*JOB OF THE WEEK* communications manager – place, sandwell council

Communications Manager – Place

Sandwell Council

Salary: Director: £53,885 - £57,195 per annum

Contract Type: Full time – Permanent

Hours: Full time – 37 hours per week

Location: Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Closing date: 9 June 2025

Join us at this exciting time as we build on our rapid improvements made over the last few years and set our sights on becoming an outstanding council.

In this role you will play a key part in leading our communications team and delivering effective campaigns and guidance to support the achievement of council priorities, aims and objectives.

Deliver innovation and improvement that maximises the impact of communications

Our organisation has been on a successful journey of change over the last three years. We have made huge progress in service delivery for the residents of Sandwell, a vibrant Black Country community with a young, diverse and rapidly growing population.

A strategic communications service is critical to the next phase of our development, as we focus on embedding a culture of continuous improvement, embracing transformational change, and becoming a modern, efficient, agile and highly customer-focused organisation. You will work with our Head of Communications to maximise the effectiveness and impact of our communications service provision, ensuring it is aligned with our organisational-wide commitment to modernisation and innovation.

Your role

Bringing fresh thinking and new ideas, you will play a proactive and influential role in managing our communications team and resources across the council. Key responsibilities include:

·  Leading on all communications activity within Place directorate – to support the delivery of council objectives and priorities.

·  Embedding a campaign-led approach to communications, working with the Head of Communications to deliver a strategic communications service that measures impact and learns lessons.

·  Taking a forward-thinking approach to planning communications to create, update and maintain an organisational narrative that can be deployed tactically to optimum effect.

·  Developing and maintaining a clear forward plan for communications and resident engagement.

·  Adopting a collaborative, supportive, challenging and hands on approach to providing advice, support and guidance to senior leaders.

·  Bringing an impactful approach to wide-raging aspects of communications such as stakeholder management, media relations, audience research/mapping and behavioural change.

·  Acting as a role model within the team for effective communications, and for the council’s values and behaviours.

Your profile

·  Educated to degree level and qualified to Chartered Institute of Marketing Level 4 or Chartered Institute of Public Relations Level 4 (or demonstrable relevant experience).

·  A proven record of working in a complex environment, including experience of advising senior leaders, negotiating with stakeholders and planning services within a political and partnership context.

·  Experience of leading employees and allocating workloads.

·  Experience of negotiating and consulting with internal and external stakeholders

·  Knowledge of campaign planning frameworks and a passion for creating meaningful narratives and delivering communications activities that make a tangible difference.

·  A well-developed understanding of the workings of a local authority and how it operates at a corporate and community level.

·  The ability to motivate, influence and inspire others through positive relationship-building, your commitment to excellence and your desire to gain the best possible outcomes for residents.

·  An understanding / previous experience of marketing communications is desirable.

Our hybrid working involves a minimum two days a week in the office. There will be a requirement to travel to attend meetings, including public meetings and occasional working outside normal hours.

Apply now

For more information, and to apply, please contact Osborne Thomas at sandwell@osbornethomas.org or call 020 3280 3671.

Closing date: 9th June

colleague communications manager, midland heart

Colleague Communications Manager

Midland Heart

Office Base: Birmingham, B15 1LZ

Salary: £49,232 per annum

Hours: Full-Time, 35 per week

Term: Fixed term (Maternity Cover)

Closing Date: 2 June 2025

Are you a creative and ambitious Communications professional, seeking a new opportunity? If so, we're seeking a Colleague Communications Manager (approx. 12 month fixed-term contract due to maternity leave) to lead and drive the delivery of our colleague communications strategy.

We're embedding our Midland Heart Mindset with colleagues following the launch of our new Corporate Plan earlier this year, where our whole focus is to put tenants at the heart of what we do.

With responsibility for leading, motivating and engaging a small team, you'll creatively and proactively deliver an established high-profile calendar of internal communications campaigns and events to colleagues, that embed the Midland Heart Mindset and improve the way we all work.

You can expect to lead ongoing improvements to our range of internal channels, whilst increasing colleague engagement, introducing new channels that promote communication with our colleagues, and supporting the development and mentorship of your team of Communications Officers.

As a leader within our Corporate Affairs senior leadership team, you'll truly have the opportunity to shape and contribute to wider strategies delivered by the wider Communications function.

Interested? Please read on to find out who we're looking for to join our well respected, high performing comms team!

To be successful in this role, you'll have:

• Experience of writing and implementing internal communications, marketing and employer brand development strategies and plans.

• Evidence of working with a broad range of internal stakeholders at all levels, to drive strategically aligned change projects.

• Strong managerial experience within a Communications and / or Marketing function within a large organisation.

• Experience implementing emergency / crisis response planning and communications in a corporate environment.

Our colleagues deliver services from the location that they are best delivered on any given day. This means that you should expect to work from a Midland Heart site as a minimum 3 days week (on average).

