Senior communications and engagement officer

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Thank you for your interest in the North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT). This is an exciting time to join us and be part of our journey to improve mental health care across North London and deliver excellent services to our local people. We will achieve this through the North London Way, as we:

• Collaborate at every level by living our values to create the right conditions for us all to work together.
• Develop our new Trust culture, to help make our new Trust a great place to work and to receive great care.
• Empower our teams to lead the planned improvements in our services, by skilling them and giving them the tools to make the changes.
• Focus on delivering excellence at every level to improve our performance and ensure consistently high-quality care across all our services.
• Ensure that research, quality improvement, and technology lead the way and are embedded in our services.
• Take a trauma informed approach to everything we do

We proactively welcome diversity in our workforce and pride ourselves on being an inclusive employer. We aim to recruit from our local communities and provide opportunities to all including apprenticeships, veterans, care leavers and more.

The North London Way to deliver: Better Mental Health, Better Lives, Better Communities.

Our trust website is: https://www.northlondonmentalhealth.nhs.uk/

Job overview

This is an interesting and worthwhile role, supporting the modernisation of mental health services across north central London, supporting the senior communications and engagement manager in their work delivering the high priority engagement activity that underpins the St Pancras Development programme.

The postholder will build, maintain and improve relationships with identified and emerging external and stakeholder audiences through implementing and evidencing high quality engagement activity, on system-wide transformation, involving multiple partners and communities.

This role is a key one for successful implementation of sustainable change in how central London healthcare estate will modernise and enable patients, staff and stakeholders experience of health and care services are embedded in local communities.

Main duties of the job

You will work closely with the Senior Communications and Engagement manager to deliver high quality engagement activities that inform, inspire and involve audiences in the extensive programme of transformation centred around the St Pancras Hospital site.

As an NHS provider, and as the 'host trust' for the St Pancras Development programme - our chief executive is the senior responsible officer (SRO) for the St Pancras Development programme - we have an obligation to ensure we engage affected parties in shaping the transformation programme, and how it is delivered. The complex programme of service change which emanate from the St Pancras Development requires a high level of first class engagement and communication with a range of audiences, and this role has been developed to expand capacity dedicated to the delivery of the best quality engagement support possible.

Working for our organisation

North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.

Our Five-Year Strategy:

1. We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.
2. With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all
3. We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care.

Why NLFT?

• We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.
• We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
• NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme
• Excellent internal staff network

In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Identifying, establishing and maintaining contact, and securing confidence of individual and organisational stakeholders in the St Pancras Development programme and how it engages audiences effectively.

Identifying and supporting recruitment of Experts by Experience for taking part in engagement activities.

Advising senior leaders - clinical, operational and corporate - on developing and delivering communication and involvement activities which deliver impactful, meaningful and good value engagement on individual workstreams and component parts of the programme.

Creating, editing, and helping deliver content which engages and explains complex programme delivery, benefits and considerations. This will include the production of leaflets, posters, creation of PowerPoint slideshows, setting up of workshops and external and internal meetings, both face-to-face and digitally.

Liaise with communication and engagement colleagues within the St Pancras Development partnership and externally, on aligning activity and outputs to support collaborative working and deliver good value outcomes.

Identify, understand and assess engagement risks and opportunities related to the St Pancras Development programme, and propose activities and develop content to mitigate and/or take advantage of these, in ways that help deliver the programmes aims and objectives, and which uphold NHS values. Eg. developing and maintaining a set of core responses to frequently asked questions and 'lines to take' on programme components and progress.

This job description is intended as a guide to the principal duties and responsibilities for the post and should not be considered an exhaustive list. It is subject to change in line with future development of the service.

