Senior Communications and Engagement Officer (NEPTS)

Job overview

EMAS provides Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services (NEPTS) across Derbyshire, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire. This role offers an exciting opportunity to play a vital role to the successful delivery of NEPTS and make real positive impact to service users and staff.

The post-holder will develop and implement proactive communications and engagement plans across NEPTS, with staff, partners, patients, key stakeholders and the public, across the East Midlands, to achieve organisational objectives, evaluating success.

You’ll be willing to travel regularly across the East Midlands, with a hybrid mix of working remotely from home and in locations alongside our NEPTS teams in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire.

Main duties of the job

The post-holder will work with NEPTS and Communications leaders to own, create and deliver engagement and communications projects to help achieve NEPTS key objectives and the EMAS strategic ambitions.

You’ll ensure plans relate to the wide range of audiences and stakeholders appropriate to the service, with additional complexity as services are delivered across a wide geographical area and with a largely mobile workforce.

As an expert in delivering a wide range of communication and engagement activities across a complex organisation, you’ll be expected to manage your own time and tasks with minimal supervision, knowing when to escalate issues as appropriate.

The post-holder will be part of the Communications on-call rota, as well as supporting with major incident and business continuity activity when necessary.

Working closely with the EMAS NEPTS team, you will join a highly skilled and supportive Communications team who, in line with the EMAS Values and in support of our EMAS Strategy, are responsible for the delivery of corporate, internal and external communications and engagement.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Be responsible for creation of an annual NEPTS communications and engagement plan to achieve key objectives, targeted at a range of varied audiences, within budgetary requirements.
• Lead in delivery of the communications and engagement plan, taking a multi-channel approach, using strong interpersonal, organisational, written and content creation skills to:

• Develop branded digital and physical engagement resources and compelling written content
• Organise and deliver engagement events with staff, volunteers, the public and patients, creating positive feedback loops to improve services, using creative thinking to deliver engagement with limited budgets.
• Engage with various health, care and wider system partners to collaborate and find opportunities to achieve objectives.

• Evidence clear impact of the plan in achieving objectives with robust evaluation, taking a continuous improvement approach.
• Create strong internal relationships and use good organisational skills to harness the necessary buy-in to succeed, balancing the needs of operational delivery of a busy, patient-facing service.
• Be the main point of contact for all NEPTS-related communications requirements across internal and external channels, providing a high-standard service to agreed deadlines, promoting clear calls to action and meeting necessary accessibility requirements, aligning with the wider Communications team forward plan.
• Respond to NEPTS-related social media and media enquiries, working with appropriate EMAS leaders to develop lines, brief and advise colleagues and challenge misleading coverage, working with journalists, where necessary.
• Supported by the Head of Communications, proactively source and tell good news stories relating to NEPTS, including with appropriate local and national media outlets.
• Provide communication and engagement advice on a wide range of issues, compressing complex information to prepare formal briefings for senior leaders and sighting appropriate stakeholders, for business continuity, crisis management and other untoward and sensitive incidents.
• Support with the preparation of new NEPTS tender submissions and, if bids are successful, the development of effective mobilisation communications and engagement plans and related materials.