Job Description

The Opportunity

Salary:

31,586 to 34,314 per annum

Location:

Your office base will be Chichester and a typical week will combine homeworking with attendance at the office. This is led by the needs of the service.

Working hours:

Full time, 37 hours per week

Contract type:

Fixed term or Secondment until 31/03/2026

Employer Pension Contribution:

19.70% this alters per annum on the 1 April each year.

Annual leave:

27 days holiday + Bank holidays =

35 days

(Full time equivalent)



As a Communications Officer, you will deliver first-class communications and messages to communities across West Sussex.



Working as part of the county council's Communications & Engagement Team, you'll be working on high-profile campaigns and messaging across various channels and platforms, including social, digital and print media as well as providing media relations and handling by liaising with journalists.



Working with a supportive team, you will be involved in multiple projects simultaneously where your passion for communications, innovation and creativity, plus your eye for detail and how best to convey a compelling message will be greatly valued.



You'll be responsible for evaluating communications to showcase its impact. This will involve creating, managing, and monitoring plans, plus gathering quantifiable data through a variety of methods to track success.



You'll assist Senior Communication Officers and Communications Leads in promoting council campaigns, behavioural programmes, and projects efficiently. Understanding council services is crucial for recognising opportunities and building relationships with key staff. Training will be provided if this isn't your current area of expertise. You will need to be aware of both local and national news agendas to ensure the county council is seizing all opportunities and responding to current events.



You'll be required to participate in an out-of-hours on-call rota, for which an additional allowance is provided.

What are we looking for?

Ability to develop creative ideas and editorial across all forms of communication and editing input for a range of platforms. Ability to write effectively for a range of audiences and communication channels including for the web and social media. Developed communication and interpersonal skills to effectively engage with clients and stakeholders, fostering strong working relationships. Problem-solving skills. Literacy and numeracy skills to understand and interpret research data and customer feedback and present analysis in the most appropriate way. Relevant theoretical and practical knowledge of processes, procedures and policies associated with working within a demanding communications service. Knowledge of communication methods, including social media, to effectively contribute to changing campaign objectives. Understanding of the media landscape and management of media sensitive issues. Understanding of the political landscape and politically sensitive issues. Experience of working on a variety of communications activities, particularly in a public sector environment. Experience/confidence of dealing with a range of people and services and planning on more than one campaign at a time. Experience of handling and responding to media enquiries.

For more information on the Key Skills as well as the Qualifications and/or experience required, please refer to the attached.

Working for us

As well as adding real value to our service users and our communities, as an employer we recognise our employees are central in being able to achieve this. To recognise this, we want to help support your development and provide an great place to work ensuring you can fulfil your full potential, have access to a range of benefits including:


a range of flexible working options, depending on your job role maternity, paternity, dependency and adoption leave volunteering opportunities training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring a range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers; groceries, travel, cinema tickets, days out, leisure activities, high street retailers and the opportunity to save over 1,000 a year through our West Sussex Choices benefits platform (see our

Staff discounts page

if you are a business looking to offer a discount) health and wellbeing benefits including access to our Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and Voluntary Health Cash Plans.

For a full list this can be found at our

Rewards and Benefits page.

Further information

The reference number for this role is

CRS00946

.



For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact Stephen Davy-Osborne (Communications & Engagement Lead) at

Stephen.Davy-Osborne@westsussex.gov.uk

. For issues or queries regarding your application please contact

hrrecruitment@westsussex.gov.uk

.

Internal candidates wishing to apply for this role will be considered for a secondment position. Please can you therefore discuss and agree this with your manager before applying for this position.



To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and Cover Letter. In your cover letter please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to 3 years referencing and a health check.

Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.



We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our

application help

page.





CC



Job Reference: CRS00946