Health Assurance and Media Literacy Specialist

Health Assurance and Media Literacy Specialist (Afro-Caribbean Communities)

Contract Type: Temporary, Part Time

Location: Remote

About the job

To be considered for this opportunity, please submit your CV along with a detailed cover letter outlining your relevant experience of working with Afro-Caribbean communities. Your cover letter should clearly demonstrate how your skills, knowledge, and experience align with the requirements of the role.

Precise number of days to be mutually agreed depending on requirements and day rates. Anticipated dates: up to 20 days over an initial three-month period.

We aim to arrange interviews towards the middle to end of August with a start date of September time.

Overview of Ofcom and the team

Ofcom exists to make communications work for everyone. We regulate the TV, and fixed and mobile telecoms, postal services, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate. We are the regulator for Online Safety.

Our culture is clear - we live by our values: Empowerment; Excellence; Collaboration; Agility and Respect. These define how we work to deliver our purpose, now and in the future. We focus not only on what we do, but how we do it. We pride ourselves on being an organisation of people who genuinely care about helping others.

This role is being recruited for by Ofcom’s media literacy policy team, a cross-disciplinary team delivering a programme to improve the ability of adults and children in the UK to engage effectively with online services and other media.

Purpose of the Role

Ofcom’s 3-year media literacy strategy outlines our aim to support people to understand how to identify and protect themselves against mis and disinformation. We work by commissioning targeted interventions in the cohorts where the need is greatest and sharing best practice with organisations delivering media literacy activities and their funders. As part of this we want to listen to Afro-Caribbean communities to explore online health information seeking behaviours, so that we can better understand how to best provide targeted media literacy support.

Ofcom has a requirement for a contractor with significant experience working with Afro-Caribbean communities and some experience of digital skills building to conduct a listening exercise with individuals and community, faith and network leaders from this community. The contractor will engage directly to determine whether and how an individual’s media literacy skills influence where they seek health information online, how they may recognise and counter health mis- and disinformation (or not), and what ongoing support is needed, and how it would be best received.

We want to listen to diverse range of people within the Afro-Caribbean community within the UK, as we seek to understand: how people locate health information online, how they assess its accuracy and relevance for them and how such information is shared. We are keen to learn more about how this community can access evidence-based authoritative health information.

This role requires someone with prior experience in engaging and contacts with Afro-Caribbean communities, and a demonstrable understanding of media literacy They will have clear verbal communication skills and be comfortable having complex conversations in a way that is culturally sensitive. We are looking for someone who can identify and successfully reach participants, can write a report of conclusions and make recommendations for ongoing work. This is for up to 20 days of work over 3 months.

Requirements of the role

• Conduct a listening exercise with diverse Afro-Caribbean communities around the role of media literacy on online health seeking information. This includes:
• 20-25 conversations
• recruitment of diverse participants (using incentives if necessary)
• responsibility for ensuring GDPR, safeguarding, consent, and ethics considerations are met
• conversation guides and any skills analysis materials will be developed by the role holder with input from and signed off by the Ofcom team.
• At the end of the project, write a report of findings, including recommendations for ongoing actions that Ofcom, the wider health sector and Afro-Caribbean networks can take. This includes presenting these finding and recommendations to the Ofcom media literacy team.
• Meet monthly with Ofcom’s Media Literacy team to deliver project updates.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

• An understanding of media literacy and digital inclusion.
• Existing relationships and experience of working with Afro-Caribbean communities and networks, and its cultural and social considerations, particularly demonstrating strategies around overcoming trust barriers and sensitivities around health information and experiences.
• Knowledge of the issues around health and public health institutions this community experiences.
• Experience of conducting listening and engagement exercises with communities, adhering to data compliance.
• Project management skills: Experience of delivering projects on time, and to a high standard
• Communication skills: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, delivering to variety of levels of seniority, and experience of communicating effectively with Afro-Caribbean communities.
• Experience of delivering strong, clear and accessible analytical reports that include methodology, key insights and recommendations.