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Site: Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust
Town: London
Salary: £54,320 - £60,981 pro rata, per annum inclusive
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 18/02/2025 23:59
Job overview
Reporting to the External Communications Lead, this role will be focused on managing the delivery of high quality proactive and reactive media and external communications service for the hospital and to a lesser extent its research partner, the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health.
The postholder will be an experienced external communications manager, dynamic and proactive with extensive experience of both issues and reputation management, crisis communications and securing high profile media coverage.
They will live and breathe the news agenda, have a keen eye for a story and know the importance of effective external stakeholder communications. They will also have a passion and a deep understanding of the importance of digital and social media and have experience of delivering a fully integrated approach to communications.
A background in public sector communications and excellent writing skills are essential.
Working in a busy communications office, the post-holder will play a key role in supporting the External Communications Lead and Associate Director of Communications to develop an integrated External Communications Strategy for the organisation. They will deliver positive high profile PR stories and handle issues and enquiries to a high standard.
They will be part of the wider Communications team and will hold direct senior relationships with key staff including briefing members of the hospital’s Executive Management Team on high profile issues.
Main duties of the job
1. To ensure the delivery of high profile, national PR coverage for Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, across print, digital and broadcast channels.
2. Working with the External Communications Lead to help develop and implement a key PR and Communications Strategy to increase overall public awareness of the Trust, its work, patients and staff.
3. To promote the Trust’s key clinical areas, ensuring that a proactive approach is taken to identifying strong stories, and the communication output supports and reinforces the Trust’s brand and key messages.
4. To lead on issues and proactive projects drawing in support from the wider team as needed to formulate strategy for proactive, reactive media and crisis communications issues.
5. To proactively help manage the Trust’s reputation, including identifying reputational risks, drafting or advising on reactive media statements, providing advice to senior stakeholders, and leading on developing communications plans.
6. To initiate and develop good working relationships with journalists, editors and programme makers at all levels of the media, including briefing and conducting meetings with senior journalists to build strong contacts and create positive, ongoing relationships.
Working for our organisation
GOSH is committed to recruiting the best person for the job, based solely on their ability and individual merit as measured against the criteria for the role; through a process that is fair, open, consistent and free from bias and discrimination.
We are committed to being a diverse and inclusive employer and foster a culture where all staff are valued, respected and acknowledged. All applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, age, disability status or length of time spent unemployed.
We particularly welcome applications from BAME communities, people with disabilities and/or long-term health conditions and LGBT+ community members.
We have policies and procedures in place to ensure that all applicants and employees are treated fairly and consistently. We are proud to be accredited as a Disability Confident Employer, a member of Business Disability Forum and a Stonewall Diversity Champion.
We have active and Executive supported BAME, LGBT+ and Allies, Disability and Long-Term Health Conditions and Women’s staff networks. Staff networks are employee-led groups formed around interests, issues and a common bond or background. Staff network members create a positive and inclusive work environment at Great Ormond Street Hospital by actively contributing to the Trust’s mission, values and efforts specific to inclusion. All of our staff networks are open to any employee.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience, and knowledge required. For both documents please view the attachment/s below.
Person specification
* Educated to degree level, in a relevant subject, i.e. communications, English
* Significant workplace experience in a busy press office
Experience/Knowledge
* Demonstrable and considerable experience of proactive and reactive media relations and issues management in the public sector.
* Skilled in planning complex activities, projects and events including press conferences, photo calls and visits.
* Proven experience of planning, delivering and evaluating complex integrated national PR campaigns.
* Experience of high-level issues management and advising on approaches to engaging the media on these.
* Experience of prioritising and optimising reactive media requests.
* Strong understanding of national, regional and specialist media.
Skills/Abilities
* Excellent writing and verbal communication skills, including the ability to persuade senior colleagues and process highly complex or sensitive information.
* Ability to network / liaise and brief a wide range of people including journalists, senior leaders, experts and families.
* Ability to analyse and interpret complex facts and scenarios, compare options and make decisions on how to respond to sensitive media requests.
* Proven ability to both work as part of a team and independently – leading on projects and specific comms areas.
* Ability to prioritise a heavy workload, meet deadlines and juggle multiple projects – often needing to concentrate on complex tasks and research in between interruptions and urgent requests.
GOSH Culture and Values
* Consolidated GOSH Values
Please be advised that:
The recruitment process for all admin and clerical roles at Bands 2-4 will be a two stage recruitment process whereby shortlisted candidates will undertake an online literacy, numeracy, ICT and typing test. Only those candidates who pass the competency test will proceed to a formal interview.
The closing date given is a guide only. There may be some occasions where we have to close a vacancy once sufficient applications have been received. It is therefore advisable that you submit your application as early as possible to avoid disappointment.
Only those candidates who clearly demonstrate how they meet the person specification criteria for this post will be shortlisted. Please note that where high volumes of applicants have been received, additional criteria may on occasion be used to determine the final shortlist.
We are an accredited Living Wage Employer.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
The postholder will have regular contact with vulnerable people and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
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