Corporate Communications and Engagement Officer Full Time

This post may be available as a secondment opportunity for permanent public sector staff. If you wish to apply on a secondment basis, please ensure you have obtained prior approval from your line manager

Salary placing will normally be at the first point of the scale.

Contact Person: Nicki Sturzaker Email: nicki.sturzaker@nhs.scot or Ruth Fry Email: ruth.fry1@highland.gov.uk

Job Purpose

The Highland Council / NHS Highland Models of Integration Review

The Highland Council and NHS Highland are jointly reviewing the model under which health and social care services for adults and children are planned and delivered across the region. Highland currently operates a Lead Agency model, the only partnership of its kind in Scotland.

We are now examining whether to enhance that model or transition to an Integration Joint Board (Body Corporate), bringing Highland in line with the rest of Scotland’s health and social care partnerships.

Both options are being taken forward for full engagement and consultation. No decision has been made. The purpose of this process is to hear from the people it affects, staff, communities and partners, before any recommendation is reached. A governance decision is expected in Autumn 2026.

Please APPLY ONLINE.

The Highland Council understands that diversity fosters creativity and innovation. We are committed to equality of opportunity and being fair and inclusive. We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds, representative of the communities we serve and particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be under-represented in our workforce.

As a disability confident employer, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria requirements for the post.

Shortlisted applicants will normally be contacted by email, unless otherwise stated. Please check your emails regularly, including your junk/spam folder.

Requirements

• Driving license in order to travel for work and training purposes
• Evidence of higher education, such as HNC/HND in relative subjects such as English, Journalism, Marketing

Responsibilities

This is a role for a genuine wordsmith, someone who finds the human story inside a governance paper, who can write a social media caption that stops a thumb mid-scroll, and who understands that the same message needs to land differently for a parent in Portree, a carer in Wick, and a community councillor in Fort William. You will be producing content across the full communications mix: social media, digital graphics, video, news releases, web copy and event promotion. You will not be waiting to be briefed on what to say, you will be the one shaping it.

Design matters here too. You will have a confident eye for visual content and the skills to create material that looks considered and purposeful not like a committee approved it. Whether that is a graphic for Instagram, a short video for Facebook, or a printed flyer for a community event in a village hall with no wi-fi, you will know how to make it work for the audience and the platform.

The goal behind all of it is simple: to get people to the table. The Models of Integration review will only be as good as the conversations it generates, and those conversations depend on people understanding why it matters to them and feeling invited to take part. Across a region this size and this varied, that takes creativity, persistence, and a communicator who genuinely cares about reaching the people who are easiest to miss.

You will report into the Engagement Coordinator. You will understand the requirements of political neutrality in a public sector setting and know how to communicate about a live review in a way that informs rather than steers. You will also be comfortable responding to media enquiries as the programme becomes increasingly public-facing.

If you are a creative, confident communicator with strong design and social media skills and the rare ability to make complicated things feel simple and worth caring about, this is the role for you.