Digital Communications Officer (IMPACT) - Social Policy - Grade 6 - 98840

Position Details

Social Policy, IMPACT Centre, College of Social Sciences

University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full-time starting salary is normally in the range £42,149 to £50,296. With potential progression once in post to £56,587 a year

Part-time 50% FTE

Fixed-term until December 2022 initially (with potential extension to December 2027, dependent on project need post end of initial contract)

Secondment and fixed-term post opportunity to December 2022

Grade 6

Closing Date: 3rd February 2022

Background

IMPACT ('Improving Adult Care Together') is a UK-wide centre for implementing evidence in adult social care, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, and the Health Foundation. Working across the four nations of the UK, IMPACT is an 'implementation centre', drawing on knowledge gained from different types of research, the lived experience of people using services and their carers, and the practice knowledge of social care staff. Its aims are to enable practical improvements on the ground, and make a crucial contribution to longer-term cultural change, by:

• Supporting more widespread use of evidence in adult social care, leading to better care practices, systems and outcomes for people who use services, their families and communities
• Building capacity and skills in the adult social care workforce to work with evidence of different kinds to innovate, improve care and deliver better outcomes
• Facilitating sustainable and productive relationships between the full range of adult social care stakeholders to co-create positive change/innovations and improve outcomes for people using adult social care and their families
• Improving understanding of the factors which help and hinder the implementation of evidence in practice, and using this to overcome longstanding barriers to positive change

After an initial 'co-design' phase (2021), IMPACT moves into a 12-month Establishment phase in 2022 and into a five-year 'Delivery' phase from 2023. This is therefore an opportunity to join a new centre and shape its work for the long-term, making a difference to the lives of nearly one million people who draw on care and support, around 6 million carers and around 1.5 million people who work in adult social care

Key priorities from IMPACT's draft communications and engagement plan for 2022 are:

• Raising awareness of IMPACT and opportunities to engage
• Building our networks in each of the 4 nations:
• Promoting understanding (and value) of evidence as constituting different types of research, lived experience and practice knowledge
• Continuing to reach and engage groups whose voices are seldom heard - especially people who draw on care and support, carers, front-line care workers, people from black and minority ethnic communities and people who do not usually get chance to take part in such debates
• Continuing to build longer-term relationships with national policy and practice partners, whose support will be essential to help embed lessons learned from individual projects and for IMPACT to be 'greater than the sum of its parts'
• Learning more about how best to communicate with a diverse audience in order to further refine our approach to communications and engagement in 2022 and beyond

Job Summary

The post holder will report to the Centre Manager, with additional support and input from a Strategic Communications Advisor. They will work alongside a communications and engagement officer, and with various communications and engagement budgets across different aspects of IMPACT's delivery. They will play a vital role in designing and delivering a high quality, accessible and interactive website for IMPACT, which helps to promote IMPACT's work across the UK and to engage with diverse stakeholders (including people who draw on care and support, carers, practitioners, service providers, social care leaders, researchers and policy makers).

They may also play a key role in the design and development of our 'Ask IMPACT' service, which seeks queries from the field and generates very accessible, evidence-informed responses, building up a repository of trusted resources over time.

Main Duties

• Develop and deliver IMPACT's web content, recording and reporting on progress throughout post, with the aim of raising the profile of IMPACT's outputs and objectives and engaging a diverse group of stakeholders
• Engage with internal stakeholders and form strong professional relationships with academic and professional services colleagues to gain an understanding of strategic priorities and areas of potential collaboration within the School, College and University
• Effectively and proactively engage with colleagues from across the communications and digital development community of the University, and work closely with the College Marketing Team, to seek out new communications opportunities and ensure the alignment of IMPACT's digital content with the University's
• Engage with external digital stakeholders to help deliver IMPACT's mission and embody its values (including with the communications teams of partner agencies, and of funders)
• Ensuring IMPACT communicates well through its digital content, with a broad range of stakeholders, including people who draw on care and support, carers and front-line care workers through its digital communications
• Ensuring IMPACT's commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion is embedded in all relevant materials and ways of working, and develop consistently up to date knowledge of best practice in this area to ensure optimum accessibility for all stakeholders to digital content
• Communicate with groups whose voices are seldom heard, helping to tackle traditional power imbalances so that different groups of people can take part on a more equal footing. This might include approaches to communicating in very accessible language and to people who do not speak English as a first language, as well as adapting digital content to those with various accessibility needs
• Liaise with appropriate colleagues to design, write, produce and review a range of online collateral to represent IMPACT's role, work and achievements across a broad range of channels and to a broad range of stakeholders (including production of new digital content where appropriate, e.g. videos and newsletters)
• (Working with IMPACT's Communications & Engagement Manager) produce a range of high-quality digital content, including digital banners, web content and edited video pieces to clearly convey IMPACT's objectives and outputs
• Support the initial development of IMPACT's social media channels, building traction and linking to website and broader stakeholder content to build traction.
• Work with other digital media platforms to promote IMPACT's work
• Play an integral role in the communication of a distinctive and coherent identity across all IMPACT's activities
• Quality assure digital materials for external release
• Set up systems to consistently capture IMPACT's digital engagement, reach and outcomes, proactively obtaining feedback to feed into a model of continuous improvement and produce reports sharing both good practice and learning
• Keep abreast of the latest developments and technologies in the field, with a keen eye on digital trends, exploring and implementing alternative modes of delivery to achieve optimum impact, interest and traction
• Running online events, with pre-recorded and live-streamed content, presented in an accessible format
• To undertake such other duties as may be required

Person Specification

• General education to at least A level (level 3) or equivalent or equivalent experience
• 3 years' minimum experience in a role successfully developing web content, preferably in a large organisation (with pre-defined web content structures), in complex external environments and/or with diverse stakeholders
• Experience of contributing to the delivery of a successful communications plan, by developing a range of compelling and fully accessible digital and web content
• Proficiency working with CMS (University uses Contensis, training is provided)
• Understanding, interest in and empathy for the challenges facing adult social care and the context of the stakeholders therein
• Ability to communicate successfully, across multiple channels with a range of sectors and individuals
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal; ability to deal confidently and diplomatically with colleagues at all levels, up to and including senior managers and external stakeholders
• Computer-literate: articulate, confident and competent in the use of a variety of electronic systems to include; Word, Excel and Access, Creative Cloud, Adobe, Web authoring and editing software, including photoshop and other web-related software
• Experience of writing copy for publication, including web content and for social media
• High level of written and spoken English with ability to write copy at press and publication standard, with the highest level of accuracy and attention to detail
• Experience of using data analytics to report and inform work and search engine optimisation
• Experience of running digital campaigns successfully and monitoring their performance
• Logical and systematic approach to tasks and good organisational skills with the ability to manage conflicting demands and prioritise without guidance
• Ability to work on own initiative, manage time effectively, progress tasks concurrently and work under pressure to meet deadlines - whilst also working as part of a team
• Highly creative, with experience of successfully developing and managing online content in a highly responsive way, producing timely and responsive content
• Ability to set up and manage systems to track, monitor and report progress internally and externally to funders
• High-level listening and comprehension ability, with the ability to translate complex information into a variety of media, to gain traction and achieve defined centre objectives
• Experience of successfully managing activities within specified budgets and timescales
• Experience of developing accessible content for a wide audience, understanding the potential barriers to digital access, and creating content that enables as many users as possible to access, understand and engage
• Experience of running online events both live-streaming and pre-recording and presenting in an accessible format.

Informal enquiries to Sophie Sinclair, S.C.Sinclair@bham.ac.uk

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment

We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working.