Head of Strategic Communications, Campaigns and Content

The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is a system leader for health security; taking action internationally to strengthen global health security, providing trusted advice to government and the public and reducing inequalities in the way different communities experience and are impacted by infectious disease, environmental hazards, and other threats to health.

UKHSA’s remit, as an agency with a global-to-local reach, is to protect the health of the nation from infectious diseases and other external threats to health. As the nation’s expert national health security agency UKHSA will:

• Prevent: anticipate threats to health and help build the nation’s readiness, defences and health security
• Detect: use cutting edge environmental and biological surveillance to proactively detect and monitor infectious diseases and threats to health
• Analyse: use world-class science and data analytics to assess and continually monitor threats to health, identifying how best to control and mitigate the risks
• Respond: take rapid, collaborative and effective actions nationally and locally to mitigate threats to health when they materialise
• Lead: lead strong and sustainable global, national, regional and local partnerships designed to save lives, protect the nation from public health threats and reduce inequalities.

Job overview

Are you passionate about public health and the power of communications to create positive change? We are looking for an experienced, creative strategic communications professional, to lead our Strategic Communications, Campaigns and Content team, within UKHSA’s Communications Directorate.

Main duties of the job

This role leads a diverse and talented team of strategists, planners, writers, designers and videographers with a broad remit. The work of the team ranges from campaign creation to increasing the impact of UKHSA’s social media channels. You will have the chance to develop creative solutions to some of the most important health challenges of our time, from promoting vaccine take up, to combating antimicrobial resistance and building a greater understanding of the health effects of climate change.

You will also support our critical incident and emergency response work, overseeing the delivery of a wide range of creative content, that will inform and guide the public to take the right action to protect their health, at times of risk.

If you have experience of leading and developing multidisciplinary communication teams, to deliver creative, impactful campaigns and digital content, along with a passion for public health, this could be a great opportunity for you.

Working for our organisation

We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality of opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.

UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities. We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by removing barriers and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.

Please visit our careers site for more information https://gov.uk/ukhsa/careers

We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality of opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.

UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities. We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by removing barriers and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.

Please visit our careers site for more information https://gov.uk/ukhsa/careers

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Head of Strategic Communications, Campaigns and Content is a pivotal role within UKHSA’s Communications Directorate, overseeing our strategic communications and planning function, as well as our in-house team of highly skilled creative professionals.

The post holder will play a central part in developing UKHSA’s communications strategy, and ensuring we have the right KPIs in place to demonstrate impact against our plans on an ongoing basis.

Overseeing a small, newly formed team of strategic communications professionals, you will act as a communications advisor to senior colleagues within UKHSA, enabling your team to build strong, trusted relationships with key officials, scientists and public health leads across the Agency.

You will play a critical role within the Communications Directorate senior management team, encouraging collaboration between teams to enable effective virtual team working on top priority topics.

You will lead our in-house content team of designers, videographers and writers, to support the development of a wide range of creative content, to support both effective incident response work and proactive low and no-cost campaigns.

You will have excellent presentation skills and written skills and use these to create presentations to demonstrate the impact of the Directorate’s work, as well as to author blogs, film scrips and a wide variety of written content for external audiences.

We have unique studio facilities in our new Canary Wharf office and are looking to maximise the potential of these over the coming months.

The content team also oversees the development and curation of our social media channels and social media strategy. Over the next year, we are looking to put a more targeted approach in place to build the reach of each of our core channels and increase the impact of our social media activity as a whole and you will be responsible for overseeing this work.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Leading a team of 12, and line managing five senior colleagues within the team, including strategic communications professionals, writers, graphic designers, videographers.
• Playing a major role in creating and overseeing the delivery of UKHSA’s communications plan, aligned to the organisation’s 3-year Strategic Plan
• Identifying opportunities for communications to enable successful delivery of our Strategic Plan and Science Strategy, based on a comprehensive understanding of UKHSA’s goals, priorities, mission and vision.
• Writing insight-based communications strategies and plans
• Creating and delivering presentations to a high standard to - or for - senior colleagues and stakeholders, on the Directorate’s strategic priorities.
• Building productive relationships with senior colleagues in pivotal roles throughout the agency, to identify and shape our communications plans.
• Create a strong network of peers across partner agencies and Government Departments, identifying opportunities for collaboration and/or amplifying messages.
• Embedding a culture of planning, insight and evaluation within the communications directorate, drawing on best practise standards, including GCS.
• Where appropriate, identifying opportunities for paid communications to enhance successful delivery, whether as part of a proactive campaign strategy or to warn and inform the public as part of our incident response work.
• Ensuring the content team is well supported so that they can manage a sizeable and highly varied programme of work – including appropriate briefing and work management processes.
• Writing content to an excellent standard for any of our priority audience groups, including blogs and scripts.
• Overseeing the development of high priority creative content, including films.
• Developing our social media strategy to grow and expand the impact of our channels
• Playing a visible, important role within the Directorate’s Senior Management Team and contributing towards the Directorate’s success and wellbeing

• Post graduate qualification in communications, public relations or journalism or equivalent level of experience
• Excellent understanding of established, best practise approaches to communications strategy development and evaluation, including GCS standards - and the ability to train and guide others
• Experience of working in a senior communications role in national or local government or NHS communications
• Established credibility and authority and experience of gaining the confidence of very senior colleagues
• Experience of working across all communications disciplines with a strong background in strategic communications
• Excellent oral and written communication skills and ability to develop presentations and written content to an extremely high standard
• Strong leadership and management skills and experience of achieving results through a multi-disciplinary communications team
• The ability to quickly grasp complex issues and to be able to distil these for others is critical.
• The ability to work at pace, under pressure and to guide your team to priorities and do the same where needed
• An understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships

Selection Process Details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on the above listed essential criteria, and this will be in the form of a:

• Application form (‘Employer/ Activity history’ section on the application)
• 1000 word Statement of Suitability.

This should outline how your skills, experience, and knowledge, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria.

The Application form and Statement of Suitability will be marked separately, and you must pass both to move forward to interview.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview and assessment.

Please do not exceed 1000 words. We will not consider any words over and above this number.

Feedback will not be provided at this stage.

Stage 2: Interview (Success Profiles)

You will be invited to a face-to-face interview. In exceptional circumstances, we may be able to offer a remote interview.

Behaviours and experience will be tested at interview.

You will be asked to prepare and present a 5-minute presentation. The subject of this will be sent to you prior to interview.

The Behaviours tested during the interview stage will be:

• Seeing the big picture
• Changing and improving
• Leadership
• Communicating and influencing
• Developing self and others

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Location

As a hybrid worker, you will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of your contractual working hours (approximately 3 days a week pro rata, (averaged over a month).

Our core HQ offices are modern and newly refurbished with excellent city centre transport link and benefit from benefit from co-location with other government departments such as the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Eligibility Criteria

Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

Security Clearance Level Requirement

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Basic Personnel Security Standard.

Person specification

Application Form & Statement of Suitability

• Application Form
• Statement of Suitability

Behaviours

• Changing and improving (Lead Criteria)
• Seeing the big picture
• Making effective decisions
• Leadership
• Communicating and influencing
• Working together
• Developing self and others

IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ

Your application may be rejected and/or you may be subject to disciplinary action if evidence of plagiarism is detected. Examples of plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence (AI), as your own.

Applicants must also meet necessary security and vetting requirements, along with any other relevant pre-employment checks.

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

For more information on job nationality requirements and the right to work in the UK, see the Civil Service Nationality rules (opens in a new window) and the UK Visas and Immigration rules (opens in a new window)

Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.

The Civil Service pay structure and progression is different from NHS Agenda for Change (AfC), most local authority pay grades and other systems that have annual pay increments. For further details, please refer to the Information Sheet- Starting Salaries & Benefits attachment.

For AfC or Medical/Dental posts, you must have the correct professional registration to be appointed. The pay will follow the AfC or Medical & Dental terms & conditions. You may be asked to provide evidence of previous service whilst we are conducting pre-employment checks to determine your starting salary.

You cannot take the post up as a fixed term. If you are an existing UKHSA member of staff, you will take up the post as either a level transfer or a temporary promotion as per the UKHSA’s Pay policy.

Given the nature of the work of the UKHSA, as a Category 1 responder under the Civil Contingencies Act, you may be required in an emergency, if deemed a necessity, to redeploy to another role at short notice. You may also be required to work at any other location, within reasonable travelling distance of your permanent home address, in line with the provisions set out in your contract of employment.

Late Applications will unfortunately not be considered.

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 equality of opportunity. The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact UKHSA Public Accountability Unit via email: [email protected] If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website here.

Reserve List - If more than the required number of suitable candidates pass the interview criteria, you may be kept on a reserve list for 12 months subject to your agreement. You may be contacted, in merit-order, if similar roles with closely matching essential criteria become available and the department choose to appoint from a reserve list.

Interview expenses will not be reimbursed.

UKHSA is required to check employment and/or education history covering three consecutive years. Please ensure you give details of at least two different referees, even if you were employed in one company for three years or more.

If you are offered a job, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system. Please note, all communication regarding your application will be made via email, please ensure you check your junk/spam folders as emails are sometimes filtered there.

Any move to UKHSA 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/.

Benefits of working at UKHSA include:

• Generous annual leave:
• 26 days for the first 5 years of continuous service
• 28 days after 5 years of continuous service
• 32 days after 10 years of continuous service
• Plus public holidays and one privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Access to a generous Defined Benefit pension scheme with employer contributions.
• Access to a cycle-to-work salary sacrifice scheme, season ticket advances and payroll giving.
• Access to a retail discounts and cashback site.
• We also promote flexible working patterns (part-time, job-share, condensed hours). UKHSA views flexible working as essential in enabling us to recruit and retain talented people, ensuring that they are able to enjoy a long-lasting career with us. All employees have the right to apply for flexible working and there are a range of options available including working from home, compressed hours and job sharing.
• We also offer a generous maternity/ paternity and adoption leave package.

Hybrid Working

UKHSA operates a hybrid working model where business needs allow. This provides us with greater flexibility about how and where we work, to get the best from our workforce.

As a hybrid worker, you will usually spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted hours (averaged over a month) working at one of UKHSA's locations (approximately 3 days a week pro rata) and the rest of your time working from home.

Disability Confident Scheme

If you wish to be included in this scheme please tick the box on your application form.

Reasonable Adjustments

The Civil Service is committed to making sure that our selection methods are fair to everyone.

To help you during the recruitment process, we will take into account any reasonable adjustments that could help you.

An adjustment is a change to the recruitment process or an adjustment at work.

This is separate to the Disability Confident Scheme.

If you need an adjustment to be made at any point during the recruitment process you should:

Contact the recruitment team in confidence as soon as possible to discuss your needs.

You can find out more information about reasonable adjustments across the Civil Service here: https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/reasonable-adjustments/

International Police Check

If you have spent more than 6 months abroad over the last 3 years you may need an International Police Check. This would not necessarily have to be in a single block, and could be time accrued over that period.