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Job summary

Main area
Communications and public relations
Grade
Band 7
Contract
Permanent
Hours
  • Full time
  • Flexible working
  • Compressed hours
37.5 hours per week
Job ref
380-SS0557
Employer
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Magnitude House, Aylesford
Town
Aylesford
Salary
£43,742 - £50,056 per annum
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
14/07/2024 23:59
Interview date
31/07/2024

Employer heading

Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust logo

Communications and Engagement Manager

Band 7

 

The CQC rates us as an Outstanding organisation for Caring with an overall rating of Good

Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT) offer a range of ongoing benefits to our valued workforce across the Trust. From an active health and wellbeing programme to regular recognition events, we work hard to provide varied benefits that make a difference to your work-life balance.

Would you like to work flexibly?  In the NHS, we are reminded every day of how important life is. As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us, for our patients and for you.

Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement.

Working at KMPT (youtube.com)

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Job overview

1 in 4 of us in the UK will experience mental ill health each year. And when that happens in Kent and Medway, KMPT is there to offer the most seriously unwell people specialist care and support.  Each year we look after over 2,000 people in our hospitals and 54,000 people in the community.

We are looking for an experienced communications professional to join our high-performing, fun, and friendly team. We work in a fast-paced environment, which means our days are never boring, with the ultimate goal of supporting the delivery of high-quality care for our patients and wider communities.

The successful candidate will lead on strategically planning and implementing campaigns that touch a wide range of audiences, both internal and external, and provide strategic counsel regularly advising the most senior members of the trust. They will also be the first port of call for media queries and proactive efforts to enhance or protect our reputation externally.

It is a really exciting time to work with us, with a new ambitious CEO committed to creating communities where mental health care helps transform living into living well. As a team, we are on the cusp of introducing a new app-first intranet that will revolutionise the way we work internally, as well as launch a new brand identity to help our patients, partners, and communities better understand what we do.

Main duties of the job

Interested in this exciting role? These are the key results areas:

To plan, deliver, and evaluate impactful and outcome-focused communications campaigns, products, and activities that support the organisation’s priorities;

  • To provide strategic communications counsel and support to a range of colleagues across the trust; 
  • To oversee external communications effort that both protects our brand and raises our profile;
  • To work with the wider team to help us innovate and improve, both in terms of what we do and how we do it.

Working for our organisation

Come and work with us in the Garden of England where we combine exceptional professional development opportunities with a tremendous quality of life.

We are Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT), providing mental health, learning disability and specialist services, serving 1.8 million people in Kent and Medway, as well as specialist services for adults in Sussex and Surrey. We are  rated Good overall by the CQC.

Each year we care for over 2,000 people in our hospitals and 54,000 people in the community.

We are proud to employ over 3,800 people from 66 nationalities, and to serve an increasingly diverse range of communities across rural and urban areas.

You will be joining friendly, passionate colleagues, rich in their diversity, who are committed to providing excellent care to our service users and their loved ones.

The nature of our work attracts kindness and compassion as standard and everyone from our cleaners and porters to the chief executive and chairman are recognised as playing a vital role in providing an exemplary service.

Our strategy

Our mission is what we set out to do every day
We deliver brilliant care through brilliant people

Our vision is where we want to be in the future
To provide outstanding care and to work in partnership to deliver this in the right place, for every service user, every time.

Here are some clips of our KMPT staff, speaking about their role and why they enjoy working for us. Working at KMPT (youtube.com)

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

  • Oversee, plan, deliver, and evaluate strategic communications work for core business areas, ensuring they are insight-driven and tailored to raise awareness or encourage engagement from the necessary audiences and stakeholders;
  • Provide strategic communications counsel to KMPT colleagues, including our most senior leaders;
  • Create compelling narratives, using plain English and avoiding jargon or professional language, that support organisational priorities and have the needs of their target audiences at their heart;
  • Create content – including video, press releases, and simple graphics or images - for the full range of our channels including social media, website, the intranet, staff app, and some physical materials (like leaflets and posters);
  • Be the first port of call for reactive media enquiries and proactive external campaigns, with support from the team as needed;
  •   Proactively gather good news and turn it into creative and inspiring stories to tell externally;
  • Help manage the strategic co-ordination of the Trust’s communications activity – contributing to the proactive forward-planning for all channels. As part of this, identify opportunities, potential risks, and interdependencies across organizational priorities;
  • Support the director of communications and engagement, and deputy director of communications and engagement, in the event of major crisis and reputational issues;
  • Deputise for the deputy director of communications or other managers when required.
  • Manage budget and finance activities, including procurement and management of external suppliers where needed

Person specification

experience

Essential criteria
  • Experience creating, delivering & evaluating strategic communications plans and campaigns, that select the most appropriate channel mix to engage the right audiences, ensure content is topical & interesting and gathering insight to inform future iterations of work.
  • Experience of proactively generating high profile media coverage of good news stories – across print, digital and broadcast media - and successfully handling media queries on sensitive issues, so protecting an organisation’s reputation
  • Experience of working with and influencing senior colleagues and leaders
  • Experience using content management systems, social media channels and creating content like video and simple graphics or images
Desirable criteria
  • Experience of working in high performing communications teams within the public sector or the NHS

Skills

Essential criteria
  • First-rate ability to express ideas effectively, both verbally and in writing, appropriate to the audience.
  • Ability to measure performance of communications work, including using qualitative and quantitative data to inform approaches
  • Ability to work at pace and manage a varied, and at times challenging, workload with autonomy
  • Experience of creating engaging content – both traditional and digital – to raise awareness of issues, incentivise engagement or behaviour change from relevant audiences
Desirable criteria
  • Ability to inspire and motivate colleagues

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Veteran AwareNo smoking policyHSJ Best places to workCare quality commission - GoodMindful employer.  Being positive about mental health.Disability confident employerStep into health

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Victoria Buxton-Helyer
Job title
Deputy director of communications and engagement
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
07721 553880

If you have problems applying, contact

Address
Kent & Medway NHS & Social Care Partnership Trust
Eastern & Coastal Area Offices
Littlebourne Road
Canterbury
CT1 1AZ
Telephone
01227 230855 | ext. 730855
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