JOB SUMMARY

The Department for Work and Pensions is recruiting for two Press Officers to be part of our supportive and high-performing press team. You will be responding to breaking national stories, planning proactive press activity, and briefing ministers and senior officials on a regular basis.
The work of the DWP makes a difference to the lives of millions of people across the country – from delivering cost of living payments to low-income households and supporting people to start or return to work via our national network of Jobcentres, enacting policy to improve the lives of disabled people and ensuring pension savers are protected from unscrupulous scammers.
To succeed in the role, you will have strong news judgement, the ability to be able to think strategically, excellent interpersonal skills, and an aptitude for digesting complex information and explaining it in plain English.
We are a close-knit team that collaborates closely with the digital, external affairs and campaigns teams, as well as private offices, policy and frontline colleagues.
This post will be based at Caxton House, London.
If this sounds like the right fit for you, we would love to hear from you!

JOB DESCRIPTION

As a Press Officer you will:

• Develop expertise in DWP policy areas and build strong relationships with officials in these areas, as well as relevant journalists.
• Manage breaking stories on behalf of the department and ministers, providing a timely, accurate and professional service to journalists.
• Know how to use a range of media channels to reach audiences, working with campaigns colleagues and incorporating digital media into all communications plans.
• Produce high quality written work including proactive press releases and op-eds.
• Provide media handling advice to Ministers and Special Advisers on a range of reactive and proactive activity.
• Contribute creative ideas to communicate and promote the department’s policies.

Please Note:
Due to the nature of the role, candidates will be required to work full time hours.
Out of hours working is a key feature of this role and you will be included on a duty rota for weekday evenings and weekend service. There is an additional allowance paid for this.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Insight
• Ideas
• Implementation
• Impact

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £48,672, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £14,100 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
• 170hrs (23 days) annual leave allowance in year one. This may vary for existing civil servants based on their number of years’ service

Things you need to know

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

CANDIDATES FOR THIS ROLE MUST BE ABLE TO DEMONSTRATE THEY CAN MEET THE FOLLOWING ESSENTIAL CRITERIA:

• Good judgement and understanding of the news cycle, including knowledge of different media channels, including digital.
• Excellent writing skills and experience of planning and working on stories and media opportunities that support communication objectives.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced environment and reacting quickly and confidently to breaking issues.
• Strong interpersonal and influencing skills, and experience of nurturing excellent relationships with internal colleagues and external contacts as part of your work.
• Comfortable working on visits and events.
  We will ensure that you are fully supported and can develop your career as a skilled communications professional.
  DWP is committed to creating an organisation and workforce which is as diverse as the customers we serve. As such, we welcome applications from all suitably qualified people regardless of gender, race, disability, age or sexual orientation.
  Please note – If there are a high number of applications received, an initial sift may be undertaken based on the first 3 essential criteria listed above. Candidates who pass the initial sift may progress to a full sift or may go straight to interview.