Head of Communications, Office for Product Safety and Standards
| Posting date: | 10 March 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £67,170 to £76,117 per year |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 06 April 2025 |
| Location: | Birmingham |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 395317/1 |
Summary
Do you care about the safety of products and want to protect people and places? Can we use your skills, knowledge and experience to enable UK business to thrive? If the answer is yes, then we would like to hear from you!
We are the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), part of the Department for Business & Trade. We are here for the purpose of making regulation work to deliver real world impact. Regulation is a powerful Government tool to address market failures, influence behaviour and promote positive action. Crafted and delivered well, regulation can be an enabler of growth, innovation and efficiency.
Since early 2018 we have been building a positive and creative team that enjoys a position of influence and respect within an organisation that continues to grow.
Our primary purpose is to protect people and places from product-related harm, ensuring consumers and businesses can buy and sell products with confidence
Further information can be found on our website here.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles. We embrace diversity and promote equality of opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives and skills. There is a guaranteed interview scheme (DCS) for people with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
We are Inclusive
We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible and recognise how important inclusivity is to achieve the best outcomes. We hope to attract applications from all underrepresented groups.
We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation if required to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform crucial job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.
At OPSS, we believe in the power of connections to create positive change. We are looking for an experienced, creative and strategic communicator, to lead our regulatory communications and campaigns; delivering on our primary purpose to protect people and places from product-related harm, enabling trade and growth by ensuring consumers and businesses can buy and sell products with confidence.
The role leads a diverse and talented team whose work ranges from planning events, crafting key messages and news stories through strong relationships with DBT press office and managing OPSS Gov.uk content and publications, to campaign and resources creation, increasing the impact of OPSS social media channels, media monitoring and evaluation and the OPSS brand.
You will have the chance to develop creative solutions to some of the most important product regulation challenges of our time, from promoting the safe use of e-bikes and e-scooters, raising awareness of product safety recalls and ensuring consumers can buy as safely from online marketplaces as the high street. We have created consumer campaigns ensuring parents know about the dangers of small magnets and button batteries and led news alerts telling UK consumers about a major recall of certain models of white goods.
The post holder will play a central part in developing an OPSS communications plan, aligned with our organisational strategy to prioritise outcomes that make a difference for people and places. You will encourage and coordinate collaboration between OPSS teams to deliver outcomes where they’re needed.
The OPSS Communications team will oversee the development and curation of OPSS social media channels and social media plan, as we put a more targeted approach in place.
You will support our product safety incidents, overseeing the delivery of a wide range of creative content, that will inform and guide the public to take the right action to protect themselves from harm.
This is a fast paced, high-profile role. You will need to work well under pressure, with the ability to adapt to changing situations and priorities which to communicate clearly to your team.
Key Responsibilities
- Leading an OPSS functional team to plan, coordinate, deliver and monitor strategic communications, content and channels, aligned to OPSS objectives.
- Guiding line managers reporting to you, as well as supporting year in industry students and graduates on the OPSS regulatory leaders’ scheme.
- Creating and delivering an OPSS communications plan, 2025-2028, aligned to the organisation’s three-year organisational strategy.
- Crafting insight-based communications frameworks and plans for priority announcements and projects.
- Building productive relationships with senior colleagues in pivotal roles throughout OPSS, to identify and shape our communications plans.
- Embedding a culture of planning, insight and evaluation, drawing on best practise standards.
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme