London (SW1P 3BT), Sheffield (S1 2FJ)
Job Summary
IMPORTANT - This vacancy is using the Civil Service Numerical and Verbal tests. The deadline for completing the tests is the same as the vacancy closing date. Please ensure you complete the tests with sufficient time to complete the written application.
The Department for Education (DfE) is recruiting for a creative, enthusiastic and politically savvy person to join our media team.
We are the lead department for the Government’s mission to break the link between young people’s background and their opportunity in life.
Every child and young person should have every opportunity to succeed, no matter who they are, where they come from, or how much their parents earn.
We Are Responsible For:

• Raising school standards through excellent teaching, improving attendance and wellbeing, addressing inequality including SEND provision, and ensuring access to a broad curriculum with enrichment opportunities.
• Increasing young people's participation in courses that lead to further study and employment, improving further and higher education quality, and providing effective careers guidance.
• Helping create strong family relationships through parenting support and high-quality early education and childcare.
• Reducing emotional and physical harm to children, tackling child poverty, and relieving system pressures to enable children to learn and thrive.
  

We have a strong culture of inclusion and diversity and are committed to being an equal opportunities employer. We aim to develop all our staff to enable them to make a full contribution to meeting the Department's objectives, and to fulfil their own potential. We promote and support the use of a range of flexible working patterns to help staff to balance home and work.
We support this culture though our 11 staff networks, including the BAME, LGBT+ networks to the Carers and EU/EEA Nationals networks. 
Job Description
The Department for Education has an exciting, diverse brief that is full of key priorities for Number 10. We are looking for a media officer to help us tell the public and media about our work to transform early years, schools, colleges, universities and children’s services in an exciting, innovative way, that drives forward the government's Opportunity Mission.
You will be joining a busy, high-performing and inclusive communications team that is highly valued by, and works with, Ministers, special advisors and senior officials to communicate key public policy and education priorities.
Responsibilities Include, But Are Not Limited To:

• Research and create media handlings for a range of channels to promote key announcements and policies from the Department.
• Establish and maintain relationships with key journalists and creators, keeping them across future announcements from the Department and regularly pitching ideas to them to ensure coverage.
• Develop a good understanding of the business priorities for each Ministerial portfolio and identify and flag risks and issues identified.
• Monitor and evaluate media to improve future media handling.
• Use media and audience insight to inform your approach and adapt messaging and narratives based on the audience.
• Provide advice – and constructive challenge where required – to policy teams, the Permanent Secretary, ministers, and special advisers on the communication implications of new, developing and existing policy.
• Demonstrate excellent written communication skills across both reactive issues handling and proactive media products to ensure appropriate content, messaging, tone and consistency in media communication.
• Work collaboratively with the social media team to deliver joined up communication campaigns across owned and earned channels.
• Represent the DfE in cross-government meetings, and work with external stakeholders to gain insight, to influence where necessary, to suggest joint initiatives where appropriate and to contribute to the existing or proposed initiatives of others.
• Participate in the out-of-hours duty rota providing an on-call service to members of the media.
  

The Department for Education has an exciting, diverse brief that is full of key priorities for Number 10. We are looking for a media officer to help us tell the public and media about our work to transform early years, schools, colleges, universities and children’s services in an exciting, innovative way, that drives forward the government's Opportunity Mission.
You will be joining a busy, high-performing and inclusive communications team that is highly valued by, and works with, Ministers, special advisors and senior officials to communicate key public policy and education priorities.
Responsibilities Include, But Are Not Limited To:

• Research and create media handlings for a range of channels to promote key announcements and policies from the Department.
• Establish and maintain relationships with key journalists and creators, keeping them across future announcements from the Department and regularly pitching ideas to them to ensure coverage.
• Develop a good understanding of the business priorities for each Ministerial portfolio and identify and flag risks and issues identified.
• Monitor and evaluate media to improve future media handling.
• Use media and audience insight to inform your approach and adapt messaging and narratives based on the audience.
• Provide advice – and constructive challenge where required – to policy teams, the Permanent Secretary, ministers, and special advisers on the communication implications of new, developing and existing policy.
• Demonstrate excellent written communication skills across both reactive issues handling and proactive media products to ensure appropriate content, messaging, tone and consistency in media communication.
• Work collaboratively with the social media team to deliver joined up communication campaigns across owned and earned channels.
• Represent the DfE in cross-government meetings, and work with external stakeholders to gain insight, to influence where necessary, to suggest joint initiatives where appropriate and to contribute to the existing or proposed initiatives of others.
• Participate in the out-of-hours duty rota providing an on-call service to members of the media.
  

