Assistant Communications Officer

Details

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Reference number

476787

Salary

£32,110 - £34,280 London - £32,110 - £34,280 + £3,150 RRA A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97% GBP

Job grade

Executive Officer B1### Contract type

Permanent### Business area

CPS - HQ Communications### Type of role

Communications / Marketing### Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time### Number of jobs available

1

Contents

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• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

Location

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LondonAbout the job

Job summary

As an Assistant Communications Officer, you will help on both internal and external communications projects to support business objectives and the delivery of our 2030 strategy. You will work with colleagues and stakeholders across all levels, from our senior leadership team to our newest apprentices, to help the organisation communicate effectively internally, and to explain and promote the work of the CPS to the public through external channels.### Job description

Key Responsibilities:

• Assist on internal and external communications projects.
• Create and design engaging communications content, including video editing and written content
• Support the management of our communication channels such as the intranet, weekly and monthly e-news bulletins.
• Support on gathering audience insight and evaluation data to inform communications and campaigns plans.
• Liaise with Area Communication Managers and other CPS colleagues to ensure consistent use of the branding guidelines, tone of voice guidance and accessibility standards across all communications.
• Contribute to effective communications and campaign planning by updating and managing team grids and planners.
• Support the planning and running of corporate events, including staff recognition events.

If you are detail-oriented, creative, and want to advance your communications career, please apply.

Join us and make and your purpose in the field of criminal justice.

Person specification

To eligible to apply you need:

Experience in communications.

It is desirable that you have the below experience but it is not required:

Be able to create content and video using design packages such as ‘Adobe Creative Suite’

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

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

• GCS Professional Competency - this is assessed at application, assessment and interview

Benefits

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Alongside your salary of £32,110, Crown Prosecution Service contributes £9,302 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides . Join the Crown Prosecution Service

The Crown Prosecution Service commits to offer its employees the following experience.

• You can do impactful, purposeful work that’s making a difference to your local communities.
• You are able to learn and grow, with access to the right opportunities and resources.
• We care about your wellbeing.
• We want you to feel valued, trusted and included.

We also offer the following range of benefits:

• Civil Service contributory pension of up to 28.9%
• 25 days’ leave, increasing to 30 days after 5 years
• £350 each year to spend on personal development
• lawyer training programme for all new prosecutors
• an extra privilege day to mark the King's birthday
• competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
• flexible working including flexitime, and a family friendly approach to work
• Cycle2Work scheme, employee savings.

Diversity at the Crown Prosecution Service is about inclusion, embracing differences and ensuring our workforce truly reflects the communities we serve. We want you to feel that you belong and can thrive, whatever your background, identity or culture. As a Disability Confident employer, we're happy to support requests for reasonable adjustments and improve your recruitment experience. If you'd like any reasonable adjustments made to our recruitment process, let us know within your application or contact erin.morgan@cps.gov.uk

The Crown Prosecution Service has fixed rates for its Executive Officer grade – a developing rate (the starting salary) and a spot rate (the maximum salary). Applicants typically join us on the developing rate and, after completing a 15-month development period, move to the spot rate if your line manager confirms you’re performing the role to a satisfactory standard.

If you’re joining the Crown Prosecution Service on a lateral transfer from another government department, you should contact us about the impact on your salary and the implications of any time you’ve already spent at that grade before applying or accepting an employment offer. Your salary may be adjusted if your location changes when you join us. This adjustment also takes into account any existing allowances that may have previously been consolidated into your basic pay – there’s no guarantee that you can retain these when you transfer.

We want to ensure our employees can thrive at work and home and offer a range of support to achieve a balance. This includes flexibility of working hours, flexibility to support caring responsibilities and a flexible approach to deployment. We offer a hybrid working policy. You must spend at least 40% of your contracted hours over a four-week period at court, in an office or another official workplace depending on business need and the kind of work you're doing.

Things you need to know

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Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.### Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.Recruitment Process

The recruitment process consists of an online application, assessment and interview. These are expected to take place on 1st and 2nd October.

Personal statement

We ask you to complete a personal statement of no more than 1,250 words. You need to address the core behaviours for this role, which are:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace
• GCS professional competency

The panel has the right to assess the lead behaviour ‘GCS Professional Competency’ first. If the standard on this behaviour isn’t met, the other behaviours won’t be considered and your application won’t progress. The panel also has the right to raise the minimum standard pass mark. The panel may also refer to the lead behaviour at the interview stage to determine merit order.

You also need to demonstrate the following experience required for this role:

• Experience in communications

In addition, you need to demonstrate the Crown Prosecution Service or Civil Service values.

CV

Please upload an up-to-date CV which should include:

• three years’ employment and/or academic history
• skills and experience
• achievements
• qualifications.

You need to attach your CV as an anonymised document of no more than two A4 pages, to provide the panel with an insight into your work history and experience. We ask that you do not provide personal details which could identify you like name, age, home address.

It’s your responsibility to provide the specified application information in the requested format to ensure that you’re considered for the post.

If you’re unable to cover three years through employment and/or academic history, you need to provide a character reference for clearance purposes. The reference will be required at onboarding if you’re offered the role.

Interview and Assessment

The interview and assessment are expected to take place on 1st and 2nd October 2026

Your interview takes place online through Microsoft Teams. A member of our recruitment team will be in touch with guidance. If you have any queries about this, contact erin.morgan@cps.gov.uk

You should keep this date free or notify us if you're not available. We'll make every effort to accommodate your date preferences but we can't guarantee it.

Assessment

We ask you to complete an assessment as part of the recruitment process for this role. We will provide details on the day of your interview.

We use behaviours to help us understand your experience, to see if you're a good fit for the role. You are assessed against EO in the Civil Service success profiles behaviours framework. We are assessing 5 behaviours at interview and assessment stage:

• Making Effective Decisions - Application, Interview and Assessment
• Communicating and Influencing - Interview
• Working Together - Interview
• Delivering at Pace - Application and Interview
• GCS Professional Competency - Application, Interview and Assessment

Technical Skills - assessed at interview, assessment and application

• GCS Professional Competency

Strengths

Strengths are tested at interview stage - the strengths tested are not shared before the interview.

Other

This is a full-time post. We do consider requests for flexible, part-time working and job share, always considering the operational needs of the department. Please note that the CPS is unable to offer visa sponsorship. If you require visa sponsorship to work in the UK, you will not meet the eligibility criteria for this role.

Clearance

If successful, you are required to securea Disclosure and Barring Service check for which you must have a current valid UK address.

If successfully appointed, we ask you to complete a character enquiry form, and nationality and immigration questionnaire.

If you're a Crown Prosecution Service member of staff, you won’t need to do a Disclosure and Barring Service check as you already hold this clearance.

The job you’re applying for is covered by Article 3(a) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, consequently Section 4(2) of that Act doesn’t apply. Y ou’re required to disclose all previous convictions and cautions including spent convictions. Failing to make a full declaration will result in withdrawing your offer of employment if our checks reveal convictions that haven’t been disclosed.

Civil Service Commission

If you’re dissatisfied with the recruitment process and wish to make a complaint, please contact Strategic.Resourcing@cps.gov.uk with your concerns.

If you remain dissatisfied and wish to make a further complaint, please click on the following link to the Civil Service Commission complaints page Recruitment Complaints - Civil Service Commission

Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles can be found at https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/

Details of the Civil Service Nationality Rules are located at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules

Candidates are subject to UK immigration requirements. For the most up-to-date information on the requirements of working in the UK, please go to the UK Visas and Immigration website at https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.### Security

Successful candidates must undergo a standard (or equivalent) criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.### 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)
• 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

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles . The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.### Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy .Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative. Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.### Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Erin Morgan
• Email : erin.morgan@cps.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : strategic.resourcing@cps.gov.uk