Who is Midland Heart? We're one team working together for our tenants. A large, ambitious housing organisation providing people with an affordable place to call home. We value people from all walks of life and strive to create an inclusive environment where you can grow your career and make an impact. We expect a lot from our people, but in return, you'll find a supportive and rewarding workplace where great people thrive.

We are proud to say we have recently been named in the Sunday Times Best Places to Work list, within the Big Organisations category (The Times).

Closing Date: 2 June 2025

We're planning to hold assessments for the role at our Birmingham Bath Row office in mid-June.

Interested? Applying is easy - simply click the apply button. You will be directed to our candidate portal. There you can see the full Role Profile and upload a CV and Covering Letter, which shows us that you have what it takes to make a success of the role.

We're proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss any adjustments you might need in order to be successful in this role.

No agencies please.

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external communications officer (x 2), wakefield council

External Communications Officer (x 2)

Wakefield Council

Salary: £31,067 – £33,366 (Grade 7)

Full-time

Hybrid working

Closing date: 22 June

Ready to make an impact?
We’re looking for two talented communications professionals to join our award-winning team at Wakefield Council.

You’ll be part of a team that’s proud to champion our diverse communities, promote local services, and tell stories that matter; from funky food festivals and world-class sculpture, to vital campaigns on health, wellbeing, and community support.

About the role

This is a varied role where no two days are the same. One minute you’ll be launching a cross-platform campaign, the next drafting a sharp press release or creating social content that cuts through.

You’ll work across the Council to:

• plan and deliver campaigns that drive real results

• create engaging content for web, social and media

• spot and shape stories that shine a light on Wakefield’s people and places

• support stakeholder engagement

Who we’re looking for

We’re after experienced, well-rounded communicators. People who know their way around a campaign plan and can roll their sleeves up to deliver great content.

You’ll bring a solid set of core comms skills, such as writing for different platforms, developing creative content, managing media queries, and running social media. But more importantly, you’ll be a natural project manager: organised, digitally confident, and able to see a campaign through from idea to impact.

We’re looking for:

• a communications all-rounder with a track record of making things happen

• strong writing and content creation skills – across web, social, print and more

• someone who’s digitally savvy, with a good eye for what works online

• a creative thinker who can turn a brief into bold ideas

• confidence to lead on projects and show the results they deliver

You don’t need to have done it all, but if you’ve led on comms projects, delivered real outcomes, and are excited by the idea of using communications to make a difference, we want to hear from you.

What we offer

When you join our team, you’ll have the opportunity to shape how we communicate.  You’ll be a part of influencing the perception of our Council while working alongside a supportive and collaborative team.

We are committed to a great work life balance and have a strong focus on equality, diversity and inclusion. You’ll received a generous annual leave entitlement, alongside a range of other employee benefits like public transport and gym memberships discounts. We offer competitive pay, great benefits, and a work environment that fosters creativity and growth.

If this is something you’re interested in, we’d love to hear from you.

For more information you can contact Jane Gardner-Florence, External Communications Manager on jgardnerflorence@wakefield.gov.uk

Shortlisting for this post will take place w/c 16 June. And interviews will be held on Thu 4 and Fri 5 July.

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communications officer, oxford city council

Communications Officer

Oxford City Council

Salary: G7: £41,600 per annum full time (pro rata for part time)

Contractual hours: 37

Full Time

Location: Oxford, Town Hall/Work from home (Hybrid)

Package

29 days holiday, local government pension scheme, subsidised leisure membership, flex scheme (where appropriate), employer benefits scheme.

Job category/type: Fixed term

Job reference: 002668

Closing date: 29 May 2025

Attachments

attachmentCommunications Officer_G7_CS_May25_002668.pdf

Job description

Oxford is a wonderful city, and the City Council is working hard every day to make it even better. We’re going further and faster than any city in the UK to tackle the climate emergency; we’re spending £9m annually to tackle homelessness; we’re building hundreds of new homes for Oxford’s families and young people; and we’re fighting health and social inequality with millions of pounds of investment in grass-roots community and leisure facilities.  

Whether it’s encouraging Oxford residents to take part in consultations, inspiring them to help tackle the climate emergency, or raising awareness for how the City Council’s work is making a difference, we believe communications is key to everything we do.

We now need a qualified and experienced professional to help us with that. The successful candidate will work on a range of high-quality internal and external campaigns for Oxford city’s 160k residents and ~800 staff. You will be organised and methodical with the ability to make effective decisions.

You will have exceptional written and visual storytelling skills and a creative flair, and will be able to employ a range of traditional, social and digital communications methods. You will also understand how offline and online marketing can be brought together to deliver key messages and campaigns. With excellent written and spoken English, you will gain great satisfaction from producing exceptional work and achieving results. But, most importantly, we’re looking for someone who wants to help us make a difference for the people and city of Oxford. 

For an informal discussion about the post please contact Gemma Tregellas gtregellas@oxford.gov.uk  or Tom Jennings tjennings@oxford.gov.uk

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