13375 - Senior Resourcing Press and Communications Manager
| Posting date: | 05 January 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £42,914 to £53,081 per year |
| Additional salary information: | https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 30 January 2026 |
| Location: | UK |
| Remote working: | Hybrid - work remotely up to 2 days per week |
| Company: | Ministry of Justice |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 13375 |
Summary
Senior Resourcing Press and Communications Manager – South East/National
Band B/SEO
Permanent
Salary
South East/National
Job description
The Recruitment and Retention Communications (RRC) team sits within the Ministry of Justice’s award-winning communications team. We pride ourselves on having an excellent and supportive team culture, a focus on innovation and making a difference to people’s lives.
We are looking for a passionate external communications professional to join the Resourcing Communications external team. The individual will join a team which aims to generate extensive and creative press coverage to reach national and local audiences and tell the amazing stories going on in prisons, probation and the wider justice system. Helping to increase the number of applicants for justice system roles and to get our staff the recognition and praise they deserve.
For too long prisons and the wider justice system have been overlooked, there is not enough recognition of the amazing work that goes on every day, incredible stories of compassion, progress against extraordinary odds, and rehabilitation.
You will primarily work as part of an ambitious and exciting team who will be responsible for increasing understanding of the work delivered every day by prison officers, probation officers and magistrates . Your objectives will include placing positive, creative, national, consumer and regional press and external communications, raising awareness and consideration of our roles as an employment opportunity and career. This role would be ideal for someone with a background in PR/press/journalism and media.
Working as part of a team of central and regional communications experts, you will achieve these objectives by going out and about to visit staff in your regional area, building close relationships with key prisons and probation offices and local media outlets and finding and placing the stories that inform the public about the justice system work and the role our staff play in delivering that. This will also include opportunities to promote our staff on a national (print, broadcast and online) level, as well as local feature articles and broadcast packages.
The role could also include wider communications e.g. supporting local engagement, which might include community outreach work and also working in close collaboration with our digital and marketing teams and central Ministry of Justice Press Office.
Your media coverage will not only be used externally to raise awareness of justice roles, but will be vital to help raise staff morale, showing them their excellent work reflected in the local media.
You will ensure all of your work is executed to brilliant standards, within an existing culture of continuous improvement and innovation, and evaluating the impact of communications on an ongoing basis. You will also be expected to develop strong networks both internally and externally.
Your interpersonal skills will be first rate and you will be at ease engaging with senior internal and external stakeholders for example policy teams and senior staff, eg prison governors and Heads of Probation Delivery Units who you may need to liaise with to generate media coverage.
Person specification
The role has several key requirements including:
Expertise in delivering creative press/PR and external communications
You will think creatively to challenge the often-negative narrative about work in the prison, probation service and magistracy. We want to do this by telling stories at a national and regional level about the great work the prison, probation and court service and its people do. This includes keeping the public safe, delivering justice, rehabilitating offenders by offering training, support and opportunities, and helping offenders move forwards with their lives. We want the work of frontline staff to be recognised by the public as on a par with other frontline services such as police officers and healthcare workers, and for traditional stereotypes to be challenged. You will be expected to proactively look for other communications opportunities to bring new approaches and uphold best practice.
You will have excellent judgement, which will enable you to identify potential reputational risks in the work you propose, adequately weigh up the risk and reward to decide how to proceed, seek appropriate sign-off and ensure mitigations are in place.
Using insight and evaluating the impact of your work.
You will work to ensure that your work aligns with the MOJ annual communications strategy and to Departmental and cross-government priorities. Your work should be based on relevant audience insight, set outcomes, have an implementation plan, and include evaluation metrics to measure the impact of press coverage.
Effective collaboration.
You are expected to build positive effective working and collaborative relationships internally and externally. You will be able to use these relationships to unblock issues, manage risks, and deliver more effective communications. You will be working closely alongside an internal communications retention colleague, press office, digital and marketing colleagues.
Proactive, solution-focussed, self-motivated and innovative
You are a positive, proactive self-starter who is able to drive activity forward communications at pace, from initial planning to completion. You are solution-focussed, proactive and resilient. and are able to come up with new, innovative and creative ideas to extend the reach communications. You are also able to come up with practical solutions to barriers and challenges that arise.
