About the job

Job summary

Please refer to Job Description

Job description

Overview

The Judicial Office press office is looking for an experienced Senior Press Officer (SIO) to add to an enthusiastic and trusted communications team based at the Royal Courts of Justice.  

The Judicial Office is independent of the Ministry of Justice and provides a trusted service to judges and magistrates across England and Wales. The candidate will be joining a multi-disciplinary comms team and be able to access professional support and expertise. 

For candidates within the Civil Service this post is available on level transfer or on promotion. 

The Judicial Office

The Judicial Office is an arm’s length body of the Ministry of Justice. We are a unique branch of the civil service, dedicated to supporting the judiciary and promoting judicial independence, to maintain

confidence in the rule of law. We help the Lady Justice (LCJ) and the Senior President of Tribunals fulfil their responsibilities to the judiciary, in an ever-evolving justice system. We provide operational support, policy, legal and handling advice through a number of specialist teams. 

The judicial Office was established following the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, to support the Lady Chief Justice as Head of the Judiciary in his statutory and other leadership and administrative functions. It delivers a wide range of functions for the senior judiciary and to more than 20,000 judicial office holders including legal and policy advice, communications, international, training (through the Judicial College), human resources, welfare, library and information services. Through the independent Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, we deal with complaints about the conduct of judicial officeholders. The Judicial Office also provides support to the Chief Coroner and to the

Judge Advocate General and supports the Lord Chancellor on certain of his judiciary-related functions. 

The Job

Reporting to the Head of News, you will work with five other press officers to assist with media

relations and related communications activity.  The Press team are responsible for providing support to the Lady Chief Justice, heads of division, judges and magistrates. You will be expected to take special responsibility for particular areas, such as Civil Law or magistrates which will be confirmed at a later stage. 

You will have direct and frequent contact with judges and with the media and take part in the out-of-hours duty press officer rota. (These out of hours duties are much less onerous than for a Government press office and a small allowance is paid).

The press team deal with high-profile cases which often make the headlines and the environment can be fast paced and require a calm approach.  The successful candidate will: 

• Develop good working relationships with Judicial Office staff, particularly in Private Offices of the LCJ and the Heads of Division. Build and maintain relationships with key and relevant national and trade journalists and discover new media opportunities for judicial office holders across all channels including podcasts.
• Support senior judges and the judges at all levels with advice on media handling including statements, rebuttals, preparation for interviews, and preparation of draft responses or statements both pre-empting and reacting to media questions.
• Write accurate, authoritative and concise copy to produce press statements and to assist judges to produce summaries of judgments, review speeches, articles for internal and external use and information for the website. 

• Facilitate accurate and timely coverage of courts and tribunals judgments and decisions and publish written versions where appropriate. 

• Respond professionally and promptly to breaking stories generated by judges or court cases during office hours and when on duty; alerting and consulting senior and other judiciary and officials as appropriate. 

Skills & Qualifications

Required

The successful candidate must:

• Have at least two years' experience as a Press Officer or working in a media newsroom.
• Be able to work in a fast-paced environment.
• Be adept at simplifying complex material while retaining the meaning.
• Confident speaking to senior stakeholders. 

Desirable

Experience of working in the field of justice 

Behaviours

• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at pace
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing

Further details on the Civil Service success profiles can be found here - Success Profiles - Civil Service Behaviours (publishing.service.gov.uk) 

Assessment 

As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide a Statement of Suitability in no more than 500 words, a CV, and address the lead behaviour ‘Making Effective Decisions’ in 250 words.

Interview

At interview, you will be assessed on the above Behaviours, as well as Civil Service Strengths, and the below Technical Skills/Professional Competencies. You will also need to prepare a 5-minute presentation illustrating a media campaign that can contribute to public perception and reputation. 

Professional Competencies

You are expected to be proficient in each of the Government Communication Service (GCS) competencies to IO level particularly skills and knowledge under the ‘Press and Media’ discipline. The brief summary below is not exhaustive - you should examine the full version on the GCS website.

Communications: Insight

• Understand how to optimise audience reach through a mix of media channels, including news aggregators.

Communications: Ideas

• Work up ideas for stories and case studies that support communication and business/policy objectives.

Communications: Implementation

• Develop and nurture excellent relationships with journalists and contacts (e.g. bloggers) in all forms of media, to improve story placement and check progress.

Communications: Impact

• Conduct media monitoring and evaluation to assess reach to target audiences and delivery of key messages

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £45,824, Ministry of Justice contributes £12,784 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, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.