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This special place in South West London between the capital and the country has been a Royal borough longer than anywhere else - it is where the first kings of England were crowned.

Today it is a vibrant and diverse borough, with a long history and strong cultural and community heritage. Kingston's riverside location, fantastic retail offer, historic market place and church, parks and gardens all make Kingston town centre the vibrant space it is, and each of our district town centres (Surbiton, New Malden, Tolworth and Chessington) have something unique to offer.

Situated in Zone 6, Kingston is among the best-connected town centres in London – with direct train links from Kingston and Surbiton stations to Clapham Junction and London Waterloo, as well as Wimbledon for an interchange with the London Underground and Tramlink.

Kingston’s people are innovative and entrepreneurial, and have a strong sense of community pride. The borough has been home to great industry and creativity for many years, reflected in assets such as the Rose Theatre, the International Youth Arts Festival and Kingston University, which boasts more new graduate business start-ups than any other.

We have seen tremendous generosity and compassion within our communities, particularly in response to COVID-19, which is a demonstration of Kingston’s key strength. The council offers a strong level of support to vulnerable groups and those who need additional support, which has also increased significantly as a result of the pandemic. Like most places, the average age of our population is rising as more people are living longer, so we are working closely with residents to help them maintain their independence and further improve the cost effectiveness of our service to meet the ongoing rise in demand.

Kingston is home to people from diverse and interesting cultures and backgrounds, which helps to create the rich sense of community shared across the borough. In particular, Kingston has a large Sri Lankan Tamil community and is home to more people from Korea than any other part of the UK.

This role will;

• Lead on council campaigns and engagement activities that inform, change behaviour and encourage audiences to work more closely with the council, using new and innovative communications methods
• Provide guidance and training to services to build their capability and skills to deliver communication and engagement activity
• Deputises for the Corporate Communications and Engagement Managers on the day to day delivery of both the media and campaigns activity, as well as the general management of the team
• Supports the Corporate Communications and Engagement Managers to; develop and implement an overarching communication and engagement strategy, develop a campaign forward plan and overarching narratives for the council’s main priority areas and develop digital channels and innovative two-way digital communications.

The Communication & Engagement Team works to ensure all audiences and stakeholders are well informed of the council’s work and are provided with opportunities to engage and share their views.

Our internal communications and engagement aims to ensure all members of the organisation are informed, working collaboratively towards common goals and are involved and empowering employees to make decisions and create a cohesive culture.

Our external communications and engagement aims to inform, connect and engage with our residents, community groups, businesses and stakeholders, promote the council’s services, encourage behaviour change and involve people in decision making.

We also play a crucial role in protecting the council’s reputation

In order to successfully deliver the responsibilities of the role, you will need to:

• Have a degree in a relevant discipline or equivalent experience in the communications and stakeholder engagement professions
• General experience of working in a relevant public relations, communications or marketing role.
• Have strong leadership skills, modelling a performance culture and constructively building achievement, confidence and skills in others
• Question and challenge conventional thinking, with a continual eye on the bigger picture in terms of the corporate context and external environment
• Role model agility and adaptability in mindset and ways of working and have worked successfully with key stakeholders including elected members, residents, businesses, partner organisations and other public services
• Demonstrate a high level of innovation and creativity to deliver both digital and non digital communications

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

In addition we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff supported by our IT infrastructure, Google Chromebooks and Google Apps, which have acted as a key enabler for collaborative and streamlined working. The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to be even more flexible in how we work and manage staff workloads, ensuring they have the correct equipment and resources to be able to maximise their talents and looking after their wellbeing.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
• Three volunteering days per year
• Flexible and agile working arrangements
• Comprehensive learning and development programme
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Zip car scheme
• Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
• Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
• Subsidised gym membership

We pride ourselves on being a diverse, tolerant and welcoming Borough and we aim to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve. We are respectful of difference and realise the positive value of diversity in our workforce. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and disabled candidates as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce.

We are proud to be recognised as a Disability Confident employer, and are committed to thinking differently about disability and taking action to improve how we recruit, retain and develop disabled people. We guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.

We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are an accredited London Living Wage Employer and this means that everyone working at the Royal Borough of Kingston, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or third-party contractors and suppliers receive the London Living Wage. The real Living Wage is higher than the government’s minimum, or National Living Wage, and is an independently calculated hourly rate of pay that is based on the actual cost of living.

The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.