DWP offers £120k a year for next comms chief

Recruitment campaign follows Lisa Hunter’s move to the Government Communication Service
DWP's Caxton House headquarters. Photo: Google Maps

By Jim Dunton

03 Mar 2022

The Department for Work and Pensions is offering a salary of up to £120,000 a year for its next director of communications.

Billing itself as “the largest civil service department” in recognition of its 90,000-plus headcount, DWP’s recruitment campaign follows the departure of Lisa Hunter in November last year. She took up the post of deputy chief executive at the Government Communication Service.

Would-be applicants for the SCS Pay Band 2 role will head up a 150-strong communications team at DWP with an annual budget of £17m.

DWP perm sec Peter Schofield said he believed his existing comms team was “doing some of the best communications work in government” in the candidate pack. But he added the department was looking for a “dynamic and experienced communications leader to help us navigate through the times ahead”.

The job specification says the successful candidate will be “instrumental in promoting and supporting the government’s agenda and acting as trusted adviser to the secretary of state and permanent secretary”.

It adds that “driving some of the most significant behaviour change campaigns in government” and playing an “active corporate senior leadership role” in the department – and as part of the wider GCS  – will be core elements of the new director’s work.

The specification includes a requirement for an “outstanding track record” of developing and implementing compelling and creative communication strategies in a large and complex organisation,  plus a “proven ability to respond quickly, appropriately and imaginatively to controversial issues”.

The role is closes on 21 March. Recruitment consultant Gatenby Sanderson is handling the campaign.

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