Job summary
- Main area
- Communications
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 7
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 994-ICB-7018525-A
- Employer
- NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board
- Town
- Leicester
- Closing
- 30/03/2025 23:59
Employer heading

Communications Manager
NHS AfC: Band 7
Job overview
Through this new role within the communications and engagement team, you will showcase your talent and experience across the full breadth of the communications mix to:
• Ìý Ìýmake a difference to people’s opinion of the local NHS and wider health and care system
• Ìý Ìýinfluence people’s knowledge and use of local health and care services
• Ìý Ìýempower colleagues to do their best work by keeping them informed and engaged
• Ìý Ìýbe a key player in improving the health of the local population and reducing health inequalities.
Patients are at the heart of everything we do. This will be a varied but highly rewarding role, giving you the opportunity to innovate across a wide range of communications projects and campaigns for the benefit of local people. It will require a high degree of adaptability and flexibility to manage your varied workload, competing priorities, and the ability to work in partnership with a wide range of colleagues both within the organisation and in the wider health and care system.Ìý
Main duties of the job
The ideal candidate will be skilled and experienced at bringing together the appropriate communications activities to achieve a campaign or project’s objectives. With a particular flair for digital, you will be adept at managing, delivering and measuring communications activities across a range of channels including media relations, social media, internal communications, stakeholder management, video, events, advertising and promotional materials. This will include skills in using content management and scheduling systems, and creative software.
You will have an eye for a good news story and strong at building relationships to elicit these from your network. You will be an excellent copywriter, storyteller and content creator, with the ability bring complex information to life so it can be easily understood, Ìýknowing which tools to use to maximise publicity and accessibility.
You will be highly personable, hard working and conscientious. You must be self-motivated and work well as part of a team. You will actively work to develop your skills and abilities.
Working for our organisation
It’s an exciting time to be joining the communications and engagement team and we are pleased to be recruiting to a number of exciting roles.
The NHS in the UK is going through some exciting and transformative times, particularly with its 10-year plan and the associated engagement with staff, patients, and the public.
We are refreshing our People and Communities strategy to support this period of significant change, making sure we have the right engagement from all sectors of society. The opportunities for telling the story of the local NHS and positively influencing people's knowledge about using services and looking after their health will be endless.
There is a lot to get stuck into to make a difference in supporting the future of health and care - integrating new technologies, empowering local people with more opportunities to engage in their care, supporting our workforce and the shift towards preventative care instead of reactive treatment
Integrated Care Boards are at the heart of a new way of working for the NHS, bringing together providers of NHS services with local authorities and other local partners to plan, co-ordinate and arrange health services as part of an Integrated care System, to better join up services, improve population health and reduce health inequalities.
To read the local strategy and our key priorities -Ìý
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The Communications Manager will support the Communications team to develop, manage and deliver evidence-based tactical external and internal communications plans to support the ICB and system-wide programmes, projects and campaigns.
The successful applicant will deliver communications activity to support the way in which patients access services and manage their own health, and help maximise the reputation of the ICB and health and care system, using genuine patient insight and communications and marketing best practice.
This will include:
- Implementing a high-quality social media strategy for the ICB, using innovative approaches that engage with a wide reaching and diverse audience.
- Creating high quality internal and external communications and marketing material and content – both online and offline - to support the delivery of communications plans and objectives. This will include taking the lead on the production of publications and content, ensuring adherence to NHS Branding requirements within the ICB and ensuring relevant standards related to communications are adopted e.g. Information accessibility
- Managing the delivery of any internal or externally facing events, such as the ICB’s annual general meeting, as is deemed appropriate.
Providing professional advice to projects and programme leads on all relevant communications and marketing activity. - Ensuring communications is an integral part of projects, programmes and campaigns.
