External Engagement and Policy Officer (Maidstone)

Location of Role: Maidstone/Smarter Working 

Advert Closing Date: 29/10/2024 

Job Grade/Rank: £40,170.00 - £45,591.00

Part/Full Time: Full Time 

Contract Type: Permanent 

Working Pattern: Mon-Fri 

Weekend/Evening Working: No

Owing to a long-term secondment, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Kent, Matthew Scott, is seeking a new External Engagement and Policy Officer.

You will be the Commissioner’s lead member of staff for arranging and promoting a wide range of events, both with the public and with senior stakeholders across Kent.  You will also be the lead on managing and developing the Commissioner’s website, ensuring that it is up to date, relevant, and an effective tool in promoting the Commissioner’s work.

In addition, you will work with the Head of Corporate Communications and Strategy to develop policy, in line with the Commissioner’s Police and Crime Plan.  This will require effective research skills and a creative, forward-thinking mindset.

To be successful in this role, you will have built experience in a political or public sector background, and will be confident in communicating with a wide range of influential people.  You will be fluent across all forms of social media, and be able to draft press releases and policy accurately and effectively.  You must be self-motivated and demonstrate the ability to work under pressure.

Experience in arranging events, from informal engagements to large scale public events is also vital.

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

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. 

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.

Depending on your current vetting level and security clearances, you may be required to complete additional vetting information during the recruitment process.

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.