Regional Media and Communications Assistant

This advert is for current internal applicants only. External applications will be closed.

Grade F: £25,949 (National) or £31,805 (London – for London office based or homebased workers within the boundary of the M25) – There is also an additional homeworking allowance of £600 per annum for those working from home. For part time roles – please note this will be pro rata.

Contracted Hours: Full-time 37 hours per week or Part-time minimum of 20 hours per week. Job-share will be considered. Talk to us about compressed hours.

Contract Type: Secondment opportunity until 28 February 2027 as another secondment backfill and we work through our rebuilding activity. Internal applicants must obtain written confirmation from their line manager, granting permission to be released from their current role, before applying for this opportunity.

Location: Home-based.

Closing Date: Tuesday 18 August 2026 at 11.59pm

Make a difference

Every role at CQC helps us deliver our mission of making sure people receive safe, effective, compassionate care. If you're looking for a role in communications that offers real purpose, this could be the opportunity for you.

As a Regional Media & Communications Assistant, you'll support our Media and Regional Communications team with the day-to-day delivery of regional media activity. Your work will help ensure people receive clear and accurate information about health and social care services, while supporting confidence in regulation and improvement across the sector.

Picture this

In the last 12 months, as a Regional Media & Communications Assistant within the Media and Regional Communications team, you could have:

• Triaged media enquiries from journalists, as well as picked up simple enquiries yourself.
• Helped CQC understand where its media coverage is coming from providing strategic insight to regional media colleagues and to help target future communications.
• Helped coordinate communications around significant CQC reports, ensuring key stakeholders and media contacts were informed about important findings and updates.
• Researched complex issues and gathered background information that supported briefing materials for media activity and stakeholder engagement.

The role

You will play a key role in the organisation by:

• Managing and routing media enquiries, making sure requests reach the right team members quickly and efficiently.
• Maintaining media coverage records, communication systems and databases, and producing straightforward reports to support team evaluation and planning.
• Providing administrative and communications support to help the Regional Media & Communications team run smoothly and respond to stakeholder requests.

Show us

We’ll be looking for the following skills, knowledge and experience in your application form:

• Experience creating clear written content for different audiences, such as internal audience, external stakeholders, web content, newsletters.
• Experience managing competing priorities, organising information and delivering work to agreed deadlines.
• Experience using digital systems, databases or communication tools, and adapting quickly to new technology and ways of working.

Compliance

Note for internal candidates: This is a secondment/fixed term opportunity. You must discuss your application with your line manager before applying. To progress your application, you’ll need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. Without valid right to work you won’t be eligible for the role. We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role. Some roles may also be subject to a satisfactory DBS check.

Next steps

If you apply, you’ll need to create a profile and complete an online application form. Your application will be completely anonymous. We contact every applicant to let them know the outcome of their application, so you will hear from us whether or not you are shortlisted.

You can read the full details of the role in the Job Description. If you’d like an informal chat about the role contact – Kerri James, Regional Media & Communications Manager; Kerri.james@cqc.org.uk. For general enquiries, please email recruitment@cqc.org.uk.

The Benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits, including:

• Annual leave starting at 27 days per year, rising to 32.5 days with service, plus bank holidays (usually 8 days per year).
• Training and development opportunities.
• Wellbeing initiatives, such as gym discounts and meditation.
• NHS pension scheme, with around 14% employer contribution.
• Discount schemes (including eligibility for a Blue Light card, at a cost of £4.99 and valid for 2 years), reward vouchers, car leasing and more!

Please see our benefits page for the full list.

Equity for all

We know job descriptions can feel intimidating. Research shows they can cause some people to doubt whether they’re a good fit. This happens more often to people from underrepresented groups (e.g. ethnic minority backgrounds). If this role interests you, we encourage you to apply. Your unique perspective, skills, and experience could be exactly what we need.

We want every candidate to feel supported and able to do their best. If you need adjustments to our process, we’ll work with you to remove any barriers. Visit our accessibility page for more on this. If you’d like to chat, please contact recruitment@cqc.org.uk.

Please note, if you have previously informed us of adjustments you need for interview or within your role these are not carried over and must be discussed for each individual application you make.

We promote a workplace where fairness, respect and inclusion are a priority. Diverse teams make our work better, help us deliver our mission and make our culture stronger. See our ED&I page for more about this.

We welcome applications from everyone, and colleagues can find support and community among our many employee networks. This includes people of any: Age, Sex, Gender identity or expression, Sexual orientation, Religion or belief, Ethnicity, Disability.

Values and vision

We are guided by our core values, which shape our work and our culture.

• Excellence – being a high-performing organisation.
• Caring – treating everyone with dignity and respect.
• Integrity – doing the right thing.
• Teamwork – learning from each other to be the best we can.

We are a disability confident employer and a carer confident employer.

A Note on AI

AI tools can be great for research and refining ideas, but we want to learn about you. If you use AI or Chatbots to help you with your application, keep these points in mind:

• AI can support research, structuring and refining your writing, but your application must reflect your real skills and experience.
• Spell-checking and condensing word counts are great ways to use AI effectively.
• Do not copy and paste AI generated answers. These will not help you stand out; remember we want to hear about your skills and experience.
• Providing false and insincere examples goes against our core values of honesty and integrity and may lead to your application being withdrawn or termination of your employment.