Job summary
- Main area
- Clinical Communications
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 5
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 334-NCL-6453662-TA
- Employer
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Trust Headquarters
- Town
- Denmark Hill, London
- Salary
- £34,089 - £41,498 per annum inclusive of HCAS
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 08/08/2024 23:59
Employer heading
Clinical Communications Officer
NHS AfC: Band 5
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.
We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’.
We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone’s potential as change makers.
The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.
Our Values
We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I’m going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you’ll be part of something special.
As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.
Job overview
Join our dynamic Communications and Stakeholder Engagement Team and be the driving force behind impactful, timely, and engaging information delivery for our staff, service users, and carers. As a pivotal member of our team, you will manage general requests and enquiries, ensuring our communications are always relevant and captivating, especially for our vital clinical projects, all in alignment with our Trust’s overarching communications strategy.
This role offers a unique opportunity to showcase and hone your skills across various communication mediums and techniques. You’ll have the chance to create, execute, and assess innovative and engaging content that makes a real difference.
In close collaboration with the Senior Communications Manager for clinical communications, and alongside other departments and stakeholders, you will spearhead communications and engagement initiatives that drive our Trust’s key objectives forward. Step into a role where your contributions will shape and strengthen our community.
Main duties of the job
- To manage requests for communications support and enquiries into the team
- To proactively gather stories and case studies from across the Trust and its partners and produce written content for use on communications channels with a particular focus on clinical communications, service updates and patient information
- To ensure clinical information is regularly reviewed and up-to-date e.g. web/intranet content
- To provide professional advice to teams across the Trust in relations to communications and engagement
- To Build relationships with staff, service users and carers, and the Trust’s partners to understand their communications needs and provide support
- To support the delivery of communications campaigns and activities across the team including events, projects and clinical (e.g. Operational, Nursing, Medical and Psychology) services
Working for our organisation
We are committed to ensuring our staff get the most out of their benefits package and understand the importance of a healthy work life balance. There is an extensive range of excellent benefits for you and your family.
We want you to feel like you are part of a close knit team at South London and Maudsley. It’s important to us that you valued and appreciated and that are why we have a comprehensive benefits package on offer.
Some of our benefits include:
- Generous pay, pensions and leave, we offer a comprehensive pay, pensions and leave package, which is dependent on the role and length of service
- Work life balance, flexible working and support a range of flexible options, such as: part-time working and job sharing
- Career development, There are plenty of opportunities to progress your career and we support your development through a number of programmes such as mentoring, coaching, positive people management, collective leadership and other talent programmes
- Car lease, our staff benefits from competitive deals to lease cars
Accommodation, our staff benefits from key-worker housing available which is available on selected sites
NHS discounts, with discounts up to 10% from a variety of well-known retail brands though Health Service Discounts website.
Other benefits include:
- Counselling services
- Wellbeing events
- Long service awards
- Cycle to work scheme
- Season ticket loan
- Childcare vouchers
- Staff restaurants
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Clinical communications (including patient information)
- To produce a wide range of high-quality written communications materials including internal briefings and case studies, newsletter articles, media releases and produce content for digital channels. Work closely with internal departments and colleagues to draft and edit copy on leaflets, information for patients, posters, reports, screensavers and all Trust literature as appropriate
- To provide professional communications and engagement advice and guidance to other teams in the Trust on the clinical and patient information requirements and help devise new ways to engage and reach patients, service users and carers
- To audit patient information materials to ensure they are accurate and high quality
- Support external, internal and virtual events, including booking venues, organising invitations and maintaining a log of attendees and feedback
- Ensure the Trust's values are embedded and expressed in all activities and underpin all clinical messages
Communications and relations
- Manage enquiries and requests that come into the team in a timely and professional manner in line with Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
- Proactively source positive news stories from across the Trust that can be used across multiple communications channels including the development of a bank of case studies that demonstrate innovation and development of staff
- To produce written content with the target audience in mind, communicated via the appropriate channels and in line with plain English and accessibility guidelines
- Edit and upload news stories and other content for the intranet and public website
- Lead on the promotion of key mini-campaigns and awareness days and support on other major internal and external focussed events, campaigns and medical communications
- Develop creative and engaging ways of evaluating the effectiveness of communications campaigns and presenting data in attractive and accessible ways
- Advocate on behalf of the department on the importance of good practice in communications
- Line management of junior staff as appropriate
Policy and service development
- To contribute to the development of the patient information policy and its implementation across the Trust
- To ensure all communications produced are consistent with the Trust’s corporate identity and brand and meet corporate identity guidelines
- To ensure any photography used adheres to copyright regulations and is carried out in line with trust policy in terms of consent
Information resources
- To produce and/or assist in the preparation of business reports and, where necessary, attend relevant meetings to deliver those reports and advise on communications issues
- To assist in preparing briefings for regulatory and advisory bodies in respect of updating them on complex issues
- To undertake audits, surveys and utilise other feedback techniques to evaluate the communications function both internally and externally
- To manage key corporate documents on the website and intranet through version control measures, ensuring these are accurate and up to date
Person specification
Training and Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Degree qualification or relevant equivalent experience
- Evidence of on-going personal and professional development
Experience
Essential criteria
- Writing for different audiences and communications channels
- Producing and managing content for print
- Producing and managing content for websites and social media channels
- Experience of designing, writing and sending email newsletter via a professional grade email service provider
- Procuring external goods and services
- Involving service users, carers and members of the general public in projects
- Experience of organising events and workshops for both internal and external audiences
- Demonstrable experience of managing a busy and deadline demanding workload Excellent verbal and written communications and interpersonal skills
- Experience of dealing with people at all levels including senior level and the public
- Experience of taking formal minutes
- Experience of using initiative and enthusiasm to problem solve
- Working in a small team within a large organisation; understanding its relationships and role, working with multiple partners and stakeholders
Desirable criteria
- Experience of NHS
- Experience of working in a communications function
- Experience of organising events/conferences/workshops for internal and external audiences
- Experience of training and presenting to a range of audiences
Knowledge and skills
Essential criteria
- Strong communication skills
- Good knowledge of digital platforms, including social media
- High level of literacy sufficient to write reports and represent information clearly at senior level
- High level of attention to details
- Ability to simultaneously manage a broad range of activities and sub-projects
- Strong planning and organisational skills
- Ability to prioritise own workload and work without direct supervision using own initiative within a changing and demanding environment
- Excellent interpersonal skills
- Presentation skills
- Influencing and negotiating skills
- Ability to make judgements involving information and situations which require analysis and interpretation and comparison of a range of options
- Accurate minute-taking skills
- Problem solving skills and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands
Desirable criteria
- Report writing skills
- Writing skills which are adaptable for a variety of different media and audiences e.g. websites / intranets, social media, magazines, newsletters
- High level of Knowledge in social media use including smartphone videos and photography
- Ability to manage/organise and analyse data to report on digital communication metrics e.g. website, social media and email performance
Values and behaviours
Essential criteria
- Ability to act in accordance with our values and behaviours
Other
Essential criteria
- Empathy for individuals who have experienced mental health problems
Desirable criteria
- Personal experience of mental health problems
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Alexandra Grover
- Job title
- Senior Communications Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
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