Ìý
Key responsibilities will include:
•Ìý Ìý Carrying out a communications business partner role for communications, projects and campaigns, identifying communications requirements, and providing communications advice and support as requested. Ìý
• Ìý ÌýCreating, managing and implementing integrated and evidence-based communications action plans to support projects and campaigns. Ìý
• Ìý ÌýDetermining requirements from clients for communications support using an agreed template/process
• Ìý ÌýPromoting the adoption of good practice in communications planning such as the National Social Marketing Centre framework and the Government Communications Service OASIS tool, and Behavioural Science tools to promote behaviour change.
• Ìý ÌýEnsuring requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) are followed in the delivery of the role, in particular taking account of Equality Impact Assessments as a key part of communications planning to influence the development and implementation of plans.Ìý
• Ìý ÌýWorking closely with the engagement team to ensure any statutory requirements impacting on communications are factored into planning, specifically those relating to the NHS Duty to Involve.Ìý
• Ìý ÌýWork as part of LLR multi-agency teams on communications projects and programmes including representing the ICB and occasionally the NHS LLR on LLR forums and networks and as part of project/programme. teams. ÌýDelivery of actions assigned as part of these groups.
• Ìý ÌýAdvising and influencing senior managers/project and programme leads on the best communications and marketing approach for projects, campaigns and responding to media enquiries.
• Ìý ÌýWorking closely with the engagement team to determine and commission patient, service user and public insights to support communications planning and implementation utilising the data available through the insights hub.
• Ìý ÌýManaging, advising and co-ordinating suppliers/agencies including design, advertising, research/insights, video, print and social media ensuring delivery of a high-quality service that meets the specified requirements
• Ìý ÌýProducing high quality online and offline material and content for a variety of channels to support delivery of communications plans. ÌýThis will include press releases, briefing documents, communications toolkits, reports, case studies and website material
• Ìý ÌýSupporting maintenance and development of the new ICB intranet to enable effective engagement and communication with staff.
• Ìý ÌýUsing CMS' and creating content to ensure the ICB’s websites accurately reflect latest news and initiatives.
• Ìý ÌýContinuing to grow the ICB’s social media channels to ensure they accurately reflect our organisation and increase engagement with our key audiences.
• Ìý ÌýEstablishing internal networks with colleagues including the People Forum, to identify online and offline opportunities and enhancing their effectiveness in line with requirements.Ìý
• Ìý ÌýManaging all proactive and reactive media requests associated with projects, programmes and campaigns. ÌýIncludes drafting and agreeing responses and liaising and organising media coverage for projects where appropriate
• Ìý ÌýCreating and delivering where appropriate all social media content, including graphics, video content and tailored messaging, with audiences in mind, to support ad-hoc corporate requirements, projects, programmes and campaigns, working closely with corporate communications to manage scheduling of posting.Ìý
• Ìý ÌýMaintaining personal and professional development to meet the changing demands of the job, participate in appropriate training activities and encourage and support staff development and training, assigning workÌý
• Ìý ÌýEnsuring requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) are followed in the delivery of the role, in particular taking account of Equality Impact Assessments as a key part of communications planning.
• Ìý ÌýLeading the communications planning for specific projects.Ìý
• Ìý ÌýLeading the delivery of specialist communications and engagement activities within projects
Planning & Organising
• Ìý ÌýPlanning and managing own work portfolio of work regularly reporting progress and escalating risks.
• Ìý ÌýLiaising with appropriate functions within the directorate and key stakeholders of the ICB.
• Ìý ÌýContributing to the strategic planning of team projects, identifying interdependencies, and potential impacts on wider organisation, resource requirements and building in contingency and adjustments as necessary.
• Ìý ÌýContributing to short, medium, and long-term business plans.
Service Improvement
• Ìý ÌýDevising and providing improvements to current management information, analysing, reporting and suggesting procedures to enhance decision making processes.
• Ìý ÌýContributing to performance improvement, taking a lead for identified areas.
• Ìý ÌýPro-actively identifying business improvement needs and opportunities, by complex audits or surveys, and prioritising improvement activities across the directorate.