Person specification

Education and qualifications

Essential criteria

• - Educated to degree level or equivalent (eg. part completion of a relevant apprenticeship or further related study)

Desirable criteria

• - Post graduate diploma or working towards a specialist post- graduate qualification eg Chartered Institute of Public Relations diploma or Chartered Institute of Marketing
• - Evidence of continued learning and development

Previous experience

Essential criteria

• - Understanding of range of effective communication, marketing and engagement methods, and how these can be applied to this role's purpose, aims and key priorities, with examples of personal delivery for successful outcomes
• - Experience of working under pressure to tight deadlines while maintain high standards of accuracy and detail
• - Experience working across partnerships in support of a shared aim

Desirable criteria

• - Strong understanding of mental health issues

Skills knowledge and abilities

Essential criteria

• Evidence of working to delegated authority demonstrating appropriate autonomy and escalating beyond, and able to articulate an understanding of how this would work in this role,
• Evidence of devising, implementing and refining communications and engagement plans in collaboration with internal and external colleagues for St Pancras Development workstreams across the year to support agreed outcomes
• Ability to create, maintain and use external and internal databases and information resources (grids, distribution lists, content management tools) to support strong and effective engagement with the St Pancras Development programme
• Strong interpersonal skills and evidence of building and maintaining good relationships with internal and external stakeholders and able to articulate an understanding of how this would work in this role
• Evidence of creating and overseeing production of materials that would be equivalent to Programme-related communication and engagement products, including publications, newsletters, 'snackable' video and audio content,
• Ability to receive, synthesise and communicate effectively highly complex, sensitive or contentious information, and be able to identify the most important information and how best to disseminate it, including to appropriate audiences through appropriate routes
• Excellent content creation including writing skills and the ability to identify good news stories to raise the profile of agreed Trust programmes services, and accomplishments,
• Understanding of good practice relating to organisation of events and/or meetings
• Excellent writing and digital / IT skills with knowledge of a range of different tools and software including PowerPoint with the ability to create slide presentations of high quality and to tight deadline
• Experience of being able to undertake regular and systematic reviews and audits to ensure the ongoing effectiveness and development of external communications.
• Able to build effective relationships with colleagues, including at executive level, both internally and externally
• Excellent organisational and planning skills

Desirable criteria

• Ability to write press releases and to pitch these to media contacts, both locally and nationally

Communication and interpersonal

Essential criteria

• Excellent multi-tasker who works well under pressure in busy environments
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate effectively with people at all levels including senior leaders across north central London
• Tenacious
• Professional manner
• Attention to detail

Other

Essential criteria

• Willingness to carry our administrative tasks when occasionally required
• Flexible approach to work, including able to work across different times and locations
• Open to learning and continual improvement

References will be required to cover your last 3 years of employment/training. One has to be from your current or most recent employer and the others from your previous employer. The references should be from persons with management responsibility or HR.

If you have been unemployed for a period of four years or more, please give the details of your last employer and one character referee of your choice (not members of your family). If more applicable, references will be requested from your teacher or head of faculty. Please ensure you provide full contact details.

Vacancies that are advertised as Fixed Term Contracts will also be available as secondment opportunities for substantive internal staff.

Please be aware that your documents eg. Passport/NI Card, will be electronically scanned using Home Office accredited Verification System.

Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts, we will close vacancies before the stated closing date once the first 50 applications are received. Therefore, please apply as soon as possible.

All non-medical posts with the Trust are subject to a probationary period of six months, during which time you will be required to demonstrate to the Trust's satisfaction, your suitability for the position in which you will be employed.

Should you not hear from us within three working weeks of the closing date for this post, then regretfully in this instance, you have not been shortlisted.

By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at improving efficiencies within the NHS both to make costs savings for NHS organisations but also to save you time when your employment transfers.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

This post will require a submission for Disclosure to be made to check for any unspent criminal convictions.

Documents to download

• Job description for senior comms and engagement officer (PDF, 352.4KB)
• person spec for b6 role on St P Dev (PDF, 216.6KB)
• Functional requirements (PDF, 384.6KB)
• A comprehensive guide for candidates (PDF, 875.7KB)