Head of Communications

From working on handling plans for a high-profile contempt of court case, raising the profile of the Law Officers amongst key target audiences, and working collaboratively with other criminal justice departments, the Head of Communications and their team are responsible for all aspects of departmental communications, including managing the AGO presence on GOV.UK, securing grid slots, internal communications, social media, visits and media handling.The Head of Communications leads a small team of four who between them bring a range of comms skills and experience. There is a Deputy Head of Comms, a press and comms officer focused on internal comms, a press officer and a digital communications officer.This is a great opportunity to work closely with ministers and help shape the communications agenda for AGO. The Attorney General and Solicitor General are both new to government and so will rely on the Head of Comms to provide advice and direction. There will be frequent opportunities to inform and help shape their thinking.The Attorney General is responsible to Parliament for the Law Officer Departments (Crown Prosecution Service, Government Legal Department, Serious Fraud Office and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate), and the Head of Communications will work with senior leaders and communications officials throughout those organisations.The Head of Communications will be responsible for overseeing the press office service provided by the AGO to Her Majestys Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) under a shared service arrangement.The Head of Communications and their team are responsible for all aspects of departmental communications, including managing the AGO presence on GOV.UK, internal communications, social media, visits and media handling.The Head of Comms will be part of the Government Communication Service community, attending cross-Whitehall communications meetings.The post holder will take a proactive approach to managing cross-government communications issues related to major government legal challenges and issues where necessary. This will involve close working with No10 and other relevant stakeholders.The successful candidate will oversee the provision of out of hours media cover for the Attorney Generals Office, and ensure Ministers and senior officials are sighted on relevant media coverage and breaking stories. As part of this they will be expected to participate in the out of hours duty rota, for which an allowance will be paid.