Analysis & Judgment
• Ìý ÌýEnsuring timely and accurate information analysis and reporting to management on agreed areas of work.
• Ìý ÌýWorking with members of the team to investigate the causes of any variance from plan and proactively contribute to the implementation of solutions.
• Ìý ÌýManaging a risk and issues tracking mechanism and the resolution and escalation processes.
• Ìý ÌýUsing autonomous judgement and initiative, where there may be conflicting views, to respond to communications on complex issues and draft non-standard responses that may include the analysis of technical information.
Communication
• Ìý ÌýMaintaining constructive relationships with a broad range of stakeholders.
• Ìý ÌýProviding relevant and timely specialist advice and guidance on own portfolio.
• Ìý ÌýMaintaining strong links with directorates using tact, negotiation and influencing skills to facilitate the development of effective networks / working groups / projects and the delivery of their key objectives.
• Ìý ÌýUsing influencing, persuasion and negotiating skills, supporting senior managers to update and manage directorate wide forums such as senior leadership team meetings and working groups on specific topics.
• Ìý ÌýProducing material for and present complex presentations which are engaging, influential and effective in delivering key messages, the content of which may include highly complex technical, contentious or very sensitive information.
Financial Management
• Ìý ÌýManaging budgets allocated to own work portfolio.
• Ìý ÌýProviding regular reporting on the targeting of resources and monitor their implementation from a value for money perspective.
• Ìý ÌýEnsuring activity expenditure is monitored accordingly.
People Management
• Ìý ÌýLeading the training and development for specialist communications activities
• Ìý ÌýManaging the delivery of activities associated with the project by junior members of the communications and engagement team.
Research & Development
• Ìý ÌýContributing to the development of key performance indicators.
• Ìý ÌýDelegating aspects of research and development activities, collating information, analysing and reporting findings.
Policy & Service Development
• Ìý ÌýDeveloping policies and procedures in own work function with an impact on the wider organisation, as required.
• Ìý ÌýContributing to the review and development of existing information management systems.
• Ìý ÌýContributing to the development of an integrated approach to service management.
Key relationships
Establish and maintain collaborative working relationships with:Ìý
• Ìý ÌýICB colleagues, Senior Managers and wider colleagues
• Ìý ÌýLocal system stakeholders including healthcare providers and local authorities
• Ìý ÌýOther ICBs; NHS England / Improvement; Commissioning Support Unit
• Ìý ÌýGoverning Body Members (clinical, managerial and lay)
• Ìý ÌýExecutive Team
• Ìý ÌýGP Portfolio leads
• Ìý ÌýPrimary Care Network Clinical Directors
• Ìý ÌýMember GP practices and other practice staff
• Ìý ÌýPublic Health England
• Ìý ÌýICS stakeholders including Health and Wellbeing Board members
• Ìý ÌýPatients, carers and communities
• Ìý ÌýLocal professional committees (LMC, LPC, LOC, LDC)
• Ìý ÌýHealth Education England
• Ìý ÌýAcademic Health Science Networks and Centres
• Ìý ÌýVoluntary Groups
• Ìý ÌýOther local and national organisations as required, including Regulatory Bodies.
Person specification
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Experience of using a broad range of communications and marketing tools and techniques in the delivery of communications and marketing projects.
- Experience of writing a range of communications and marketing materials for different audiences (eg newsletters, articles for trade press, social media, websites)
- Experience of managing media enquiries and pro-active media relations
- Excellent knowledge of social media, and analytics and content
- Ability to use website content management systems
- Experience of creating videos: filming and editing
- Experience of managing contracts and relationships with external providers including, but not limited to, PR agencies, web designers and video, design or print companies
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Educated to degree level in relevant subject or equivalent level of experience of working at a similar level in specialist area.
Skills
Essential criteria
- Able to work on own initiative and as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a fast paced and pressurised environment.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Melanie McClennon
- Job title
- Senior Communications and Marketing Lead
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07717865616
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