Job Title: Communications Officer - HC608675
Location: Eastleigh SHQ / hybrid depending on business requirements
Salary: Scale SO2, £34,287 - £36,177 per annum. Weekend allowance and standby allowance for on call, including overtime
Hours: 37 hours per week
Contract: 2 x permanent vacancies
Closing date: Sunday 4th June at 23.59 hours.
It’s 8am. Your phone rings. It’s a police officer telling you they’ve found a body. Media are at the scene and the local community is worried. Can you help?
As a communications officer, you’re at the heart of policing. Whether that’s keeping the public informed during major incidents, seeking the public’s help with appeals to crimes and incidents, helping local policing teams engage with their communities, supporting officers at court as they bring criminals to justice or working with local and national journalists on policing issues, it’s fair to say no two days are the same.
You need to be prepared for anything, and you’ll have the confidence and skills to deal with any incidents that come your way. Although part of the role requires you to work on your own, including at weekends and out of hours as part of an on call rota, you’ll be part of a supportive team dealing with officers and staff of every rank within the organisation.
Using your creative skills and previous experience in communications, journalism or a PR role, you’ll create engaging content to tell our story about what we are doing to keep people safe through exceptional local policing, the relentless pursuit of criminals and keeping victims informed. This will include planning, developing and implementing two way communications on digital and traditional channels, often dealing with live incidents.
If you have the right skillset, experience and temperament, and are passionate about supporting police and local communities, then this could be the job for you.
The successful candidate will provide specialist communications advice and support, encompassing media relations, digital engagement and internal communications with a focus on issues that have the biggest impact on public confidence.
Key accountabilities include but are not limited to:
1. Play an active role in the communications delivery and response to major and critical incidents, particularly in incidents of high harm or those with significant community impact, providing specialist advice to SIOs, district commanders, Senior Investigating Officers, district commanders, senior leaders and force leads.
2. Develop an excellent understanding and ability to use a full range of digital channels, maximising appropriate opportunities for digital engagement. Including proactively seeking opportunities to create engaging content which promotes the work of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary.
3. Deliver training to operational colleagues in relation to the use of force digital channels, attending any required training to maintain competence and confidence in their use.
4. Provide input to departmental training on subject matter, including, but not limited to, how corporate communications can support local policing objectives, media law, journalistic practices and digital engagement using social media.
5. Ensure that all communications activity undertaken supports both the department and force priorities and/or objectives.
6. Develop a detailed understanding of the local media and digital landscape, applying best practice to ensure that communications are targeted to the right audiences in a timely manner.
7. Build strong relationships with local stakeholders and the media, ensuring a timely response to enquiries, prioritising responses to issues which have the biggest impact on public confidence.
8. Ensure that all communications activity is recorded on the relevant force system(s) in compliance with force policies and procedures to assist colleagues with situational awareness.
9. Produce and disseminate a daily news summary to senior leaders which captures key media coverage, proactively challenging misinformation and/or inaccurate reporting.
Please see the role profile here for more information.
Educated to Educated to QCF Level 4, with an NCTJ qualification or other qualification in either PR or general media studies OR work experience deemed to have brought the postholder to a comparable level.
A demonstratable and up-to-date working knowledge of media law.
Previous experience of working in a journalism or communications role.
Experience in the use of social media in a professional capacity.
Experience in the development and implementation of public relations and/or marketing campaigns.
Effective written, verbal and content creation communication skills.
We are Emotionally Aware Level 1
We Take Ownership Level 1
We are collaborative Level 2
We Analyse Critically Level 2
Public Service
Candidate guidance for completing application forms.
To find out more about the role, please email police.recruitment@hants.gov.uk or call 01962 846438.
Please note that the email address you supply when submitting an application will be used for contact throughout the full lifecycle of that vacancy. You will not be able to amend your contact details. You should therefore ensure that you choose an appropriately accessible email address, being mindful that the process may take several months for some roles.
Hampshire Constabulary is an inclusive employer and strives to have a workforce representative of the communities we police and serve. We recognise that we are not fully representative and are working to address this imbalance through a variety of initiatives.
The Equality Act 2010 allows us to promote equality within Hampshire Constabulary by adopting Positive Action to support people from under-represented groups. Our aim is to recruit talented people with a diverse range of skills and experience and welcome applications from all sections of the community. Our Positive Action team are available to provide support through the application and assessment process by contacting: positive.action@hampshire.pnn.police.uk
The Disability Confident campaign aims to remove barriers, increase understanding and ensure that people have opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations. We will accommodate requests for reasonable adjustments where possible throughout our recruitment and promotions processes and encourage anyone requiring reasonable adjustments to disclose this at the earliest opportunity.
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