Press Officer, Judicial Office (Ref: 78505)

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

Job Description 

Overview

The Judicial Office press office is looking for a Press Officer (HEO) to add to an enthusiastic and trusted communications team based at the Royal Courts of Justice. 
The Judicial Office is independent of the Ministry of Justice and provides a trusted service to judges and magistrates across England and Wales. The candidate will be joining a multi-disciplinary comms team and will be able to access professional support and expertise.

For candidates within the Civil Service this post is available on level transfer or on promotion.

The Judicial Office

The Judicial Office is an arm’s length body of the Ministry of Justice. We are a unique branch of the civil service, dedicated to supporting the judiciary and promoting judicial independence, to maintain confidence in the rule of law. We help the Lord Chief Justice (LCJ) and the Senior President of Tribunals fulfil their responsibilities to the judiciary, in an ever-evolving justice system. We provide operational support, policy, legal and handling advice through a number of specialist teams.
The Judicial Office was established following the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, to support the Lord Chief Justice as Head of the Judiciary in his statutory and other leadership and administrative functions. It delivers a wide range of functions for the senior judiciary and to more than 20,000 judicial office holders including legal and policy advice, communications, international, training (through the Judicial College), human resources, welfare, library and information services. Through the independent Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, we deal with complaints about the conduct of judicial office holders. The Judicial Office also provides support to the Chief Coroner and to the Judge Advocate General and supports the Lord Chancellor on certain of his judiciary-related functions.

The Job

Reporting to a Senior Press Officer, you will work with four other press officers to assist with media relations and related communications activity.  The Press team are responsible for providing support to the Lord Chief Justice, heads of division, judges and magistrates. You will be expected to provide specialist support for particular areas, such as civil, family or criminal law, which will be confirmed at a later stage.
You will have direct and frequent contact with judges and with the media and take part in the out-of-hours duty press officer rota. (These out of hours duties are much less onerous than for a Government press office and a small allowance is paid). The press team deal with high-profile cases which often make the headlines and the environment can be fast-paced and require a calm approach.  

The successful candidate will:

•    Work closely with senior press officers on specific jurisdictions or issues, developing expertise in this area and providing support, advice and drafting communications. 
•    Develop good working relationships with Judicial Office staff, particularly in Private Offices of the LCJ and the Heads of Division
•    Manage regular uploads of judgments, media summaries and sentencing remarks to the Judiciary website
•    Support the team and judges at all levels with advice on media handling including statements, rebuttals, preparation for interviews, and preparation of draft responses or statements both pre-empting and reacting to media questions
•    Build relationships with key and relevant national and trade journalists and discover new media opportunities for judicial office holders across all channels including podcasts
•    Support the wider communications team on planning functions, including contributing to forward look schedules, termly media plans and projects across different jurisdictions
•    Work effectively with the wider press office team and with communications colleagues so that press handling plans are joined up with wider communications strategies.
•    Facilitate accurate and timely coverage of courts and tribunals judgments and decisions and publish written versions where appropriate.
•    Respond professionally and promptly to breaking stories generated by judges or court cases during office hours and when on duty; alerting and consulting senior press officers, judges and officials as appropriate, and writing accurate, authoritative and concise copy.
•    Lead on producing monthly summary reports including evaluation statistics on press office activity and highlighting high profile cases and relevant issues. 

Skills & Qualifications

Required

The successful candidate must:

•    Have at least one years’ experience as a press officer, working in a media newsroom or a similar communications role 
•    Have a sharp news sense, excellent judgement, strong political savvy and outstanding media skills gained from working in a communications environment.

•    Confident communicator with strong written and verbal skills.
•    Be adept at simplifying complex material while retaining the meaning.
•    Confident speaking to journalists and ability to develop relationships with senior judicial office holders.

Desirable

Experience of working in the field of justice

Behaviours

Delivering at pace
Seeing the Big Picture
Communicating and Influencing

Applicants will also be required to share a CV and provide 250-word answers at the application stage which demonstrate the ability to meet the above behaviours. Further details on the Civil Service success profiles can be found here – Success Profiles – Civil Service Behaviours (publishing.service.gov.uk)

These behaviours will also be tested at the interview stage, alongside Civil Service Strengths and the below Professional Competencies.

Professional Competencies

You are expected to be proficient in each of the Government Communication Service (GCS) competencies to IO level particularly skills and knowledge under the ‘Press and Media’ discipline. The brief summary below is not exhaustive – you should examine the full version on the GCS website.

Communications: Insight

•    Understand how to optimise audience reach through a mix of media channels, including news aggregators.

Communications: Ideas

•    Work up ideas for stories and case studies that support communication and business/policy objectives.

Communications: Implementation

•    Develop and nurture excellent relationships with journalists and contacts (e.g. bloggers) in all forms of media, to improve story placement and check progress.

Communications: Impact

•    Conduct media monitoring and evaluation to assess reach to target audiences and delivery of key messages

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Delivering at Pace
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Communications: Insight
• Communications: Ideas
• Communications: Implementation
• Communications: Impact

• Access to learning and development
• A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance
• A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
• Annual Leave
• Public Holidays
• Season Ticket Advance

For more information about the recruitment process, benefits and allowances and answers to general queries, please click the below link which will direct you to our Candidate Information Page.

Link: https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

Job contact :

• Name : SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team
• Email : Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com
• Telephone : 0845 241 5359

Recruitment team

• Email : Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com