About us

We are Britain’s national equality regulator and a United Nations accredited ‘A status’ national human rights institution.

We uphold people’s rights without fear or favour. We use the full force of our legal powers to defend people from unfair or unequal treatment and to challenge breaches of the law. We advise on developing laws and provide guidance, training and support to enable compliance.

We bring people together to create change. We work with employers, governments and a wide range of organisations, to promote understanding of equality and human rights and we support them to make improvements in practice.

Our new strategy for 2022-25 gives us a strong platform to show that we will use our powers to protect and promote equality and human rights, and that we have identified the main challenges in society where we can make a difference in our role as a regulator.

Overview of the role and responsibilities

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is looking for an experienced media relations specialist to join our friendly and trusted press team. This is an exciting new opportunity for an expert wordsmith and perceptive PR adviser who loves writing, generating stories and bringing complex topics to life.

The role would ideally suit someone with a background in print journalism as well as senior experience gained in a busy press office. The Senior Press Officer will produce high quality, accurate and engaging written and multimedia materials for a range of audiences and channels and be comfortable providing trusted advice to senior executives.

You will:

• Provide media handling advice in person and in writing to the Board, executive team, legal and policy colleagues, spotting risks and opportunities in the EHRC’s work programmes.

• Write engaging news and feature articles, press releases, scripts and press lines and produce other engaging content for owned and earned channels as needed, working to deadlines.

• Produce handling plans, briefing documents and media analyses.

• Brief journalists on all areas of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s remit, taking part in an out-of-hours duty rota (roughly one week in every five-six weeks.

• Act as a trusted adviser to spokespeople, including the Chair and CEO, briefing them ahead of media interviews or announcements.

• Accompany spokespeople to interviews and liaise with journalists and production teams to arrange and manage media moments.

• Monitor relevant media, applying sound news judgement and analysis to advice and outputs. Evaluate results and apply continuous learning to your work.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

The full list of Knowledge, Skills and Experience required for the role can be found in the Candidate Pack.

Benefits

In addition to a competitive salary, we offer a range of benefits including flexible working patterns, 30 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays (full time FTE), access to the Civil Service Pension Scheme and partnership pension schemes, and enhanced parental leave benefits. More information can be found in the candidate pack.

Allowances:

• London Weighting Allowance: £3,200 per annum (this will be reduced on a pro rata basis if you are part-time).

• On-call allowance: this role includes out of hours on-call work, on a rota basis. You will receive an on-call allowance of up to a maximum of £167.67 per month (£2000 per annum). This allowance is non-contractual, and the remuneration received may vary subject to our annual pay review and the number of individuals allocated to the on-call rota.

How to apply

If this sounds like the role for you, please review the attached Candidate Pack for more information and submit your application today!

If you encounter any problems with Applied or have a question about the recruitment process, please contact Becky Roberts, HR & Recruitment Officer, Becky.Roberts@equalityhumanrights.com  

Disability Confident Leader

As a Disability Confident Leader, the Equality and Human Rights Commission offers an interview for people with disabilities (as defined by the Equality Act 2010 and The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004) and who meet the minimum criteria for this appointment.

Where high numbers of applications are received, the candidates that best meet the minimum criteria for the role may only be invited to interview. If you wish to apply for consideration under this scheme, please complete the appropriate section on the online application form. This will enable us to make the appropriate arrangements, if necessary.

If you require an alternative accessible version of the application form or wish to discuss your application or reasonable adjustment – please contact us by email at Becky.Roberts@equalityhumanrights.com or by telephone on 0161 829 8100

Diversity in our workforce

At the Commission, we are proud of our respectful workplace that values the contribution of all our staff, whatever their background.  We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment. Our recruitment decisions are based on fair, open competition, with appointment on merit. We welcome applications from everyone to ensure we achieve a balanced representation in our workforce in all grades.