About the job

Job summary

We are Britain’s national equality regulator and a United Nations accredited ‘A status’ national human rights institution.

We uphold people’s rights without fear or favour. We use the full force of our legal powers to defend people from unfair or unequal treatment and to challenge breaches of the law. We advise on developing laws and provide guidance, training and support to enable compliance.

We bring people together to create change. We work with employers, governments and a wide range of organisations, to promote understanding of equality and human rights and we support them to make improvements in practice.

Our strategy for 2022-25 gives us a strong platform to show that we will use our powers to protect and promote equality and human rights, and that we have identified the main challenges in society where we can make a difference in our role as a regulator.

Job description

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is looking for an experienced media relations specialist to join our friendly and trusted press team. This is an exciting new opportunity for an expert wordsmith and perceptive PR adviser who loves writing, generating stories and bringing complex topics to life.

The role would ideally suit someone with a background in print journalism as well as senior experience gained in a busy press office. The Senior Press Officer will produce high quality, accurate and engaging written and multimedia materials for a range of audiences and channels and be comfortable providing trusted advice to senior executives.

You will:

• Write engaging news and feature articles, press releases, scripts and press lines and produce other engaging content for owned and earned channels as needed, working to deadlines.
• Provide media handling advice in person and in writing to the Board, executive team, legal and policy colleagues, spotting risks and opportunities in the EHRC’s work programmes.
• Produce media handling plans, briefing documents and media analyses.
• Brief journalists on all areas of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s remit, taking part in an out-of-hours duty rota (roughly one week in every five-six weeks).
• Act as a trusted adviser to spokespeople, including the Chair and CEO, briefing them ahead of media interviews or announcements.
• Accompany spokespeople to interviews and liaise with journalists and production teams to arrange and manage media moments.
• Monitor relevant media, applying sound news judgement and analysis to advice and outputs. Evaluate results and apply continuous learning to your work.

Person specification

The full list of Knowledge, Skills and Experience required for the role can be found in the Candidate Pack, found at the bottom of this advert.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,766, Equality and Human Rights Commission contributes £11,318 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

If this sounds like the role for you, please review the attached Candidate Pack for more information and submit your application today!

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.