Senior Communications Officer

Are you a well organised and motivated Senior Communications Officer with excellent media, digital and communication skills, a passion for working in a challenging political environment and an innovative and creative mind bursting with ideas?

Come join us in our Corporate Communications team.

Who are we?

It’s always an exciting time to work in local government, but more so now at Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. We’re a proud, passionate, innovative council that is winning hearts and minds and awards (MJ awards if relevant) too. We’re always striving to try new ways to connect with our residents where they are.

This role would be based in our Marketing, Corporate Communications and Policy directorate and you’d get the chance to use rich audience insight and data and the latest sector best practice training and to create compelling communication and marketing activities that warn and inform, inspire, delight and change minds.

What will you be doing?

• Developing and implementing effective communication strategies that align with the council’s corporate priorities, service plans and our communication objectives
• Creating and delivering useful, targeted content across multiple channels
• Providing advice and guidance to senior leaders on sensitive communication needs and tailoring messages for different audiences
• Protecting and enhancing the reputation of the council through effective communication strategies

What do you need?

• An audience-first mindset, with a passion for creating original communications that engage, inform, and influence.
• Experience of communications and campaign planning and how to meet the needs of a wide range of stakeholders
• Significant experience in marketing or public relations
• Experience of crisis communications
• An excellent understanding all forms of media including press, video, radio, social media, digital communication, and emerging technologies

What do we offer?

• Working for a community-minded, forward-thinking local authority that likes to push boundaries and try new things
• Excellent salary, pension, flexible working, fantastic employee benefits and comprehensive staff health and wellbeing scheme
• A welcoming, friendly, supportive team with regular social opportunities
• A culture of professional development and training opportunities
• Hybrid working with the ability to work from home as well as from our offices in the heart of Bournemouth and satellite offices in Christchurch and Poole
• Please note that you must have the right to work in the UK

About BCP Council

BCP Council provides services to a diverse community of 400,000 residents and employs more than 5,000 people. Our area includes over 15 miles of beautiful world-renowned coastline. We can offer career defining roles to transform and improve services. By working with us, you can help deliver a vision of a thriving, word-class, prosperous and inclusive place for generations to come.

Our Benefits

We offer an excellent benefits package to colleagues. Find out more on our website

As a result of the creation of BCP Council in 2019, we are working on simplifying our terms and conditions of service and will be creating a single pay structure which is to be applicable for all employees. It is important to us that we offer benefits that our colleagues value as part of their total employment package and we are reviewing these to make sure we have it right. We have been in a process of collective bargaining since 2019 and have positively worked forward to reach an agreed position with the unions for the new contractual offer. This has taken longer than we hoped and therefore we are having to consider all alternative avenues available to enable us to remove inequality in the organisation as a result of bringing together 3 councils.

We are in the process of establishing a timescale for implementation, and all colleagues joining us will be included in these changes. We want to reassure everyone that whichever route is taken to reach the new terms and conditions, we can honour continuous service and there will not be any job reduction as a result of the implementation of Pay and Reward. If you have any questions at all about this process, please feel free to raise this with the hiring manager.