The Borderlands region is unique. At the heart of the United Kingdom where England and Scotland meet, we are well known for our outstanding natural environment and a rich shared culture and history, but we also look to the future and opportunities to deliver investment and growth for our businesses, residents and visitors.

The Borderlands Partnership has been formed to deliver our shared ambition:

“Our shared ambition is for the Borderlands to reach its potential for everyone, delivering green growth and attracting new businesses and investment. We will improve our connectivity, deliver skills and innovation, and improve our places to support their longer-term resilience. We will attract new residents and welcome more visitors to enjoy the beautiful natural environment of our vibrant, inclusive region.”

The Partnership (covering Carlisle City Council, Cumbria County Council, Dumfries and Galloway Council, Northumberland County Council and Scottish Borders Council) signed our one-of-a-kind cross-border growth deal in March 2021, bringing more than £450m of new investment to our area. The Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal is an integrated investment package, ensuring that there is a balance between high profile place-based projects together with Borderlands-wide investment programmes that meet the needs and opportunities of the rural nature of the region. The programmes will deliver innovative solutions, putting global challenges into the local context and delivering new approaches to natural capital, energy and place-based and community-led development.

As well as delivery of the Deal, we are preparing for our next stage. We will deliver our ambitious programme of investment but also seek and develop new opportunities for the Partnership to improve and grow our region.

The Role

The Engagement and Communications officer role is a new position and an exciting opportunity to make your mark on the way we engage with our partners and stakeholders. You will promote the ambitions of the Partnership and the benefits brought from the investment through the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, bringing them to life for all our audiences. 

You will work with the communications teams across the five partner authorities, the UK Government and Scottish Government and our funded projects to shape key messages and develop engaging and informative materials to highlight the progress in delivering our Deal. You will be able to build strong and productive relationships to ensure that good news stories and case studies are shared proactively, and challenges addressed.  You will manage our Partnership communications channels and propose and develop new channels to help reach new audiences.

As the Partnership moves to its next step of delivery you will take a lead in our engagement with projects, partners and communities to ensure that we build greater awareness of, and engagement with, the Borderlands Partnership and our future ambitions.  

You will be part of a small, high-performing team, the Borderlands Programme Management Office, which is tasked with leading and coordinating the work of the Partnership with our five partner Councils and the UK and Scottish Government. We also engage with the wider policy approach through a network of growth deals across Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. You will build strong relationships with all our communications colleagues in our network.

Northumberland County Council is the employing body for the Borderlands Partnership however the team works flexibly across the whole geography (Cumbria, Dumfries and Galloway, Northumberland and Scottish Borders) including from home and from partner buildings.

Full details can be found in the attached job description here

 What we offer

As well as the opportunity to work in a dynamic, high-profile and exciting new partnership focused on making our area a better place to live, work and visit we offer a number of benefits:

• 25 days annual leave plus public and bank holidays rising to 30 days after 5 year of local government service (pro-rata for part-time employees)
• Flexible working scheme
• Enrolment into the Local Government Pension Scheme
• Local government discount scheme available to all employees
• A commitment to fair pay and work-life balance including through job sharing, home working, flexible working, part-year working and compressed hours.
• Car leasing and salary sacrifice scheme

If you would like to discuss the role or the partnership please contact James Davies (james.davies@borderlandsgrowth.com)

To apply please click the Apply Now link below.