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My role has adapted and changed over the years. Though my prime role is now as Senior Press and PR Officer, I have also been responsible for devising and delivering communication plans for a range of campaigns or initiatives, which has included mentoring others, commissioning specialists for written work, photography and videography and leading advertising campaigns in a targeted way. I have led the council's communications in relation to a number of crisis and/or complex situations, which includes the response, recovery and regeneration phases of the New Ferry gas explosion, the future management of Hoylake beach and the project to build a new flood wall in West Kirby, which I was involved in since its inception to delivery. As the senior press officer for the organisation, I have close relationships with TV, radio, print and specialist journalists and use these relationships to pro-actively pitch positive stories and manage enquiries so that the organisation's position is fairly and accurately represented. A significant part of the role is advising and guiding senior officers, elected members and other professionals on media matters. It also involves handling sensitive information with discretion and professionalism. It is a politically-restricted post, which requires a great deal of political understanding, tact and discretion. Also as part of the job, I co-ordinated and produced a community newspaper that shared not only council news but also information from partners and community groups.

Deputising for my manager while she was on maternity leave, I was part of the Communications and Marketing leadership team and managed a team of Press and Communications Officers to deliver a planned, co-ordinated, timely and successful reactive and proactive service to internal colleagues, external media and other stakeholders. Led on a review of the organisation's approach to social and digital media that led to the council channels becoming much more of an engagement tool, presenting a 'human' voice to the information we were sharing.

I was primarily responsible for the establishment and production of a brand new in-house newspaper for Cheshire Police. This role involved writing, commissioning and editing content and photography, designing the newspaper and overseeing printing and distribution, which included negotiating and managing contracts with suppliers and delivering the annual production schedule within deadlines and budget. Working within a small Press and Marketing team gave me the opportunity to develop skills as a press officer, liaising daily with a wide range of journalists from local, regional, national and international organisations to respond to often highly sensitive and complex enquiries. I became a trusted and authoritative specialist in this area of work and led the force's media response on a number of high profile incidents. I was also on the on-call roster as a press officer so was the senior media advisor for the organisation out of hours on a regular basis.

This was part of a wider regeneration scheme, funded by government and European funds to regenerate an area - my then local area - in north Liverpool. Our specific responsibility was for developing a media participation project from inception to eventually establishing the regular production and delivery of a community newspaper for Netherton (and later Litherland too). This required problem-solving skills, organisation, planning, responsibility for commissioning works and buying supplies managing the project's budget. The project was based in two local secondary schools to begin with, later expanding to a third, and we worked differently across sites to fit in with the needs of each school's curriculum. Working with students of varying abilities, the tasks we set enabled them to develop skills in writing, photography, interview technique, editing and desktop publishing. Their work was turned into content for the newspaper, which was up to the 12th edition by the time I moved on to another job, and a dedicated website for the project at a time when the 'world wide web' was in its infancy!

I was solely responsible for producing a number of daily English-language news packages for British, American and Australian passengers and staff onboard international cruise liners and other shipping vessels, including the entire fleet of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. This was produced using syndicated news feeds such as the Press Association and Reuters, then designed using bespoke software and transmitted electronically to the vessels wherever they where in the world using a very early form of electronic mail. It was then printed and distributed onboard.