Communication Manager (Information)

The role will be based at our offices at 2-4 Cockspur Street, London, SW1Y 5BS, in central London. Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas. Informal hybrid working arrangements apply and there is an expectation that staff will attend the office regularly. Work pattern and office attendance will be agreed with successful candidates.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) exists to fight serious financial crime, deliver justice to victims and protect the UK’s reputation as a safe place to do business. We hold to account those who steal, defraud or corrupt others.

We are looking for an experienced public information professional to lead our information desk, within our multidisciplinary communication team. Reporting to the Deputy Head of Communication, the Communication Manager (Public Relations & Information) is responsible for the SFO’s information services, ensuring the SFO publishes and issues to individuals with accurate, timely information about the organisation, in line with relevant legislation and guidance.

You will be experienced in information management and working independently, using your critical thinking and prioritisation skills to manage a complex and varied caseload. You are expected to champion information best practices across the organisation, as well as developing the skills of your two person team.

Working with the whole Communication Team and our expert lawyers, investigators and intelligence teams, you will help inform our audiences about our work to fight economic crime and build the SFO’s reputation as a transparent and responsible public body.

As a Communication Manager (Information) you will be responsible for:

• Lead the Freedom of Information requests service, ensuring the team co-ordinate and issue accurate responses within statutory timeframes, applying relevant exemptions where appropriate.
• Lead the team’s handling of Subject Access Requests in line with ICO best practice, escalating issues as appropriate.
• Ensure widespread understanding of the SFO’s information disclosure best practice and awareness, within the Communication team and the rest of the organisation, including the provision of training sessions to colleagues.
• Management of the SFO’s publication scheme and relevant web page, ensuring information is up-to-date, complete and understood by the organisation.

Behaviours We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Managing a Quality Service
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

As part of the application process you will be required to provide a personal statement of no more than 500 words that explains how your skills and experience meet each of the essential and desirable experience criteria as listed in the job pack.

There will be two parts interview stage. Firstly, you will be asked to complete an exercise that will assess the Behaviour – Making Effective Decisions. This will be followed by an interview assessing the remaining Behaviours as listed in the Job Pack along with Technical questions. Full details of the interview process will be made available to shortlisted candidates in the invite to interview.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check.

This Job Is Broadly Open To The Following Groups:

• UK nationals
• Nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• Nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• Individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020

Contact point for applicants Name: People and Culture