CTC clearance, 5 years for SC clearance and 10 years for DV.  A lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder/Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter

Every day, Home Office civil servants do brilliant work to develop and deliver policies and services that affect the lives of people across the country and beyond. To do this effectively and fairly, the Home Office is committed to representing modern Britain in all its diversity, and creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people are able to bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best.

We are flexible, skilled, professional and diverse. We work to recruit and retain disabled staff and area Disability Confident Leader. We are proud to be one of the most ethnically diverse departments in the civil service. We are a Social Mobility Foundation top 75 employer.

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.

For further information please see the attached notes for candidates which must be read before making an application.

Existing Civil Servants should note that some of the Home Office terms and conditions of employment have changed. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the Terms and Conditions they will adopt should they be successful in application and should refer to the notes for candidates for further details.

Transfer Terms: Voluntary.

If you are invited to an interview you will be required to  bring a range of documentation for the purposes of establishing identity and to aid any pre-employment checks.

Please see the attached list of Home Office acceptable ID documents.

Any move to the Home Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access 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

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is 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 Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as 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

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.

Feedback

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). 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.