Communications and Engagement Officer (Research and Innovation)
Job Description
Job summary
At Sheffield Children's research and innovation is integral to our future and it's been at our core since our founding in 1876.
Over the past 150 years, we have led the way in paediatric care, developing innovative approaches to treating children as we pursue our mission to provide healthier futures for children and young people.
Excellence in research ensures the best healthcare outcomes for children.
Over the next 5 years Sheffield Children's will:
- Grow research to rank among the world's paediatric research centres
- Become a UK leader in healthcare innovation, digital health, and child health technologies
- Build the National Centre for Child Health Technology uniting researchers, businesses, healthcare professionals, young people families and funders to tackle major healthcare challenges
- Develop technologies addressing national priorities in child health including prevention, health inequalities, childhood obesity, mental health, cancer, disabilities, and long-term conditions
We are committed to fully integrating research and innovation across the Trust, ensuring everyone understands its importance and has opportunities to take part.
Main duties of the job
In this post you will develop and lead on delivery of communication and engagement for Research across Sheffield Children's. Working closely with the Research and Innovation team, you will develop the communications activity for research, leading on dynamic, relevant and engaging promotion of research for colleagues, the public, donors and key stakeholders.
Building successful awareness raising and engagement activity, you will raise patient participation and colleague engagement in research amongst our diverse colleague base. You will build measurement into everything you do, testing and adapting as you go.
About us
At Sheffield Children's, our purpose is clear: to provide healthier futures for children and young people. Our three strategic aims are:
- Outstanding Patient Care
- Brilliant Place to work
- Leaders in Children's Health
We work successfully with local, regional, and national partners to provide physical and mental healthcare across acute and community settings. Many of our clinicians are amongst the best in their field, recognised nationally and internationally for their expertise.
As well as having enormous pride in what we do, we are a friendly, welcoming, and motivated NHS Trust who are guided by our CARE values: Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence. Our nearly 4000 colleagues live these values, ensuring kind and compassionate care that makes patients and their families feel safe and at home.
As we approach our 150th anniversary in 2026, we remain committed to enhancing our reputation in children's health leadership, improving the experiences of both patient and colleagues, and focusing on our communities and population health.
Sheffield Children's provides great benefits to support your wellbeing, with excellent annual leave and pension schemes, health programmes, and exclusive discounts--helping you succeed at work and beyond.
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the job description and person specification for full details of the role.
Inclusive Recruitment & Selection
We are committed to being an inclusive employer and accurate data capture is an important part of that to ensure we are supportive and representative. Our aim is to ensure that all applicants can see themselves in the available categories on our application form, but we recognise that some of our data capture fields are not inclusive. We have flagged this with our system provider to ask for change.
We offer encouragement and active support to applicants with additional needs, including those from ethnic minorities, with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community. If you wish to adjust any aspect of the recruitment process or wish to find out more about our recruitment & selection processes, please get in touch with our Recruitment Manager: [email protected]
We are continually reviewing our recruitment & selection process to support the long-term aim of Sheffield Childrens being a champion of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. If you have any ideas for improvement, please get in touch with Catherine Gilbert at [email protected]
Trust Values
The Trust is committed to providing great quality patient care and keep children, young people and families at the heart of what we do by following our CARE values:
- Compassion leading by kindness and showing empathy, understanding and respect
- Accountability striving to do the right thing and owning responsibility
- Respect value differences, tackling inequality and fostering a culture of inclusion
- Excellence delivering a high-quality standard of care
Person Specification
Qualifications and Training
Essential
- A degree, or equivalent experience, preferably in a science discipline
- Masters or equivalent experience in research
Desirable
- Project management qualification
Experience
Essential
- Experience working in communications / marketing team and with the media
- Experience crafting engaging copy across various channels, including newsletters, intranets, and websites
- Experience of leading staff engagement activities
- Experience of using a wide range of communications tools and channels, including social media, intranet, website with the ability to identify the right channel for any particular audience
- Experience in seeking innovative approaches to improve outcomes and testing new content formats, while measuring and learning from the results
- Experience of working productively in a multi-disciplinary team
- Experience of building good stakeholder relations
Desirable
- Experience of research communications
- Experience working in local authority, government, NHS or voluntary organisations and health provider/s
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- Excellent writing, editing and proofing skills
- Strong analytical skills to ensure issues are identified to ensure effective promotion, and to manage the reputation of organisations and leaders
- Communications skills to explain complex information clearly and concisely for a diverse range of channels and audiences
- Organisational skills to support and deliver effective media and digital communication plans for initiatives or projects, with tangible examples of success
- Ability to analyse complex facts and situations quickly, and develop a range of creative and appropriate options
- Ability to work without close supervision, providing specialist advice to the organisation, working to tight and often changing timescales
- Managing multiple projects, leading regular reviews and making changes where necessary
- Experience using Microsoft Office 365, incl. Teams and SharePoint
Desirable
- Familiar with Adobe Photoshop or similar
- Understanding of research landscape within a healthcare setting
- Understanding of professional and current issues related to the NHS, and relevant fields
- Familiar with media monitoring platforms like PRGloo/Cision/Gorkana
Personal Attributes
Essential
- Good team player - involving, listening to and respecting others
- Organised and able to deliver objectives against tight deadlines
- Proactive, positive and self-motivated, with the ability to organise time and work with minimum supervision
- Ability to deliver projects on time and on budget, dealing effectively with competing / conflicting demands
- Confident and able to form credible and effective relationships with all colleagues, including senior management
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab) .
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also ...
