Head of Civil Service Communication and Cabinet Office Internal Communication

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

- 382035

**Salary**:

- £71,370 - £77,813
- A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

**Job grade**:

- Grade 6

**Contract type**:

- Permanent

**Business area**:

- CO - Government Communications

**Type of role**:

- Communications / Marketing

**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

**Number of jobs available**:

- 1

Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- London

About the job

**Job summary**:
This is a high profile and challenging role with oversight of three main deliverables:

- to communicate how our unique organisation is changing, to more than 450,000 civil servants across the UK
- promote the purpose and departmental priorities of the Cabinet Office to its staff in an engaging and innovative way and
- the delivery of high quality strategic engagements for senior civil servants.

This is a challenging and demanding but rewarding role. It offers an exciting opportunity to operate at the very heart of government working closely with Ministers and senior officials to develop our approach to strategic communications, both in the department and across the Civil Service.

**Job description**:
You will lead strategic communications, internal communications and external engagement activity across the department. You will be responsible for developing communications objectives for the department, as well as overseeing day to day communications activity for Ministers and Senior Civil Servants. You will use your judgement to identify issues that need to be brought to the attention of senior officials, working closely with the senior leadership team. You will be able to demonstrate a depth of understanding of the wider political media context. You will see other people’s views and can appreciate there are many different angles to consider and you enjoy being able to bring a fresh perspective whatever the context or situation.

Ensuring strong internal communications activity within the department and leading and coordinating the communications and wider campaign activity across government will be essential. You will need to be organised, able to coordinate a number of complex issues and priorities simultaneously and to deliver effectively under a variety of pressures. You will also be someone who influences at a senior level and can articulate the rationale to gain their agreement. In order to be successful in this role you will have extensive experience of delivering external affairs activity and be comfortable with communicating thoughts and ideas, verbally or in writing, having ensured you seek and analyse information to inform decisions based on the best available evidence.

You will also have responsibility for the leadership and development of your team, overseeing their activity and performance management to ensure high standards of service to ministers and senior officials, while ensuring that they are resilient when under pressure. You should be able to delegate effectively, understanding the skills and ambitions of the team. Providing corporate leadership within the department will be an essential part of this role, working closely with fellow senior leadership members.

Additionally, you should be able to proactively create and maintain positive, professional and trusting working relationships with a wide range of people within and outside the organisation. You will be motivated by identifying connections and reaching out to bring people together.

**Key responsibilities**
- Effective leadership and development of the Communications Strategy for Civil Service Communication and Cabinet Office Internal Communication and engagement, working closely with the Cabinet Secretary, Permanent Secretary, senior officials and ExCo.
- Strategic oversight of the delivery of the highest quality support for department Ministers, the Cabinet Secretary and the Chief Operating Officer for the Civil Service, working collaboratively with the Press Office and ensuring that it links with wider Governmental priorities.
- Leadership and line management responsibility for the CO internal communication and Civil Service communications team, ensuring they are led effectively, they work as one team, delivering the high level of communications delivery required to play directly into the department and organisations wider priorities.
- Play an active role in the leadership of the teams and Government Communications Service across Whitehall, building partnerships with key external stakeholders.
- Engagement with critical stakeholders across UKG and Devolved Administrations, both in the delivery of senior official engagement
- Demonstrate the ability to represent the views of the Department and Functions credibly in high level meetings while building relationships across Whitehall.
- Improving professional practice within the team, aligning closely with GCS and assisting the development of