Communication and Community Engagement Officer
Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service
Location: Kempston
Salary: Starting salary £34,314 per annum rising to £37,035 per annum
Contractual hours: 37
Basis: Full time
Package: 37 hours per week, Hybrid Working, Flexitime scheme, Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), Holiday allowance of 25 days (plus public holidays) on joining
Job reference: REQ000337
22-Month Fixed-Term Contract
Closing date: 17 February 2025
Attachments
attachmentConditions of Service.pdfattachmentJob Description - LRF Communication and Community Engagement Officer.pdf
Are you passionate about helping Bedfordshire understand its hard to reach communities and improve communication and engagement with diverse communities? We are looking for a proactive and creative individual to support Bedfordshire Local Resilience Forum (BLRF) in mapping out and delivering effective communication and engagement for its communities.
This is an exciting opportunity at a time of increased national focus on building community resilience and emergency planning.
About the role
We need to understand more about our diverse communities, where to find them and their communication preferences. You will lead on mapping out current community engagement activity across Bedfordshire alongside community insight and research, understanding stakeholder contacts and where relationships lie, to then develop a targeted plan on key topics.
You will plan, deliver and co-ordinate communications activity to support BLRF objectives and ensure BLRF is supporting the ambitions of the UK Government Resilience framework to engage and work with communities and community groups on both acute and chronic risks, to enable them to become increasingly active partners in building local resilience.
You will also lead in developing relationships with communication teams across the county to support emergency and crisis communications planning and response and recovery communications after an emergency.
Key Responsibilities
Map and analyse current community engagement across the BLRF partnership, identifying best practices and gaps, with a focus on underrepresented groups. Develop processes and plans to strengthen engagement with these communities.
Develop a central knowledge database and bespoke toolkit for communication teams across BLRF.
Enhance message reception by directly engaging with community groups and partner agencies, collecting data on their reach and communication preferences.
Develop insight-led creative materials to support LRF communication and engagement activity and campaign plans, using a variety of tactics to be used across a range of platform.
Increase understanding of BLRF’s role and educate the public about preparedness by sharing opportunities across BLRF to engage with communities.
Maintain an active network and serve as the central contact for communication officers from key partners and stakeholders.
About You
You will have:
A-Levels, or equivalent qualification or equivalent experience in one of the following:
Public relations, media communications or marketing
Photography/videography
English
Significant experience in community engagement.
Proven creative ability to get messages across to different audiences, particularly external audiences.
Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with colleagues from all areas of the organisation and all levels.
Some experience in communication campaign planning and content creation, including photography, videography, digital communications and social media.
Some experience in engaging and communicating with a range of diverse communities and a range of audiences using insight, industry best practice and evaluation.
Good working knowledge of Microsoft 365, especially Sharepoint, Teams, Outlook, and other M365 apps that support internal communication (Viva Engage, Sway etc) and design applications such as Canva and Adobe.
Good time management skills and an ability to manage conflicting demands and workloads, balancing reactive and proactive work.
Current full driving licence with no pending issues.
For more details on the essential criteria required for the role, please see the attached job description and person specification.
Why work with us
We recognise that you are looking for more than just a career. A few of our benefits include:
Hybrid working patterns
Flexi-time scheme including flexible start and finish times, variable lunch breaks and flexi-leave days
Local Government Pension Scheme
Holiday allowance of 25 days* (plus public holidays) on joining; increasing to 30 days* after 5 years' service and 32 days after 10 years' service (*pro rata if part time or irregular working pattern)
Free onsite parking
Instant access to ‘Lifestyle Savings’ platform includes a range of discount cards from well-known and independent retailers
Eligible to sign up to ‘Blue Light Card’ with access to thousands of amazing discounts online and on the high street.
Next steps
If this role is of interest, please visit our website https://www.bedsfire.gov.uk/careers/search for further information and to make a formal application. We ask that you include your full career history and reference your skills and experience in line with the job description and person specification within your application and supporting statement.
The interview / selection process will take place on Tuesday 25 February 2025.
This is a public-facing role and it is essential to have the ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English.
This post will be exempt from the provisions of Section 4 (2) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2023. Therefore, applicants are not entitled to withhold information about convictions which for other purposes are ‘spent’ under the provision of the Act.
The appointment will be made subject to satisfactory pre-employment clearances, including an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) clearance at the level required for the role.
Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service is an equal opportunities employer that welcomes applications from all sections of the community.
Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service’s recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of Adults, Children, and Young People, and all staff and volunteers are expected to share this commitment.
