Trac proudly powers the recruitment for
NHS England

About
NHS England leads the NHS in England to deliver high quality care for all. We support NHS organisations to deliver better outcomes for our patients and communities, work to get the best possible value for taxpayers, and drive improvement across the NHS.
Through our seven regional teams, NHS England supports local integrated care systems, made up of public services that provide health and care – NHS organisations, primary care professionals, local councils, social care providers and the community, voluntary and social enterprise sector – to improve the health of the population, improve the quality of care, tackle inequalities and deliver care more efficiently.
Contact
- Address
- Wellington House
- 133-155 Waterloo Road
- London
- SE1 8UG
- Contact Number
- 0300 330 1369
Communications Manager - Communications Response
Closed for applications on: 31-Jul-2023 00:00
Vacancy status: Closed
Closed for applications on: 31-Jul-2023 00:00
Key details
Location
- Site
- Wellington House
- Address
- 133 - 155 Waterloo Road
- Town
- Waterloo Road
- Postcode
- SE1 8UG
- Major / Minor Region
- West Yorkshire
Contract type & working pattern
- Contract
- Fixed term: 8 months (until 29-Feb-2024)
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Salary
- Salary
- £50,952 - £57,349 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Grade
- (NHS AfC: Band 8a)
Specialty
- Main area
- Communications
Our Organisation
The NHS is building a culture that is positive, compassionate and inclusive – and we all have our part to play.
As employers we are committed to protecting and promoting the physical and mental health and wellbeing of all our colleagues. This underpins our values as set out in the NHS Constitution and supports us to be an Employer of Choice, while helping our colleagues to deliver high quality services for our patients and communities.
As a flexible employer, we want to support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you. Talk to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time, hybrid working or another flexible pattern. In addition, although the role advertised may have a ‘home’ office base indicated, we remain committed to supporting flexibility around workplace locations. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.
Job overview
We have approved the external recruitment of these/ several business-critical roles as fixed term contracts. This decision was made through the agreed recruitment controls process and endorsed by national directors.
Being part of the Communications Response Team is never dull. We’re at the heart of some of the biggest issues to hit the NHS – be it industrial action, planning for major power outages, dealing with shortages of supplies or terrorist attacks.
Please note that the reason for the fixed term of your contract is short term vacancy.
Advert
As part of an ‘always on’ system, no two days will be the same. The post-holder will be expected to travel frequently and spend time working directly within NHS provider organisations – both during incidents and also supporting them to prepare for when things go wrong. Travel and work may often be outside of normal business hours and night shifts are not unheard of!
Working for our organisation
We work side by side with our colleagues in regional communications – so a good understanding of the work they do is important. As are attention to detail and being able to keep a calm head when things go wrong. You’ll also need to have had some experience of handling communications during a major incident.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The post holder will specifically:
- Act as the deputy to the Head of Communications Response;
- Be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Communications Response Team, including being a part of the out-of-hours rota;
- Act as a deployable resource to provide strategic advice during incidents, supporting communications and leadership teams in providers and other NHS organisations;
- Holds responsibility for the NHS England and NHS Improvement business continuity communications plan;
- Provide training to senior leaders within the NHS on a plethora of subjects including crisis communications and media and parliamentary relations;
- Project manage the response to incidents and forward plan for major projects such as the operational response to increased winter pressures;
- Be a day-to-day point of contact for senior members of the Press Office and other parts of the communications function;
- Provide strategic reviews of communications functions within providers when required by the regional communications teams;
- Take part in cross-government communications exercises; and
- Ensure the materials produced by the team are high quality and meet the needs of the audiences.
Our commitments to you
We are passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. We know that different ideas, perspectives and backgrounds create a stronger and more creative work environment that delivers better patient outcomes. We strive to ensure our people feel trusted, valued and empowered. We’re passionate about nurturing and developing people. When you join us, we want you to grow and excel, and we offer many opportunities for you to do that. We welcome your talent and enthusiasm irrespective of age, disability, neuro-divergence, sex, gender identity and gender expression, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or other personal circumstances. We have policies and procedures to ensure that all applicants are treated fairly and consistently at every stage of the recruitment process, including the consideration of reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability and/or who are neuro-divergent.
We welcome applications from disabled candidates. If you meet all the essential criteria, you will be guaranteed an interview.
Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK under the Skilled Worker route are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.
If applying for this role on a secondment basis, please make sure you have obtained prior agreement from your current line manager to apply for this position.
Please note that we currently do not accept applications via recruitment agencies.
In order to comply with the HM Government Functional Standard GovS 007, and specifically the Personnel Security Standards 2024, all individuals employed or contracted by NHS England are now required to undergo a Baseline Personnel Security Standards check.
All existing post-holders within NHS England will be required to complete the check as part of the wider roll out plan.
The NHS Business Services Authority is responsible for the processing of your application; a privacy notice is attached to advise you on how we will process your personal data.
If you have applied via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. If you are appointed to a post, information will also be transferred into the NHS Electronic Staff Records system.
You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through NHS Jobs, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any emails sent to us via NHS Jobs. If you have a query relating to your application, please contact the recruitment team on [email protected] or 0300 330 1369. You can view our Privacy Notice here.
NHS England
Applicant requirements
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Educated to masters level or equivalent level of experience of working at a senior level in specialist area.
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Experience of health communications, ideally from working in a trust or similar healthcare provider.
- Minimum of seven years progressively senior communications experience, which must include crisis communications, media relations and internal communications.
- Experience of advising senior leaders.
- Line management experience.
- Experience of operating independently, ideally as a senior part of an duty rota.
- Extensive knowledge of specialist areas acquired through post graduate diploma or equivalent experience or training plus further specialist knowledge or experience to master’s level equivalent.
- Evidence of post qualifying and continuing professional development.
- Must have an understanding of the background to and aims of current healthcare policy and appreciate the implications of this on engagement.
- Have an appreciation of the relationship between the Department of Health and individual provider and commissioning organisations.
- Experience of budgetary responsible, including budget setting with evidence of working knowledge of financial processes
- Experience of building effective cross functional working relationships to drive organisational agenda
- Member of relevant professional body.
Skills
Essential criteria
- Must have the gravitas to build relationships at short notice with senior staff.
- Comfortable working in a high-paced environment where accuracy is required despite the speed.
- Comfortable deputising for more senior staff.
- Highly developed communication skills with the capability to analyse, review and make sense of highly complex, sensitive or contentious information across a diverse range of subjects relevant to post portfolio.
- Demonstrable skills in presenting complex concepts and information which may include difficult and controversial issues, across a wide range of audiences
- Ability to identify risks, anticipate issues and create solutions and to resolve problems in relation to project or service delivery.
- Ability to understand a broad range of complex information quickly and making decisions where opinions differ/no obvious solution.
- Evidence of planning and delivering programmes and projects and services on time.
- Ability to work without supervision, providing specialist advice to the organisation, working to tight and often changing timescales.
- Interpreting national policy for implementation.
- Evidence of planning and delivering programmes and projects and services on time.
- Demonstrable experience developing, managing and motivating teams/individuals to ensure success
- Experience of delivering against competing priorities and deadlines while also directing the work of teams/individuals
Values and Behaviours
Essential criteria
- Commitment to and focused on quality, promotes high standards in all they do.
- Able to make a connection between their work and the benefit to patients and the public.
- Ability to operate in a value-driven style consistent with the values of the public services and specifically with the new organisational values
- Works across boundaries, looks for collective success, listens, involves, respects and learns from the contribution of others
- Values diversity and difference; operates with integrity and openness
- Works well with others, is positive and helpful, listens, involves, respects and learns from the contribution of others.
- Consistently looks to improve what they do, look for successful tried and tested ways of working, and also seeks out innovation.
- Actively develops themselves and supports others to do the same.
- Needs to have a thorough understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships both in terms of day-to-day working practices, but also in relation to management systems.
- Self-awareness in teams of emotional intelligence, biases and personal triggers with cultural sensitivity and awareness.
- Values diversity and difference operates with integrity and openness.
- Embrace change, viewing it as an opportunity to learn and develop.
- Demonstrates honesty and integrity and promotes organisational values.
Other
Essential criteria
- Able to travel across various sites where applicable
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Phil Groves
- Job title
- Head of Communications Response Team
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07809334921
No longer accepting applications
Sorry, this vacancy is no longer accepting applications.
You can search for similar jobs on the employer's job board, or visit our national jobs board Health Jobs UK.