This role has a starting salary of £50,047 per annum, based on a 36 hour working week.

We are excited to be hiring a new Senior Communications Manager to join our fantastic CFLL team. The team is based in Woodhatch Place, Reigate

This is a 24-month fixed term contract/ secondment opportunity.

Rewards and Benefits

• 26 days’ holiday (prorated for part time staff), rising to 28 days after 2 years’ service and 30 days after 5 years’ service
• Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
• An extensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
• Up to 5 days of carer’s leave per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependants leave
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, shopping and many more
• 2 paid volunteering days plus 1 team volunteering day per year
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources

About the Team

You will be working within a wider multi-disciplined team, with lots of opportunity for development and cross-working on a range of Surrey County Council communications. Every day is different in this team. We look out for each other, socialise and enjoy flexible working, so you’ll always feel supported and part of a communications family. This is a particularly exciting time to join the team as we support the directorate with preparations for key service inspections within the next 18 months.

About the Role

This Senior Communications Manager role will lead the strategic planning, implementation and evaluation of Surrey County Council’s Children, Families & Lifelong Learning (CFLL) communications, both internally and externally. This is a hugely rewarding role which plays a vital part in helping the directorate achieve its purpose: ensuring Surrey’s children and young people are seen and heard, feel safe and can grow, and everyone benefits from lifelong learning.

You will play a key leadership role in delivering the communications priorities and strategies across the CFLL directorate, which focus on children’s social care, children’s additional needs and disabilities and lifelong learning. As a Senior Communications Manager, you will build on positive and productive relationships, provide professional communications advice to senior officers, directors and the Lead Cabinet Member and will have experience leading a team to deliver high quality and strategic outcomes. The role will deliver both planned and reactive CFLL work, working closely with the wider communications team.

Key Responsibilities

Leading a team of four communications professionals, with oversight of relevant service communications roles, key responsibilities include:

• Setting and leading strategic internal and external CFLL communications priorities and strategies in line with directorate and organisational strategies, ensuring alignment with corporate communications colleagues and partners
• Relationship management spanning the directorate and partners to enable efficient cross functional working, problem solving and ensuring the directorate heads in the right direction with achieving priorities and plans
• Multi-disciplined communications leadership including strategic planning, campaign management, media management, consultations, internal communications, social media management and issues management, often to tight deadlines and conflicting priorities
• Build on the directorate’s internal communications strategy, in line with the directorate’s retention and culture ambitions
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior leadership, managing frequent high profile, complex and sensitive issues and incidents across social care and education, including supporting schools with media issues, often in partnership with Surrey Police
• Horizon scanning and proactively planning for demand, sensitive issues, such as inspections, and/or those which could have reputational impact
• Oversee vital communications channels for schools, early years settings, social work, fostering, additional needs and disabilities and looked after children, using relationship management skills to ensure accountability in achieving service and directorate strategic priorities and plans
• Managing campaign budgets and overseeing service communication budgets to ensure good return on investment.

Shortlisting Criteria

To be considered for shortlisting for this position, your application will clearly evidence the following:

• Experience of working within a fast-paced communications team
• Proven leadership experience, working both with colleagues within the organisation and partners collaboratively with the ability to positively influence outcomes
• Experience working across all communications disciplines
• Strategic communications planning experience with the flexibility to adapt styles and techniques to suit different channels and audiences, and to work creatively to plan communications campaigns.

We are looking for a proactive and compassionate leader, who has children and families at the centre of their thinking.

The job advert closes at 23:59 on 23/04/2024 with interviews to follow. We look forward to receiving your application, please click on the apply online button below to submit.

Our Commitment

Surrey County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. A guaranteed interview will be offered to all disabled applications where:

• The candidate has evidenced the minimum criteria for the role through their application
• The candidate has chosen to share that they have a disability on the application form

Our application form and onboarding process will provide an opportunity to request any reasonable adjustments for the interview and/or the role. We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all underrepresented groups.