Vacancy Information
Division / Department - Media and Communications
Grade - Band 2
Status - Full Time
Contract Type - Permanent
Salary Grade Range - £38,979 - £56,223
Working Hours - 36.0 Hours per Week
Shift Allowance -
Politically Restricted -
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
Working in a department that supports frontline policing means that two days are rarely the same. One day your team could be dealing with a major incident that affects the whole county, the next you could be working with local policing teams on how to be better at updating and engaging with their local communities.
Daily activity is varied but will include reviewing and implementing Surrey Police’s Engagement strategy, understanding where our opportunities are to reach the different groups that make up our rich and vibrant county or co-ordinating internal engagement events for officers, staff and volunteers. Or it could be supporting your team to carry out research and insights that ensures communication output is evidence based and designed to create the required behaviour change.
As a senior comms manager you’ll be helping your team juggle a number of priority projects as well as leading on your own strategic work. You’ll also be regularly advising senior stakeholders so your skills at building successful working relationships and influencing will be key.
All our senior comms managers are expected to lead a team of Communications Officers in the department, ensuring they are supported and developed and have clear direction and supervision as well as being inspired to be the best they can be by the way you lead the team.
The department is innovative and we’ve won a number of awards that prove the rest of the industry agrees. We have the backing of our senior officers to really push creative boundaries and if you’ve got a great idea it will be listened to. Examples of work that our department has been involved in include a child grooming publicity campaign, supporting a major change programme to deliver local policing differently, assisting with a man-hunt to find a double murder suspect and working with our partners on major incidents such as the current pandemic and flooding.
Key Responsibilities
Your role will see you building and developing the new Engagement Team function, ensuring it is delivering against departmental objectives and maximising opportunity, via audience insight and channel development to support the organisational vision of keeping people safe and feeling safe.
You will nurture and maintain positive relationships with all internal and external stakeholders, working with team members to ensure positive personal interactions, style and approach to maximise opportunities to promote policing activity that reinforces the Force values, or reassures if we fall short of them.
You will oversee the Force's engagement strategy and its implementation by working with the wider communications team as well as departments that interact with the public to ensure that communications are tailored to the needs of the audience, are consistent in tone and support the story of the Force Commitments.
You will be the Force lead on audience insight, county demographic data and communication performance analysis to ensure the organisation is engaging via the channels that work for our diverse communities, so that our messages reach those in a format that brings confidence in the Force and that can be demonstrated through a performance framework.
You will provide expert communications advice to others in the Force, sometimes at senior levels. This includes giving advice on how to reach complex audiences or manage difficult conversations on existing or emerging channels.
You will work closely with the Head of Learning & Professional Development to oversee multi-platform engagement training.
Skills & Experience
You need to have credible previous experience in a communications role at a similar level, and can evidence how you have changed audience behaviour through targeted and engaging messaging. You will be insightful and have proven techniques in developing organisational culture and building employee advocacy so that staff are inspired to deliver their best service direct to our local communities.
You also already know what makes great internal communications and have multiple examples working across the communication specialisms. Whether it’s advising on the best way to deliver difficult messages or devising a comprehensive comms plan for multiple channels and audiences, you are a skilled communicator in multiple situations.
A related degree would be great but don’t be put off if that isn’t the path you have taken – we’re much more interested in you as a person and the contribution you could make.
You need to have good technical skills and be proficient at using a range of channels and publishing to websites. It goes without saying that you know how to craft a great tweet or blog post but what else can you do?
The job involves a lot of contact with stakeholders at various levels inside and outside the organisation so you should be comfortable operating at different levels and providing professional advice and service.
You are flexible, positive, willing to get stuck in and support your colleagues and take pride in being organised and tenacious. It’s a busy department so your ability to use your initiative to hit the ground running and juggle a varied workload would definitely set you up for success here.
The job involves travel around Surrey and sometimes to sites in Sussex and other places too so you need to have access to a car and be able to drive.
Further Information
For further information about the vacancy, please contact Helen Wilson, Head of Corporate Communications & Engagement on helen.wilson@surrey.pnn.police.uk or 07772 222311
This vacancy will be based at Headquarters, Guildford. Please note that in 2024 Surrey Police Headquarters is due to move to Leatherhead.
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.
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.
Diversity Statement
We are only as good as our people. It's really important that our officers and staff can be themselves in the workplace and we know that as an organisation we'll grow from the variety of thinking, approach and skills that diversity brings; all of which help us deliver a better policing service. We strive to ensure how we deliver our services, provide information and how we recruit is open and accessible to all.
We have multiple staff support groups who help to improve our understanding of minority issues and ensure they are reflected in our work. We are proud members of the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index and Disability Confident, a signatory of the Race at Work Charter and aligned with the Armed Forces Covenant and the HeForShe movement.
We value the differences that people bring from all backgrounds and communities. Regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, disability, social status or religious beliefs, we would love to hear from you.