Communications Officer

We are looking for a Communications Officer to support and play a crucial role in a recently formed team within Islington Borough Council.

In 2022 Islington was amongst a small number of Councils that won, via a national grant application process to the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), funding to take part in a Health Determinant Research Collaboration (HDRC). After an initial year of developing plans around the initial bid the NIHR confirmed funding of over £5millon to the council from October 2023 to September 2028 for their work. The team now named Evidence Islington are now looking to complete the team with the recruitment of a Communications expert that can bring a flair for getting noticed.

Considerable work was done in the development year and this has continued over the last 12 months as a fully fledged HDRC to lay the way for creating a more research confident culture within the Council and starting to involve residents and local people in designing a programme to move forward with. The person we need will be tasked with carrying this forward and build upon this by developing:

• strong external communications for the council’s website and for the quarterly residents newspaper and any other appropriate channels

• Building and maintaining relationships with internal and external stakeholders

• Involvement, alongside the Participation and Engagement Officer, as the EI rep with any council events that engage local people and promote EI’s work at any such event

• creative and eye-catching internal communications to publicise the EI team and their work and the benefits of the use of evidence and research internally and externally and the development opportunities that will come out of this for council staff 

• a process for gathering testimonials and communications case studies for both internal and external use 

To fulfil these requirements, your comms work experience should be able to demonstrate that your work is effective, data driven, targeted and culturally competent. A team player with a knack for understanding how to cut through the noise and get noticed.

You’ll come with some experience of delivering excellent communications and an understanding of the challenges facing councils and working in a political environment.

You'll join a new team, the role is part time (0.6FTE / 3 days a week) and will be hybrid working with the office base at 222 Upper Street, Islington – which has great transport links bus, train and underground are all close by.

All further information around the role can be found by following the link below to the Job Description and Personal Specification.

Islington is a place rich with diversity and culture. As a council our sense of purpose couldn’t be clearer: we serve. It’s in the logo. We are committed to challenging inequality in the borough and as one of the largest employers we know that to look after the place and the planet, we have to look after our people. Together we can change the future.

We are determined to create a more equal Islington, where everyone who lives here has an equal chance to thrive. 

To do this, everyone who works at Islington Council lives by a set of values which guide us in everything that we do: collaborative, ambitious, resourceful, and empowering. They spell out ‘CARE’, which is what we think public service is all about. 

Watch our video to hear more about our mission and how you can help us achieve it from the Leader of the Council, Cllr Kaya Comer-Schwartz.