Forestry Commission Looking for North West Community Woodlands Manager at Sefton, Canterbury, New Zealand Full Time

Location

The role is based in the Northwest, reports to Delamere Forest Office and line manages the NW Community Woodland team covering sites within the Greater Manchester area including Bury, Salford, Rochdale, Wigan, and Merseyside including St. Helen’s, Sefton, Birkenhead and Southport

About The Job

Job summary

To lead the Northwest (NW) Community team (3 Rangers, 1 NW Volunteer Coordinator) in the day-to-day management of the Northwest Community Woodlands. This will include delivering the objectives of the District within the area through the proactive management of the community woodlands for health and safety, recreation maintenance and community engagement.

This is an exciting opportunity to implement actions from the NW Review to ensure the Community Woodlands are managed sustainably, reduce ongoing costs, maximizing use of available resource, maintain partnerships with stakeholders and supporting staff to maintain the woodlands to ensure visitors have a safe and enjoyable visit. Whilst balancing the need for income generation with the social benefit of the community woodlands which are vital for the health and wellbeing of the communities they sit within.

Community Woodlands are a key element of the nation’s forests, providing areas for local communities to enjoy, for nature to thrive and timber to grow. The Community Woodlands vary in size and facilities and are managed by dedicated and motivated teams. The three Community Woodland areas in Central Forest District are in Nottinghamshire, The National Forest and the Northwest.

The NW Community Forest team are responsible for 28 sites covering 1080ha of urban woodland created since 2000.

We are looking for someone eager to fill this temporary role to support the NW Community team and continue to drive the sustainable management of the NW Community Woodlands. Our ideal candidate is an enthusiastic, self-motivated individual who has proven leadership qualities and excellent communication skills. They must be competent in MS Office and have a willingness to learn.

Job Description

Working alongside the Delamere Beat Forester, this role will support the development of key relationships with third-party stakeholders, manage the NW Community Woodlands budget, support coordination of operation programmes and input into the business plan to generate income to ensure financial and environmental sustainability.

The post will line manage the NW Community Team, be based in Delamere Forest and is line managed by the District Recreation and Public Affairs Manager, Communities. Weekend working is required.

A review of the Northwest portfolio was conducted, in 2021, as the legacy fund currently supporting these woodlands is decreasing and due to be depleted by the end of the next 5-year business period. Increased maintenance costs, woodlands reaching first thinning, increasing visitor pressure, large-scale developments in the region and the development of the Northern Forest Initiative and woodland creation opportunities all contribute to the need to create a strategy to improve the net financial position over the next 10 years. The review considered financial, environmental, legal and operational requirements of the portfolio and an action plan has been created. This role will support the implementation of some of those actions.

Key work areas Team Working/ Managing People

• Line manage and support NW Community Woodlands Recreation team, ensure they work actively and efficiently together.
• Provide advice and guidance on day-to-day management of sites including site maintenance, vegetation management, litter collection, antisocial activity and ensure income and recreation targets are met.
• Maintain and develop relationships with key stakeholders across the Northwest Community Forest Portfolio, including City of Trees, Mersey Forest, local authorities, neighbouring landowners, and lease holders on Forestry England land.
• Provide support for the Community payback Project in Manchester, supporting the Community Payback Supervisor and regular liaison with the local Community Payback Operations Manager.
• Actively participate in team meetings and discussions providing input from Community and Recreation perspective.
• Attend regular Recreation Manager meetings and Community Team meetings sharing ideas, collaborating, and listening to feedback from colleagues.

Health and Safety

• Demonstrate and proactively support safe working practice, review risk assessments, lead safety discussions at team meetings and share messaging, training, updates, and lone working support for NW Community Woodland team.
• Respond to complaints and investigate Health and Safety accidents or near misses.

Recreation and Community engagement

• Implement actions from the NW review to generate income to support the sustainable management of the community woodlands.
• Provide contact and excellent communication skills with visitors, partners, colleagues and stakeholders.
• Work with RPA Manager (Communities) to support Recreation, community engagement and links with the volunteering programme.
• Produce accurate and detailed reporting for all projects as required.

Person specification

Professional and Technical Expertise:

• A degree or similar qualification or significant experience in recreation, Community woodland management, environment, community engagement or other sector, please provide details of how your skills can be applied to this role.
• Competent user of IT, in particular Microsoft packages such as Word, Excel, and mapping software e.g., Forester Web.
• Experience in communicating clearly and concisely, creating briefs and engaging materials for external and internal.
• Experience in handling confidential information sensitively and ensuring the right people are informed.
• Ability to take ownership and responsibility, ensuring work areas highlighted are resolved in a timely manner and recorded accurately.

Please clearly demonstrate how the above applies to you throughout your application. Failure to do so will mean that your application is automatically sifted out.

Experience Essential:

• Good understanding of H & S in a forest environment including visitor management and forest operations.
• Experience or good understanding of budget management, procurement and contract management.
• Experience in community involvement programmes and developing stakeholder partnerships.
• Experience in delivering high-quality customer service.
• Experience of working with communities and woodland management within an urban setting.

Desirable:

• A proven track record in inspecting and maintaining safe conditions for visitors, and safe working conditions for colleagues including volunteers, and proven awareness of requirements for Health and Safety.
• Proven ability to prioritise tasks and manage your time in a fast-changing operating environment.
• Experience of managing staff.

The successful candidate must be self-motivated and able to work alone and with others to deliver the work programme in an effective and timely manner.

The post holder will need to use their own vehicle to get to their reporting location and to travel between sites. A Forestry England vehicle may be available for travel between sites.

Behaviours

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

• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £27,779, Forestry Commission contributes £7,500 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

This is a Temporary Appointment until 12/02/2025 with the possibility of extension or permanency but no guarantee.

To apply for this role, your application should be submitted via Civil Service Jobs and submitted no later than 23:55 on 14th November 2023. As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement as follows;

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for gaps within the last 2 years.
• A Personal statement (no longer than 750 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience are suitable for the role, with reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

The behaviours and strengths will be assessed at interview.

Deadline for applications is 14th November 2023, sift results will be released after 20th November 2023, Interviews on 24th November 2023 venue likely to be Delamere Forest.

Further Information

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to Forestry from another employer will mean you can no longer access 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

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply, but will only be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

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 circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing [email protected] stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

This role is full time only. Applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying.

The duties of this post require the applicant to have a full current driving licence that enables them to drive in the UK. However, the Forestry Commission is willing to consider any proposals put forward by applicants that would allow them to do the job by any other means.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

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 Government Recruitment Service via [email protected] as 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 an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

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.

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.

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window) .

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 : Central Forest District team
• Email : [email protected]

Recruitment team

• Email : [email protected]

Further information

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact FCE by email: [email protected]. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.