Leading operational and local communications for Defra group organisations (Defra, Environment Agency, Natural England, Forestry Commission) in the South East.Including:Leading a team of 14 communication professionals working as partners to Defra group ALBs; Team recruitment and workforce planning; Creating and delivering a Communications Strategy for the SE ALBs aligned to the national and government Communications Strategy; Forward planning of communications and ensuring… Show more Leading operational and local communications for Defra group organisations (Defra, Environment Agency, Natural England, Forestry Commission) in the South East.Including:Leading a team of 14 communication professionals working as partners to Defra group ALBs; Team recruitment and workforce planning; Creating and delivering a Communications Strategy for the SE ALBs aligned to the national and government Communications Strategy; Forward planning of communications and ensuring delivery and evaluation of national and local communication campaigns across the SE; Leading the Communications Incident preparation and response for ALBs in the SE, ensuring a 24/7 comms incident response provision and continuous improvement in crisis communications; Incident Duty National Communications Manager - duty role reporting to National Duty Manager, managing national response to nationally significant incidents or reputational issues;Ensuring the continuous development of staff within the team across all the professional areas of Media, Digital engagement, Internal and Strategic communications; Ensuring the implementation and maintenance of Government Communications Service standards across the team; Leading on delivery of smarter ways of working training across national operational and local communications; Leading on a programme of improvements to Operational and Local communications ways of working to build better integration with other Defra group comms centres of excellence; Leading on Area Communications engagement with Strategic Communications to improve local planning and delivery (Corporate and Climate change theme); Providing professional Communications advice and guidance to Arms Length Body senior management as required including; Clearance of all external media statements and press releases. Show less

Reporting to the Director of Group Communications, and member of the Senior Leadership Team, I created and led the Defra group Communications People and Performance team encompassing the Directorate’s business performance and assurance, comms and engagement and professional improvement.Successes include:Managing the transformation and re-structure of Defra and ALB communications staff into the single Defra group Communications Directorate.Creating and leading the… Show more Reporting to the Director of Group Communications, and member of the Senior Leadership Team, I created and led the Defra group Communications People and Performance team encompassing the Directorate’s business performance and assurance, comms and engagement and professional improvement.Successes include:Managing the transformation and re-structure of Defra and ALB communications staff into the single Defra group Communications Directorate.Creating and leading the Directorate’s first People and Performance team and annual business planProviding leadership, insight, advice and guidance to the Director of Communications on the business performance, workforce planning, corporate assurance and professional development of the Directorate.Overseeing the Directorate’s budget and creating new budget allocations for each finance stream within the Directorate. Crafting the finance response and bid preparation to annual spending reviews and changes to in-year spend; successfully navigating us to remain within tight budget constraints.Creating a centre of excellence for business processes, recruitment, retention and provision of core business services across group communications.Leading on all the Directorate’s business assurance such as risk management, business continuity and internal audit responseLeading the team to develop and deliver a new learning and development strategy for the DirectorateLeading the team to develop and deliver an annual Comms and Engagement plan for the Senior Leadership Team to engage with staff and stakeholdersRepresenting Defra group communications at Director Defra Corporate Services Board and Business Group meetings. Show less

Change lead for the successful transition of Environment Agency Communications into a single Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs group Communications Directorate. Following successful transition to the single Defra employer I continued in my role providing communications leadership and advice to the Environment Agency senior leadership teams in Water, Land and Biodiversity (WLB). I developed and programme managed a prioritised programme of WLB Communications work for… Show more Change lead for the successful transition of Environment Agency Communications into a single Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs group Communications Directorate. Following successful transition to the single Defra employer I continued in my role providing communications leadership and advice to the Environment Agency senior leadership teams in Water, Land and Biodiversity (WLB). I developed and programme managed a prioritised programme of WLB Communications work for 2018/19 which formed part of the wider Defra group communications strategy. I provided advice and guidance to Area and National WLB comms leads, and managed the network to ensure the sharing of best practice and consistent delivery of service to the EA across the country. I reported on delivery and evaluation of the programme to WLB leadership team, the WLB business board and the communications quarterly review process.I developed new tools for the portfolio to improve our programme delivery, client engagement, and evaluation and was a member of the portfolio leads group which coordinated delivery of communications across the Environment & Business and Flood and Coastal Risk Management. Show less

Providing communications advice to the Environment Agency's EU Exit programme and Environment and Business Operational Services leadership team. Also Communications lead for Environment Agency as partner to London Resilience Forum, for managing major incident communications in London. Working regularly with the Defra Group, London Resilience partners and Environment Agency teams across the country to deliver business objectives. Duty National Communications Manager, managing national and local… Show more Providing communications advice to the Environment Agency's EU Exit programme and Environment and Business Operational Services leadership team. Also Communications lead for Environment Agency as partner to London Resilience Forum, for managing major incident communications in London. Working regularly with the Defra Group, London Resilience partners and Environment Agency teams across the country to deliver business objectives. Duty National Communications Manager, managing national and local communications response and crisis management during major incidents. Show less

Managing the Regional Communications Department with 28 communications staff. Responsible for reputation management and communications strategy and delivery for London and South East Region, including influencing and regional delivery of the national communications strategy. Duty on-call National Communications Manager managing incident and crisis communications nationally for the organisation.

Managing strategic external relations activity across the South East of England.Managing team of Communications Business Partners within the wider Regional Communications Department. Responsible for the engagement strategy for South East Region and reputation management with strategic partners. Also responsible for collaboration with national colleagues on strategic engagement guidance and advice, e-consultation, community engagement policy and managing the rollout of national… Show more Managing strategic external relations activity across the South East of England.Managing team of Communications Business Partners within the wider Regional Communications Department. Responsible for the engagement strategy for South East Region and reputation management with strategic partners. Also responsible for collaboration with national colleagues on strategic engagement guidance and advice, e-consultation, community engagement policy and managing the rollout of national communications training and strategy. Show less

Assignment (4months) managing Area Planning and Corporate Services (PACS) Department with 48 staff and 5 direct Team leader reports and budget in excess of £1m. Responsible for the delivery of PACS services in North East Thames Area including Area Environmental Planning, External Relations, Development Control and Planning Liaison (x2) Teams.

Managing strategic communications (Media, Corporate Comms, External Relations) for a programme of major projects within London and the Thames Estuary. This programme consisted of four high profile, cross-organisational projects; Olympics, Thames Estuary 2100, London Tideway Tunnels and Thames Gateway. Communicating highly political and public interest projects both internally at Director and Chief Exec level and to senior external audiences.

Setting up and managing a team to deliver communications and external relations support to the TE2100 project. This £16M project was developing a tidal flood risk management strategy for the Thames estuary. Primary role was to develop and deliver a stakeholder engagement strategy for the project and communications plans for each phase of the project. Additional roles included co-ordination of all media liaison, media spokesperson, snr. management briefings, and responding to Parliamentary… Show more Setting up and managing a team to deliver communications and external relations support to the TE2100 project. This £16M project was developing a tidal flood risk management strategy for the Thames estuary. Primary role was to develop and deliver a stakeholder engagement strategy for the project and communications plans for each phase of the project. Additional roles included co-ordination of all media liaison, media spokesperson, snr. management briefings, and responding to Parliamentary questions. Show less