About the job

Job summary

• Are you a senior press and public affairs professional, able to communicate sensitive issues to achieve understanding and impact?Do you know how to successfully engage with stakeholders, government and the media to ensure an organisation’s position is well understood?
• Are you motivated by communicating complex, sensitive and high profile issues about a vital area of national life?
• Can you lead a team to deliver joined up communications across media, political, stakeholder and events?

You will work directly with the Chair, CEO, Directors, Board and senior leaders across the organisation in order to project the Commission’s visibility and influence.  You will develop and communicate our messages to ensure that we are clear and confident about our role and take a lead role in managing the organisation’s reputation. This is important both to achieving impact from our policy and case work and to achieving progress in delivering our new strategy. You will have a strong personal role as one of the key ‘faces’ of the Commission, critically influencing our relationship with important stakeholders. In this role, you will have a significant impact on external awareness and understanding of the organisation and its work and therefore on public trust, ultimately supporting charities’ ability to thrive.

Reporting to the Director of Communications & Policy and a member of the Directorate’s senior leadership team, you will occupy a key leadership role for the Charity Commission as we build our wider visibility as an expert, regulator that is fair, balanced and independent, to support the achievement of our strategic objectives. You will have diverse areas of responsibility - representing the organisation and influencing relationships across the media, Parliament and key stakeholders, increasing the extent and quality of our engagement and proactively shaping and driving media coverage on often contentious and complex issues, to grow our impact and reputation and extend our reach.

To succeed in this role, you will be expert in your field in order to lead and shape the External Affairs, Media and Events teams’ activities; driving and monitoring performance across key internal and external stakeholders, including the media and Parliament. You will be politically aware, understanding the external operating environment and have a direct and close working relationship with the Chair and Executive to maximise the organisation’s impact and reputation.

Job description

• Innovating how we use our expert voice confidently as independent regulator, to influence outcomes in the charity sector and beyond , in order to influence behaviour grow confidence in the sector.
• Ownership of the Commission’s narrative, ensuring it supports the Commission’s strategy, remains relevant and impactful, and is consistently delivered to external audiences. Ensuring high quality speechwriting support for the Chair and Chief Executive, both through the effective leadership of other experts and playing a hands-on personal role.
• Ensuring strong, personal and internal relationships are built at senior levels and engaging actively with regulatory and other colleagues to ensure that collaborative approaches are agreed and reputational issues are fully considered, amplifying the Commission’s overall impact. This will involve considerable, complex negotiation and influencing skills, to effectively bridge divergent and conflicting views. Outlining, developing and coordinating engagement with key stakeholders, playing a substantive personal role, influencing at senior level.
• Acting as an influential and credible senior spokesperson for the Commission, with the media (both in print and on broadcast interviews), and with senior stakeholders (to CEO level with sector and sector bodies, and to MP, senior government official and sometimes Ministerial level).
• Overseeing expertise within the team to develop external positions, targeting priority outlets and journalists, and proactively creating, shaping and placing media stories, articles and interviews which help support the achievement of our strategy and position the Commission as a fair, balanced and independent regulator. Ensuring media activity effectively supports Commission products, campaigns, events and reports, that the press office anticipates and plans effectively for key events and cases and is robust and proactive.
• Ensuring a strategic approach to engaging with Parliament and advising the Board, CEO, Executive and senior staff across the Commission on all matters relating to Parliamentary affairs, ensuring our role is understood and our influence maximised. Ensure relevant team members have processes in place to meet deadlines for PQs, correspondence, ministerial briefings and monitoring Parliamentary events and that our approach is continuously improved.
• Supporting the Commission’s witnesses at Parliamentary Committees with strategic advice and ensuring timely and high quality written submissions are made to relevant Committees in line with the organisation’s narrative.
• Being accountable for ensuring that stakeholder relationships are actively managed across the Commission, to build stronger connections and extend our influence and insight.
• Overseeing our visits and events to ensure they are well managed, effective and impactful. This includes our flagship Annual Public Meeting
• Ensuring a collaborative and innovative approach, working closely with colleagues responsible for our campaigns and our digital channels to deliver greater impact across all our communications.
• Ensuring the team operates effectively with an ambitious, insight-led and targeted approach, and a strong approach to planning, evaluation and professional development in line with Government Communications Service best practice.

Person specification

Ability:

• Ability to explain complex information, in a variety of media, including excellent written and oral communications skills. Able to write and shape copy to capture the appropriate tone and voice.
• A demonstrable ability to work flexibly and effectively under pressure, managing teams to meet multiple targets and deadlines.

Experience:

• Proven track record of successful leadership and direct management and development of expert staff with demonstrable experience of building a high performing team with a culture of continuous improvement.
• Excellent influencing and negotiating skills and the proven ability to build trust quickly; particularly building effective personal relationships with Board, senior staff across the Commission and with key external stakeholders.
• Experience of working with Parliament and the media and a strong professional network.
• Experience of using a range of communications techniques and vehicles to achieve outcomes, ideally encompassing an understanding of events and digital channels.
• Experience of acting as a press and broadcast media spokesperson and effectively supporting and briefing other spokespeople.

Technical:

• Demonstrate clear understanding of the Charity Commission’s role and strategy and the current strategic and policy context.
• Strong understanding of current practice and trends in print, online and broadcast journalism and of successful techniques to create media coverage.
• Strong understanding of Parliament and stakeholder engagement approaches. The post holder will need to be particularly politically astute with an excellent understanding of the external operating environment.
• Good understanding of effective tools and techniques for planning, evaluating and innovating communications activities.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £68,355, Charity Commission contributes £18,456 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 as a minimum you are asked to complete a CV and Personal Statement.

At interview you will be asked to do a presentation / exercise on a prepared topic and assessed on your technical knowledge and experience and the following behaviours:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

Interview Arrangements

Interviews will be taking place Face to Face in our London Office.

The sift is due to take place on 25/07/2024.

Interviews will be held 06/08/2024.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates. 

At the interview, the panel can then probe further and ask applicants to provide further specific examples that show how they best demonstrate their skills.

We reserve the right to raise the score required at any stage of the process to manage numbers.

Behaviours

The distinguishing Behaviours (the required skills, knowledge, and behaviours) for this role are set out in the Civil Service Behaviours Framework 2018 (Success Profiles - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)) and should be referred to when making this application.

You are required, under the Behaviours approach, to describe how you have dealt with a specific situation.

You must give evidence of your knowledge, skills, and behaviours and how you have applied this, such as what you did or said and how you interacted with other people.

When you are giving your examples, do not spend too many words on description and background information. Avoid using general or unspecific statements. Instead say what the situation was, what you did, what your thought process was and what was the result.

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled persons, 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 Charitycommissionrecruitment.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 an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Reserve Lists

If we have more successful candidates than available vacancies, we will hold a 12-month reserve list as standard.

During that time, we may use the list to fill the same, or similar roles with closely matching essential criteria, without further testing of merit. Any appointments from the Reserve list will be made in strict merit order.

Applying

We recognise everyone as an individual, accepting people for who they are and treating everyone fairly.

All applications for these vacancies must be made online. There are limited exceptions to this. Paper applications will only be considered if you have a disability that will prevent you from applying online. If this is the case, please email Charitycommissionrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Once you have submitted your application it cannot be amended; only submit your application when you have completely finished and answered all the relevant questions.

Please note that late applications will not be accepted.

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

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

Concerns/Complaints

The Charity Commission’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the Civil Service Commissioner’s Recruitment Principles, which outlines that selection for appointment is made on merit based on fair and open competition.

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the values in the Civil Service Code and/or if you feel the recruitment has been conducted in such a way that conflicts with the Civil Service Commissioner’s Recruitment Principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance hrselfservice@charitycommission.gov.uk.

If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web page here.

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

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.