Head of Corporate Communications and Strategy (Maidstone)

Location of Role: Maidstone/Home Based 

Advert Closing Date: 30/10/2024 

Starting Salary: £55,794.00 (pro-rata for part-time vacancies)

Part/Full Time: Full Time 

Contract Type: Permanent 

Working Pattern: Mon-Fri 

Weekend/Evening Working: No 

Following the retirement of the current post-holder, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Kent, Matthew Scott, is seeking an experienced individual, with a background in communications and/or policy, to lead his new Communications Team.

You will be leading on turning the Commissioner’s Police and Crime Plan into action, through both developing policy and communicating this to a wide range of stakeholders.  You will work with the wider team to implement the Communications Strategy, through a range of events, social media channels and effective briefings.

You will be in regular communication with local and national media, internal stakeholders and partners, ensuring that the Commissioner’s vision for policing in Kent is effectively communicated.

A minimum of five years’ experience in a similar high-pressure role is required,  as is demonstrable experience in dealing with the media, and managing challenges as and when they arise.

You must be confident, articulate, and with a high standard of written English to produce both policy briefings and press releases.  Fluency with social media and the experience with managing websites, both in terms of content and layout, is vital. 

You will be calm under pressure, effectively prioritising your workload, and able to represent the Commissioner when required.

Your work will be split between home, the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner in Maidstone, and events across the county and wider South-East Region. 

This role is subject to vetting, and is also ‘politically restricted’ as per the Local Government and Housing Act 1989.

For more information please e-mail contactyourpcc@kent.police.uk, for the attention of Lesley Ashmall. 

Kent Police offer incremental increases within this salary band, therefore the salary for this position will rise to a maximum of £62,763.00.

For the full job description please click here

Your application for this role will be shortlisted on the content you provide within the “reason for application” question, within the application form itself. CV’s, covering letters or attachments are not included in the shortlist. Within your “reason for application” answer, please refer to any experience, skills, and abilities you feel you have that will make you suitable for this role, based on the role criteria stated in the job advert or job description. Please provide as much detail as possible as insufficient content may mean you do not meet the shortlisting criteria, however please note this question is limited to 9000 characters and this system will count spaces and blank lines as characters. This count may differ from the Microsoft Word word count function therefore you may wish to use a different online character counter to check the characters used.

All of our posts require a level of vetting and security clearance.  During the recruitment process you will be sent vetting information forms to complete. 

Kent Police and Essex Police welcomes applications regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, sex, or employment status.

Please let us know if you require extra support at any stage of the application process, or for further information regarding this position, please email us at recruitment.business.services@ecis.police.uk stating ‘Application Support and Adjustments’ in the title of your email. Alternatively, you can call us on 01245 452833.

Where appropriate we will make adjustments to the selection process, working arrangements and/or the working environment provided it is reasonable in all the circumstances to do so.

This post is open to:

• British Citizens

• Members of a European Economic Area (EEA) state who hold settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme.  

• Commonwealth citizens or foreign nationals (who are not British citizens or European Economic Area (EEA) state members) who have leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom for an indefinite period that is free from restrictions.

All applicants (except those who have been serving abroad with the British Armed Forces) must have lived in the UK continuously for the past three years.

Essex Police and Kent Police are an equal opportunities employer. Communications may be recorded for monitoring purposes.