Job summary
- Main area
- Communications
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 7
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 391-RFL-7020933
- Employer
- Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Royal Free Hospital campus
- Town
- Hampstead
- Salary
- £54,320 - £60,981 per annum inclusive of HCAS
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 11/06/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Band 7 Senior Communications Manager (public affairs)
NHS AfC: Band 7
Our trust has over 17,000 staff serving 2 million patients every year. It comprises Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, North Middlesex University Hospital and more than 30 services in the community. This larger scale organisation provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to continue our pioneering work, particularly in finding ways to deliver even better care to our patients.
Our mission is to deliver world class care and expertise in our clinical services, underpinned by world class teaching and research and we will continue to measure our progress against our five governing objectives: excellent outcomes, excellent patient and staff experience, excellent value for taxpayers’ money, being safe and meeting our external duties, and building a strong organisation.
Everyone is welcome at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. We're proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME, gender equality, staff carers and people with disabilities and lived experiences to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.
Click here to view our video Welcome to the Royal Free
Job overview
Exciting times lie ahead for the Royal Free London (RFL), as we start work on delivering our five-year clinical strategy and focus on our commitment to providing world class expertise and care for our communities – close to home and across the entire NHS.
The RFL’s award-winning communications department is at the heart of the trust and its four main hospitals and many satellite sites.
We provide positive, proactive, honest, and timely communications and engagement. The communications team operate in a busy working environment. We serve a wide range of audiences that include approximately 17,000 staff and over a million patients who use our services every year, plus local and national broadcast and print media and GPs.
The team develops content for a number of internal communications channels, informs staff and other key stakeholders of key strategic and operational changes, manages the RFL intranet, the trust’s newly developed website and social media channels, handles hundreds of media calls every year, and oversees the design and production of patient information.
The trust's senior communications manager (public affairs) will be responsible for ensuring effective engagement and relationships with the trust's key stakeholders.
Main duties of the job
This is a chance to work with an award-winning communications team at a time of great change and opportunity.
The Royal Free London group is leading the way in many areas of the NHS. We have recently launched our clinical strategy; merged with North Middlesex University Hospital; and our clinical teams continue to deliver UK and world firsts.
This role is an opportunity to make a real impact on how we develop our public affairs/stakeholder engagement, working closely alongside media, digital communications, and internal communications colleagues.
You will be an experienced and dynamic communications professional who will play an integral part in ensuring our key stakeholders are kept informed and updated - somebody who can hit the ground running and build strong professional relationships with key influencers.
You will be a well-rounded communicator with excellent written skills, initiative, drive and tenacity.
You will be part of a team that spends a lot of time working across all locations in the RFL group, meeting colleagues and really understanding the challenges facing the NHS, and our trust, and celebrating the achievements of colleagues.
You will role model our approach to spending a minimum of one day per week at a trust site away from our HQ, connecting with staff and developing a thorough understanding of the challenges and opportunities for our hospital and business units.
Working for our organisation
The RFL is a large NHS trust which employs more than 17,000 staff and serves a population of over 2 million people across 70 sites in north London and Hertfordshire.
Our mission is to be world class in terms of our healthcare services, clinical research and teaching excellence.
The Royal Free London’s ambition is to bring the best of the NHS to every patient — no matter which of our hospitals or services they visit.
To support us to achieve this aim, the Royal Free London group was established in 2017, when we were one of four trusts selected to develop and lead a group of NHS providers to share services and resources to improve patient experience and care.
Working side-by-side with other healthcare experts, we are sharing ways of working which we know deliver the best outcomes. By working collectively, we can reduce unnecessary variations in patient care.
We have created a blueprint to deliver world-leading healthcare for all our patients, meet growing demands on our services and create a healthier future for our local communities.
We will transform the way we deliver care, in response to the needs of our patients and the way they want to access healthcare.
With advances in digital technology, detailed health data, and the growing emphasis on prevention and integrated care, we have developed this plan to better meet our patients’ needs, alongside our relentless focus on providing world class care and local expertise.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see attached job description for more information about this role and working at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.
Person specification
Royal Free World Class Values
Essential criteria
- Demonstrable ability to meet the Trust Values
Education & professional Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Relevant degree plus CIPR/CIM (or equivalent) qualification or equivalent experience
- Evidence of continuous professional development in communications/PR
Desirable criteria
- Communications/PR master's qualification
Experience
Essential criteria
- Specialist knowledge underpinned by theory and experience of internal communications
- Managing and leading a team, and leading integrated teams on projects and/or campaigns
- Maintaining effective relationships with organisational leadership
- Research and evaluation methods and techniques
- Working with sensitive/confidential issues
- Intranet management and content management systems
- Writing, editing, and producing publications
Desirable criteria
- Specialist knowledge of media, PR and marketing processes and techniques
- Basic NHS functions, structure, issues, and values
- Development of policies
- Design and print processes
- Experience of managing social media platforms and developing content for digital channels, particularly LinkedIn
Skills and Aptitudes
Essential criteria
- Understanding of when team members need support to succeed with challenging tasks and when intervention is needed
- Able to present strategic options where opinions are divided, and the issues are highly complex
- Able to have frequent periods of concentration and cope with frequent interruptions / deal with issues as they arise, prioritising heavy workloads and managing multiple projects at the same time
- Proven organisational abilities
- Excellent written and oral communication skills, and the ability to teach others
- Able to master a complex brief quickly and interpret it for a non-specialist audience
- Analytical and data presentation skills
- Able to build confident working relationships with colleagues at all levels
- Ability to cope calmly with distressing/emotional situations
- Able to anticipate problems before they arise and offer appropriate solutions, demonstrating sound judgement
Desirable criteria
- Advanced software skills (MS Office, intranet packages, email software)
Personal Qualities & attributes
Essential criteria
- Highly developed interpersonal communication and negotiation skills; a team player able to contribute to the wider mission of the organisation, with a supportive and flexible approach
- Self-motivated, Proactive and Positive
- Resilient to cope with challenge and criticism
- Ability to inspire confidence when presenting
- Team player, willing to ‘roll up sleeves’ where necessary
- Highly organised approach and ability to prioritise own work in order to meet strict deadlines and targets
- Embraces change
- Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to work closely and effectively with staff at all levels within the organisation, including ability to persuade as well as be diplomatic
- Values diversity and difference, operates with integrity and openness
- Actively develops themselves and others
- Self-awareness in terms of emotional intelligence, biases and personal triggers with cultural sensitivity and awareness
- Demonstrable commitment to partnership working with a range of external organisations
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Application numbers
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Ian Lloyd
- Job title
- Director of communications
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07967 595 592
If you have problems applying, contact
- Address
-
RFL
- Telephone
- If you have any queries, please contact NLPSS Recruitment Helpdesk tel. 020 3758 2060
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