Communities and Media Officer WCC619186

Job Details:

Salary range: £41,580 - £45,399 per annum 
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 28
Contract type: Temporary up to 12 months
Closing date: 24 November 2024
Contact details for Informal discussion: Charlotte Joffe, Service Development Manager, via email: CJOFFE@WESTMINSTER.GOV.UK

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF GRACE’S PASSION AND DEDICATION

The Environment & Communities Directorate in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. Where dedicated people like Grace are using their skills and passion to progress environmental action in the heart of London. 

It was at university where Grace first started campaigning for improved recycling facilities, water refill stations, and other eco friendly initiatives. When she saw the real difference people could make when they came together, she knew she wanted to dedicate her career to community action for the planet.

When she joined us as Principal Engagement Officer, Climate Emergency, she quickly established herself as a passionate advocate for community outreach, engaging various stakeholders across Westminster in the social causes, impacts and solutions to climate change, air pollution, and biodiversity loss. 

Grace became a driving force behind our first Citizens’ Climate Assembly, which took place across two weekends in the summer of 2023. Fifty residents were chosen at random from across our diverse communities to come together, learn about the climate emergency, and deliberate how we overcome the barriers to becoming a net zero city by 2040. The assembly produced several recommendations which have informed the evolution of our Climate Emergency Action Plan. Due to the success of this initiative, we’re holding more assemblies to continue community involvement in local decision-making.

To see the work of the Westminster Citizens’ Climate Assembly, click here.

The Role:

As Communities and Media Officer in our Communities Department you can make your own powerful contribution to Westminster’s success. This key role will see you using all your collaboration and engagement skills as you encourage diverse perspectives and drive positive change. Whether through volunteer initiatives, local events or participatory planning, your work will strengthen relationships and help to build resilient communities that are capable of addressing the challenges they face together.

Day-to-day, you’ll be responsible for writing, commissioning and editing content, including newsletters, promotional material and social media posts. This will be part of a fully integrated digital marketing communication plan that works across a wide range of channels to engage a large and diverse audience, including the wider department, the council and our communities.

Establishing and building productive working relationships with managers, colleagues, public and private sector partners, business groups, communities and a range of other organisations, you’ll understand and demonstrate our values and behaviours. At the same time, we’ll expect you to help us build a sustainable organisation while developing our reputation as a successful council that delivers great value for its residents.

Please refer to the Job Description for more information.

About You:

This is a role where you’ll use all your experience to develop relationships with resident groups and organisations, and help communities access the full range of information and services available to them. Capable of managing social media feeds and running our internal intranet site, and using research, analysis and testing to improve their performance, you’ll be skilled at producing compelling imagery and infographics that communicate key information and drive traffic. With this in mind you’ll have the ability to capture local stories that inspire our communities and demonstrate what is possible.

You should be skilled at coordinating material for outreach activities, and in addition to being ready to identify our residents’ ideas and wishes, you’ll have experience of supporting consultation, engagement and regeneration projects. Your excellent communication and interpersonal skills will allow you to enthuse, persuade, negotiate and influence, while your ability to work effectively with colleagues and partners will see you develop highly creative ideas, produce project briefs and implement feedback.

It goes without saying that you should have an excellent understanding of current digital marketing technologies and production tools, and good working knowledge of Microsoft and Adobe software packages. Comfortable using CMS and CRS systems, you should also be a highly collaborative team worker, and be strongly committed to the principles of equity, inclusion and diversity.

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe. 

At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit  https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties  

As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working. 

The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.