Person specification
Essential Criteria:

• Substantial experience managing reactive and proactive media issues.
• Substantial experience developing audience-focused, integrated media, social and digital communications plans.
• Ability to utilise insight and evaluation to plan effective communications strategies with different audiences.
• Ability to build and maintain networks, provide communications advice to senior stakeholders, and juggle competing priorities.
  

Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Delivering at Pace
  

Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• GCS Technical Skill - Insight
• GCS Technical Skill - Implementation
• GCS Technical Skill - Ideas
• GCS Technical Skill - Impact
  

Alongside your salary of £40,044, Department for Education contributes £11,600 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department’s transfer / promotion policies.
As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK.
You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years’ service. In addition, all staff receive the King’s Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days’ bank and public holidays.
We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
Most DfE employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending at least 60% of their time in an office or work setting. Changes to these working arrangements are available in exceptional circumstances but must be agreed with the line manager and in line with the requirements of the role.
Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DfE, but travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.
As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
To apply for this role, please select 'Apply Now' at the top or bottom of this advert. CV details need to be included in the template within the application form; attached or emailed CVs will not be considered.
Stage 1: Civil Service Numerical Test (CSNT)  
When you have completed your personal information, you will be asked to complete the CSNT. You must achieve the minimum pass mark to progress to the next stage. 
Stage 2: Civil Service Verbal Test (CSVT)  
When you have completed the CSNT, you will be asked to complete the CSVT. You must achieve the minimum pass mark to progress to the next stage. 
It is important you allow enough time to complete the test online (within 24-48 hours is recommended), and obtain the results before you can complete your full application online prior to the test closing date and time.
Do not leave completing the tests until the last minute in case you experience any access or technical issues. There may not be technical support available after business hours.
While the tests should work on most operating systems and modern browsers with a good internet connection, we cannot guarantee that every combination will work. At the beginning, the test will check which browser you are using, and alert you if it is likely to be incompatible.
It is highly recommended that you complete the online tests on a desktop computer, not a mobile phone or tablet.
If you are unsuccessful in passing the online tests you will be unable to continue any further in the application process. If you successfully pass the tests, you will then progress to stage 3 of completing the full application.
Stage 3: Application
At sift stage, you will be assessed on your Experience in line with the essential skills listed in the person specification section of the job advert.
To Apply For This Role, Please Provide:

• A Short CV setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role.
• Your Statement of Suitability – In no more than 750 words, provide examples of how your personal skills, qualities and experience meet the essential criteria. This is not intended to be a cover letter, instead work through each essential criteria in turn. You may wish to follow the STAR technique to help focus your examples. The key things we are looking for are what you did, how you did it and what the outcome was.
  

To confirm, the maximum word count for the statement of suitability is 750 words. Please adhere to this limit as anything over 750 words will not be taken into account.
The CV and Statement of Suitability will be assessed against the essential criteria detailed in the advert.
Should there be a high volume of applicants, candidates will be sifted on the Personal Statement only.
We reserve the right to increase the minimum pass mark for the CSNT and CSVT where there is a high volume of applications or a particularly strong field of candidates. Where this occurs, candidates who do not meet the revised pass mark will not progress further, and their written application will not be assessed.
Please note, CV details must be contained within the template on the application form. Any CV or Statement of Suitability that has been emailed to our team will not be considered.
Application sifting will commence 06 July 2026. Please note these dates are subject to change.
If you are successful at application sift stage, your application will be progressed onto Stage 5 part of the Selection process.
Stage 5: Interview
The interview will last approximately 1 hour. You will be asked questions on the Behaviours and GCS Technical Skills listed above to determine your level of experience in these areas.
Behaviours are the actions and activities that people do which result in effective performance in a job. We want to get an understanding of the actions and activities that you have done (or would do) that result in effective performance.
Technical skills are a way for us to understand the practical expertise and professional capabilities you have developed in your career. Assessing technical skills helps the panel to determine whether you have the right level of knowledge and experience to deliver effective communications in a government context.
You will also be asked to complete a brief scenario and written task at the beginning of your interview. Details of the task will be provided at the start of the interview with an allotted time of one hour.
Interviews will take place toward the end of July 2026. Please note these dates are subject to change.
We receive many applications, and unfortunately we’re not able to provide feedback for candidates who aren’t shortlisted. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
All communications will be electronic therefore it is vitally important that you check your Civil Service Jobs account regularly, as well as your spam/junk email folder.
Important Information
If you fail to complete the tests before the deadline, your application will be withdrawn. Guidance will be available when you are invited to take the test. The tests are untimed, administered via Civil Service Jobs, and applicant guidance is available during the test and online on GOV.UK Online Tests guidance.
Applicants must complete the test on their own, without help, and Departments reserve the right to retest applicants under supervised conditions at later stages of the selection process. Doing this can provide reassurance to recruiters who are concerned about the authenticity of one or more test results.
Please ensure you allow yourself sufficient time to complete both assessments and submit your application before the advertised deadline.
Reasonable Adjustments & Test Accessibility:
See our reasonable adjustments guide for candidates (online tests), or some example case studies, to act as a guide. You can use these to help you decide whether to ask for help or take the test without help.
More information about online tests can be found here: Preparing for the Civil Service Verbal and Numerical tests - GOV.UK. You will also find practice tests on this page if you would find them helpful prior to completing the live test.
Other Information
Interviews may be via Microsoft teams or face to face; the vacancy manager will confirm prior to the Interview.
In your application, please don’t include personal information that identifies you.
This means we can recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - it's called name blind recruitment (opens in a new window).
Please ensure that you remove from your application, all references to your:

• name/title
• educational institutions
• age
• gender
• email address
• postal address
• phone number
• nationality/immigration status
  

We reserve the right to raise the minimum pass mark in the event of a high volume or strong field of candidates.
Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK from the location options provided and not from overseas.
The government is committed to supporting apprenticeships, enabling people to learn and progress in a role whilst earning. We want to monitor the number of people who have completed apprenticeships who are now applying to progress further in their career and are asking this question to all candidates, on all vacancies. You will be asked a question as part of the application process about any previous apprenticeships you have completed. Your response to this question will not affect your application and it is not a requirement of the role to have completed a previous apprenticeship.
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check maybe carried out.
In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstance some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Department of Education of your intention by emailing Pre-Employment.Checks.DFE@education.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.
Department for Education do not cover the cost of travel to your interview/assessment unless otherwise stated.
A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.
Candidates will be posted in merit order based upon location preference. Where more than one location is advertised you will be asked to state your preferred location.
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
Terms and conditions of candidates transferring from ALBs and NDPBs
Bodies that are not accredited by the Civil Service Commission and are not able to advertise at Across Government on Civil Service jobs will be treated as external new starters and will come into DfE on modernised terms and conditions with a salary at the band minimum.
Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission but do not have civil service status will be offered modernised terms and will not have continuous service recognised for leave or sickness benefits. Salaries should be offered at band minimum, but there is some flexibility where this would cause a detriment to the individual.
Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission and do have Civil Service status will be treated as OGD transfers. Staff appointed on lateral transfer will move on to pre-modernised DfE terms (unless they were on modernised terms in their previous organisation). Staff appointed on promotion will move on to modernised DfE terms. Staff will transfer over on their existing salary (on lateral transfer) and any pay above the DfE pay band maximum will be paid as a mark time allowance. Staff moving on promotion will have their salaries calculated using the principles set out in the attached OGD transfer supplementary information.
Reasonable adjustment
If a Person With Disabilities Is Put At a Substantial Disadvantage Compared To a Non-disabled Person, We Have a Duty To Make Reasonable Changes To Our Processes. If You Need a Change To Be Made So That You Can Make Your Application, You Should:
Contact Department of Education via centralrecruitment.operations@education.gov.uk soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.
Please refer to the attached ‘Reasonable Adjustments Guide 05_2025 – accessible version’ at the bottom of the advert, for further information.
Childcare Vouchers
Any move to Department for Education (DfE) will mean you will no longer be able to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
This Job Is Broadly Open To The Following Groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
  

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job Contact :

• Name : Molly Holt
• Email : Molly.holt@education.gov.uk
  

Recruitment team

• Email : Centralrecruitment.operations@education.gov.uk
  

Further information
The Department for Education’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the Civil Service Commissioners Recruitment Principles, which outlines that selection for appointment is made on merit based on fair and open competition. You have the right to complain if you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles. In the first instance, you should raise the matter directly with the department concerned via CentralRecruitment.Operations@education.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages