Communications Officer

The Role

Please note this is a politically restricted post. 

We're looking for a highly motivated Communications Officer to help take our communications to the next level.

The ideal candidate will have strong digital communication skills, be confident in copywriting and experienced in using a wide range of different media to create engaging content.

You’ll be responsible for creating effective campaigns for a wide-range of projects from across the council and help to deliver the council’s press service, responding to requests from journalists, broadcasters and film companies.

An eye for a good story, along with a grasp of print, broadcast, digital and social media, is a must.   

A full current UK driving licence is essential as the post holder will be required to travel around the district. 

This post is permanent. The hours of work for this position are 37 hours per week, working Monday to Friday. Possible evening and weekend work may be required on occasion and hybrid working will be available subject to the needs of the service. This post is based at Lancaster Town Hall. 

Flexible working friendly – we offer hybrid working, a generous flexi-time scheme, and opportunity to work with your team to establish working hours to enable you to maximise your work-life balance.

About You

You are:

• An experienced communications professional with an excellent grasp of digital and social media
• A team player, supported by a great team
• Able to produce content for a wide range of channels
• Customer focused. Our key audiences are staff and residents.
• Able to build strong relationships with our internal clients and partners
• Creative – you’ll work with external graphic designers to produce print, digital, social and video content.

You will identify with our organisational values of Pride, Ownership, Working Together and Ambition.

Our Benefits

Lancaster is a great place to work, as well as being part of something special you will also benefit from:

• Generous annual leave allowance
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• A range of employee benefits including discounted gym membership, cycle to work scheme, the opportunity to purchase extra time off, as well as discounts on days out, activities and retail.

Lancaster City Council has unanimously declared a climate emergency and will therefore work towards reducing carbon emissions to net-zero by 2030. As part of this role, you will be expected to participate and work towards reducing both carbon emissions and the impacts of climate change.

We are an Investor in People, Forces Friendly employer, and an Armed Forces Covenant committed organisation. We welcome applications from defence reserves and other members of our armed forces community. We are an inclusive employer and welcome applications from all parts of our community.

At Lancaster City Council we aim to have a diverse workforce that is representative of the district that we serve and provide a working environment where each employee feels able to bring their whole self to work. We welcome applications from all sections of our community and provide several supportive and inclusive workplace networks and safe spaces for employees to feel connected. Our workplace wellbeing strategy drives our commitment to staff wellbeing initiatives and ensuring that our organisation is a great place to work for all.

We are a disability confident committed employer.

Please note that due to the volume of applications we receive we are unable to update all applicants individually. If you do not receive a response from us within 2 weeks of the closing date then your application will have unfortunately been unsuccessful in progressing to interview.

For an informal discussion about this role, please contact Michael Hill, Communications and Media Relations Manager at mhill@lancaster.gov.uk.

Interview date: TBC