Vacancy Information
Division / Department - Corporate Communications
Grade - Grade 8
Status - Full Time or Happy to Talk About Flexible Working
Contract Type - Fixed Term Contract
Salary Grade Range - £22,599 - £24,546
Working Hours - 37.0 Hours per Week
The starting salary for this role will usually be at the bottom of the salary range and will be pro-rata if the working hours are less than full time.
The Role
As a Communications Assistant, you will work with all teams across the Media and Communications department, providing a full range of administrative support to ensure the department runs smoothly and effectively; helping enhance our service to the force.
You will also use your excellent organisation and communication skills to use and analyse the performance of multiple communications channels which promote the work of the force; support the media, portfolio and digital and creative services teams to develop reports, analyse output and manage press briefings for operational issues and campaign launches.
Where necessary, you will also help the team in its response to a major incident; helping to prioritise activity, support the major incident structure and liaise with other agencies as required.
In return, we will help you to develop your own communications skills across media, social, PR, internal / external engagement and digital; enabling you to carry a small portfolio of communication projects which you will directly deliver.
This role is a 12 month FTC which is based out of Sussex Police Headquarters, Lewes (remote working is available as part of the wider departmental working rota).
Key Responsibilities
1) Provide a full range of administrative support to ensure the department runs smoothly, effectively and services are optimised. This will include minute taking, handling routine telephone and email enquiries, conducting research, providing basic content writing or using our standard responses for routine enquiries, directing more complex or specialist enquiries to the relevant team or individual in order to provide an effective customer service to all our stakeholders.
2) Research, organise and evaluate the daily media monitoring reports using the appropriate systems, enhancing the service with timely and relevant local and regional news articles, radio broadcasts and TV footage in relation to current issues and operations and, where necessary, collating media coverage and evaluating it for senior investigating officers. Ensure that the service is efficient, updating distribution lists and populating records. Make relevant officers and staff aware of any coverage that is an operational or reputational risk. Liaise directly with the outsourced monitoring company to ensure that their product is relevant and cost effective. Maintain the TV recording systems.
3) Support effective record management including administering the media contact list, the Sussex Warning and Informing Group contacts and other distribution lists and accounts on Outlook. Maintain the resourcing rota and meeting room bookings in the office. Provide general office maintenance, including keeping stationery shelves and campaign asset store well stocked and organised.
4) Keep the news and media team updated with daily checks on missing people, acting as a point of contact with the missing persons teams, flagging high risk missing people and when people are found, and working to the missing persons policy to help the force manage risk to vulnerable people.
5) Distribute and update content through relevant channels internally and externally as directed by the portfolios team managers and communications leads to ensure effective circulation of information to the right audiences in a timely fashion.
6) Drive communications outcomes through the direct delivery of less complex communications projects, using creative solutions.
7) Undertake other duties appropriate to the grade and character of work as may be reasonably required, including specific duties of a similar or higher graded post. This could be providing resilience and supporting media officers on the news desk when needed. At times you may be expected to undertake longer hours or be called in out of hours, for which an additional payment may be claimed.
Skills & Experience
Essential:
- A level or equivalent qualification, e.g. PR/Marketing diploma and a good level of IT literacy
- Experience of working in an administrative role or experience of working in a media and communications environment
- Experience of using a range of social media channels in personal/professional capacity
- Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Officer, particularly Word, Excel and PowerPoint
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, written and verbal
- Good organisational and time management skills
- Proactive approach to problem solving and ability to work under pressure and own initiative
- Ability to exercise judgement and sound decision making
- Ability to deal with a variety of key stakeholders and officers and staff of all ranks
Desirable:
- Professional experience in PR/Media relations
- Experience of maintaining data management systems and/or customer relationship management databases (CRM)
- Knowledge of the Adobe Creative Suite e.g. Photoshop
Further Information
For further information please contact Emily Rockey, Deputy Head of Media and Communications: 07703 453 226 / Emily.b.rockey@sussex.pnn.police.uk
We recognise that our people are balancing demanding careers with commitments and interests outside of work. We welcome applications and discussion with candidates who want to work full-time or part-time/flexible hours.
Additional Information
Following submission of your application you will receive a confirmation email with a copy of your application attached. Occasionally emails from this address can fall into spam/junk folders so please ensure this is checked regularly. You may wish to consider adding noreply@surreysussexpolice.as.recruitmail.com to your address/contact list to ensure you receive all communications.
This post is being advertised in parallel with Force redeployment processes. Any redeployees who are identified will be given preference. This may result in the post being withdrawn at any point during the recruitment process.
If you are an internal candidate looking to apply for this role, please ensure that you discuss your application with your line manager before submitting an application. If you are conditionally offered the role your attendance record and any reasonable adjustments already in place will be discussed with yourself and your current line manager.
Please note that not all jobs are available for internal candidates across both Forces, the current agreed recruitment principles are;
- vacancies in collaborated units are available to all officers and staff across both Forces
- vacancies in non-collaborated units are only available to officers and staff within the Force with the vacancy unless it is advertised externally. If the vacancy is advertised externally and an officer or member of staff from the other Force is success it will result in a transfer of employment.
Surrey Police and Sussex Police Special Constables, Volunteers and Agency Staff (excluding self employed workers) covered under the Agency Worker Regulations (AWR) are eligible to apply for internal advertised posts.
Applications will only be accepted by clicking the 'Apply Now' button. CVs are not accepted as part of our recruitment process.
Diversity Statement
We are only as good as our people. It's really important to us that our officers and staff can be themselves in the workplace and we believe that as an organisation we'll benefit from the variety of thinking, approach and skills that diversity can bring; all of which helps us to deliver a better policing service.
We have worked really hard to create a safe, open and inclusive culture. We have a range of staff networking groups to provide specific support and advice and we are proud to be members of Stonewall and Disability Confident, and to be aligned with the Armed Forces Covenant and the HeForShe movement.
We value the differences that people bring from all backgrounds and communities so, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, disability, social status or religious beliefs, we would love to hear from you.