Communications Officer

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 257544**Salary**:

- £35,241 - £39,352**Job grade**:

- Higher Executive Officer**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Business area**:

- CO - Government Communications**Type of role**:

- Communications / Marketing**Working pattern**:

- Full-time**Number of jobs available**:

- 1Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- LondonAbout the job

**Job summary**:
The Office for Veterans’ Affairs (OVA) is seeking a Communications Officer to help the team deliver cutting-edge and innovative communications around veterans issues. The role will be based in the Cabinet Office’s central communications department.

The OVA is responsible for driving forward the delivery of the Government’s Veterans Strategy and for coordinating veterans policy across Government. The OVA's remit involves wide-ranging work from providing the Cabinet Secretariat function for veterans’ issues, to grant making, overseeing cross-cutting programmes in Government which benefit veterans and developing and commissioning research. It is also responsible for leading and co-ordinating the Government’s communications about veterans and helping Ministers promote and account for the support available to veterans, taking steps to increase awareness of it and simplify access to it.

A priority for the OVA is to showcase the positive contribution of veterans to help counter incorrect negative perceptions of how they are affected by their service. This will be a cross-cutting delivery role, involving working across a range of different communications disciplines, including proactive and reactive media handling, digital communications and content generation and strategic communications. The role is an exciting opportunity for an individual to learn news skills and further develop their experience in a number of different communications areas in a policy area that makes a real difference to people’s lives.

**Job description**:
**Responsibilities**
- Work closely and collaboratively with the OVA policy and communications team, Cabinet Office Press Office and Cabinet Office and No10 digital team to deliver veterans focussed press and digital communications on the OVA’s priority policy areas
- Respond to media enquiries on veterans issues, drafting and agreeing press lines and media responses, as well as drafting press releases on announcements relating to veterans issues
- Lead on the delivery of proactive media opportunities around veterans, including government announcements on new initiatives, case studies and media features and broadcast interviews
- Work with the No10 and Cabinet Office digital team to generate content around priority areas for veterans communications, including social media posts, photo and video content

**The the role will involve**:

- Media handling_
- Working in Cabinet Office press office to lead on proactive and reactive communications around veterans issues and the Office for Veterans’ Affairs
- Develop and deliver engaging content that tells OVA’s story on veterans
- Drafting press releases on announcements for the OVA
- Dealing with enquiries from journalists on veterans issues
- Devising creative plans for long lead media, such as features and op eds
- Providing considered communications advice to ministers, special advisers and senior policy colleagues on new, developing and existing policy
- Delivering evaluation and monitoring of media activities to inform future proactive and reactive media and communications campaigns
- Digital communications_
- Working with the Cabinet Office and No10 digital teams and OVA team to plan and produce engaging social media content for the OVA
- Day-to-day channel management of the Office for Veterans’ Affairs social media
- Writing, creating and editing high quality graphics and videos - animation skills are desirable
- Delivering campaigns through social media, taking ownership of projects from idea phase through to reporting
- Using social media insight and analytics to evaluate activity and develop content based on insight
- Playing a role in developing strategies for new and existing social media channels to help deliver follower growth and audience engagement
- Helping develop OVA’s approach to social monitoring and listening
- Strategic communications_
- Working with the Cabinet Office external affairs team and the OVA embedded communications team to help plan upcoming communications opportunities, including planning and facilitating visits
- Feeding into broader central communication commissions

This list is not exhaustive; the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties according to business need.

**Person specification**:
Essential criteria
- Excellent written and editing skills to deliver quality and timely press releases, articles, rebuttals and lines to take
- Content creation skills, including experience of using and understanding of different social media plat