Head of communications

Band 8b · Communications officer · 615 job evaluation points

Leads communications and engagement for the organisation, sets its strategy, and advises the board on reputation.

Responsibilities

Set the communications and engagement strategy for the organisation.
Lead and develop the communications function and manage its budget.
Advise the chief executive and board on reputation, stakeholder engagement, and communications risk.
Lead crisis communications during major incidents.
Build relationships with senior partners, journalists, and patient groups.
Shape how the organisation explains its digital services and its use of data to the public.

Skills

Skill	Expected level	What this level means
Communications strategy and planningThis reference	Expert (4)	You can: set the communications strategy for the organisation lead crisis communications advise the board on reputation and stakeholder engagement
Media relationsThis reference	Expert (4)	You can: lead media handling during major incidents and crises protect and build the organisation's reputation with senior stakeholders advise the board on reputational risk
Internal communicationsThis reference	Expert (4)	You can: set the internal communications and staff engagement strategy advise the executive team on culture and engagement
Digital and social mediaThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: manage the organisation's digital channels and their content plans handle negative or misleading posts, including during incidents use analytics to improve reach and engagement
People managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: line manage a team, setting objectives and running appraisals support wellbeing and manage attendance, performance, and conduct plan the team's development and succession
Budget managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: hold and manage a budget, forecasting and explaining variances build a business case with costs and benefits
Stakeholder relationship managementUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: direct the stakeholder relationship strategy for your teams ensure stakeholder's objectives are set and support teams to meet them influence and negotiate with senior stakeholders to resolve issues and enable progress
Leadership and guidanceUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: make decisions characterised by medium levels of risk and complexity and recommend decisions as risk and complexity increase build consensus between services or independent stakeholders identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them engage in varying types of feedback, choosing the right type at the appropriate time and ensuring the discussion and decision stick bring people together to form a motivated team and help create the right environment for a team to work in facilitate the best team makeup depending on the situation

Typical qualifications and experience

A professional qualification in communications, or equivalent experience.
Extensive experience of leading communications for a complex organisation.

Band 8b outline

Knowledge: Expert knowledge across several disciplines or a large service.
Autonomy: Shapes policy and strategy for a large area.
Scope: Several services or teams, or a principal-level discipline.
Leadership: Manages managers, or is the principal authority in a discipline.
Accountability: Several services, their staff, and their budgets.

Job evaluation (illustrative)

Factor	Level	Level summary	Points
Communication and relationship skills	6	Gives highly complex, highly contentious information where there are significant barriers to acceptance, using the highest level of communication skills.	60
Knowledge, training, and experience	7	Highly developed specialist knowledge across the range of the specialism (master's level or equivalent).	196
Analytical and judgemental skills	5	Judgements on highly complex facts or situations needing analysis, interpretation, and comparison of options.	60
Planning and organisational skills	5	Forms long-term strategic plans, with uncertainty and effects across the organisation.	60
Physical skills	2	Skills gained through practice, such as standard keyboard use or driving.	15
Responsibility for patient and client care	1	Helps patients, clients, or relatives during incidental contact.	4
Responsibility for policy and service development	4	Implements policy and develops policy or services for a service or several areas.	32
Responsibility for financial and physical resources	4	Holds or sets the budget for a department or service, or buys or maintains its assets.	32
Responsibility for people	4	Line manages a function or department, designs training programmes as a main duty, or delivers a full range of HR services.	32
Responsibility for information resources	5	Designs and develops major information systems, or runs information systems for several services as the main duty.	34
Responsibility for research and development	2	Regularly does research, development, trials, or equipment and system testing as part of the job.	12
Freedom to act	5	Works within general policies, and in most cases decides how to interpret them.	45
Physical effort	1	Sitting, standing, and walking, with little physical effort.	3
Mental effort	3	Frequent concentration on unpredictable work, or occasional prolonged concentration.	12
Emotional effort	2	Occasional exposure, or frequent indirect exposure, to distressing circumstances.	11
Working conditions	2	Occasional unpleasant conditions, frequent travel or outdoor work, or near-continuous screen use on most days.	7
Total (Band 8b: 585 to 629)			615

Head of communications

Responsibilities

Skills

Typical qualifications and experience

Band 8b outline

Job evaluation (illustrative)

Self assessment