Resilient and flexible
You will be resilient and flexible and able to overcome challenges that crop up in your work and to help to find solutions to unblock and resolve issues.
Band B/SEO
Permanent
Salary
South East/National
Job description
The Recruitment and Retention Communications (RRC) team sits within the Ministry of Justice’s award-winning communications team. We pride ourselves on having an excellent and supportive team culture, a focus on innovation and making a difference to people’s lives.
We are looking for a passionate external communications professional to join the Resourcing Communications external team. The individual will join a team which aims to generate extensive and creative press coverage to reach national and local audiences and tell the amazing stories going on in prisons, probation and the wider justice system. Helping to increase the number of applicants for justice system roles and to get our staff the recognition and praise they deserve.
For too long prisons and the wider justice system have been overlooked, there is not enough recognition of the amazing work that goes on every day, incredible stories of compassion, progress against extraordinary odds, and rehabilitation.
You will primarily work as part of an ambitious and exciting team who will be responsible for increasing understanding of the work delivered every day by prison officers, probation officers and magistrates . Your objectives will include placing positive, creative, national, consumer and regional press and external communications, raising awareness and consideration of our roles as an employment opportunity and career. This role would be ideal for someone with a background in PR/press/journalism and media.
Working as part of a team of central and regional communications experts, you will achieve these objectives by going out and about to visit staff in your regional area, building close relationships with key prisons and probation offices and local media outlets and finding and placing the stories that inform the public about the justice system work and the role our staff play in delivering that. This will also include opportunities to promote our staff on a national (print, broadcast and online) level, as well as local feature articles and broadcast packages.
The role could also include wider communications e.g. supporting local engagement, which might include community outreach work and also working in close collaboration with our digital and marketing teams and central Ministry of Justice Press Office.
Your media coverage will not only be used externally to raise awareness of justice roles, but will be vital to help raise staff morale, showing them their excellent work reflected in the local media.
You will ensure all of your work is executed to brilliant standards, within an existing culture of continuous improvement and innovation, and evaluating the impact of communications on an ongoing basis. You will also be expected to develop strong networks both internally and externally.
Your interpersonal skills will be first rate and you will be at ease engaging with senior internal and external stakeholders for example policy teams and senior staff, eg prison governors and Heads of Probation Delivery Units who you may need to liaise with to generate media coverage.
Person specification
The role has several key requirements including:
Expertise in delivering creative press/PR and external communications
You will think creatively to challenge the often-negative narrative about work in the prison, probation service and magistracy. We want to do this by telling stories at a national and regional level about the great work the prison, probation and court service and its people do. This includes keeping the public safe, delivering justice, rehabilitating offenders by offering training, support and opportunities, and helping offenders move forwards with their lives. We want the work of frontline staff to be recognised by the public as on a par with other frontline services such as police officers and healthcare workers, and for traditional stereotypes to be challenged. You will be expected to proactively look for other communications opportunities to bring new approaches and uphold best practice.
You will have excellent judgement, which will enable you to identify potential reputational risks in the work you propose, adequately weigh up the risk and reward to decide how to proceed, seek appropriate sign-off and ensure mitigations are in place.
Using insight and evaluating the impact of your work.
You will work to ensure that your work aligns with the MOJ annual communications strategy and to Departmental and cross-government priorities. Your work should be based on relevant audience insight, set outcomes, have an implementation plan, and include evaluation metrics to measure the impact of press coverage.
Effective collaboration.
You are expected to build positive effective working and collaborative relationships internally and externally. You will be able to use these relationships to unblock issues, manage risks, and deliver more effective communications. You will be working closely alongside an internal communications retention colleague, press office, digital and marketing colleagues.
Proactive, solution-focussed, self-motivated and innovative
You are a positive, proactive self-starter who is able to drive activity forward communications at pace, from initial planning to completion. You are solution-focussed, proactive and resilient. and are able to come up with new, innovative and creative ideas to extend the reach communications. You are also able to come up with practical solutions to barriers and challenges that arise.
Resilient and flexible
You will be resilient and flexible and able to overcome challenges that crop up in your work and to help to find solutions to unblock and resolve issues.