Communications Strategy and Planning

About the Ministry of Justice

From keeping drugs out of prisons and cutting crime, to overhauling sentencing laws, supporting victims and creating new offences to protect women from violence – the Ministry of Justice is one of only a handful of Government departments that can truly dominate the news agenda.

Our Communications directorate, bursting with talent, is widely recognised as the gold standard within government for shaping stories and influencing news across print, broadcast, and online. With a diverse remit including prisons and probation, family justice, victims support and modernising the courts system, no day is ever the same in this busy office.

We are looking for creative, hard-working, passionate people to join our team, so if you’re looking for an exciting, challenging job, where you can develop with support from experienced communications professionals, keep reading.

We are recruiting for two roles within the MoJ Communications Strategy and Ministerial Engagement team: a Communications Planner and a Strategic Communications Manager. Together, these posts play a crucial part in how we plan, prioritise and deliver high-quality, insight led communications across the department and with partners across Whitehall.

The Communications Planner and Strategic Communications Manager sit at the centre of our strategic function. The Planner leads on gridding, sequencing announcements and horizon scanning—working with teams across the MoJ and the Prime Minister’s Office to identify risks, opportunities and ensure alignment with the wider Government narrative. The Strategic Communications Manager helps shape and track our highest priority work streams, maintaining planning and insight tools, ensuring decisions are evidence based, and supporting teams to identify dependencies, risks and opportunities.

Purpose:

Own the MoJ communications grid and long-range planning, working with the Prime Minister’s office and teams across Whitehall to sequence announcements, horizon scan, and manage risk against the Government narrative.

• Lead the gridding process and sequencing of announcements across press, digital and stakeholder channels.
• Conduct horizon scanning to identify risks, pinch points and proactive opportunities.
• Align medium and long-term plans to MoJ priorities and wider Government strategy.
• Coordinate with ministerial private offices and cross-departmental colleagues to resolve clashes and dependencies.
• Provide clear recommendations and decision support under pressure and at pace.

• Strategic communications planning and risk/issue management.
• Confident cross‑government coordination and stakeholder management.
• Ability to synthesise insight to inform timing, channel mix and messaging.
• Strong judgement, discretion and calm delivery in fast‑moving contexts.
• Experience maintaining planning tools/grids and communicating complex plans clearly.

Purpose:

Drive an insight-led, outcome-focused approach to MoJ’s highest-priority work streams by maintaining core planning and insight tools, tracking delivery, and ensuring decisions are evidence-based and aligned.

• Maintain and improve core planning, prioritisation and insight/evaluation tools.
• Track delivery against priorities; surface risks, dependencies and trade-offs.
• Coordinate strategy across teams to ensure clear ownership and alignment.
• Embed evidence, research and evaluation into strategy and decision-making.
• Produce concise dashboards/briefings that inform senior choices and resource focus.

• Strategic comms design and orchestration across multi‑team work streams.
• Measurement/evaluation literacy and using insight to steer outcomes.
• Strong planning, prioritisation and risk management discipline.
• Clear communication to senior stakeholders; able to influence without authority.
• Comfortable operating at the centre of a directorate, connecting dots and driving clarity.

By joining our team, you will also become a member of the Government Communication Service…