Forestry Commission
Field Manager (Landscape Recovery)
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This role will cover NW&WM and will be based at our offices at Penrith, Delamere, Ludlow and Cannock Offices.
There is some flexibility for blended working; however, the majority of the role will be office-based or spent working in the field.
Job Summary
The Forestry Commission are the government’s forestry experts and we work to protect, improve, expand and connect England’s woods and forests. We do this by providing policy advice to government and leading delivery through regulation, incentives and protecting tree health. The Environment Act set a target of increasing tree cover in England to at least 16.5% by 2050 and recognition of the benefits that trees and woodlands provide for the environment, society and the economy is increasing. We await the revision of the England Trees Action Plan.
The Field Manager role, as part of Forest Services, is responsible for leading a team of Woodland Officers based in their area and for ensuring the effective coordination of our incentives and regulatory activities. Field Managers play a critical role in delivering a step change in our woodland creation levels, and in supporting the woodland management activity across the area. This includes working closely with Natural England, Environment Agency, Rural Payments Agency, Forestry England and Forestry Commission Admin Hubs.
This Field Manager role will also lead on some and help coordinate Landscape Recovery activities across the North West and West Midlands area. You will also work closely with the Areas other Field Managers and local area specialists such as ecologists, deer officers, historical advisors and Land Use Advisors.
Field Managers lead and support teams of Woodland Officers effectively to expand, protect, improve and connect woodlands across the area and ensure the effective use of Forestry Commission incentives and regulations. This Field Manager will support Landscape Recovery across the North West and West Midland.
Responsibilities
Job description
Team working and Managing People – Provide leadership and support to the Woodland Officers, Landscape Recovery Woodland Officers, Regulations & Incentives Support Officers and Technical Support Officers to ensure the effective delivery of our incentives and regulatory programmes. This includes working alongside Area Operations Managers, attending regular meetings, providing feedback on workloads, prioritizing a range of workstream approvals and sharing topical updates with your team including leading local area meetings.
Delivery of Government aspirations for trees and woodlands - play a key role in supporting the operational delivery Forest Services Business Plan. This includes work to help promote the opportunities of the Forest Service’s Strategic Framework and working with delivery partners.
Manage Incentives and Regulations – Oversee the delivery of incentives across the area through supporting their area team and partners by building positive working relationships to ensure the effective promotion and delivery of our incentives programme. Including seeking support from technical specialists to process complex cases and influencing the evolution of new initiatives to best deliver government forestry policy. Support with the areas incentives and regulation workload.
Engaging with stakeholders and partnership working - Work with the Area Management Team to identify the partnerships to engage in order to deliver appropriate sector support in identified priority areas. Developing and maintaining good working relationships with advisers and stakeholders.
Landscape Recovery Specific Responsibilities
This role will help ensure a consistent standard of delivery across the nine NW & WM Landscape Recovery (LR) projects and is funded through the Farming Programme (FP). As appropriate the post holder will support and provide guidance to within the Area team and to each LR project team and the farmers and landowners within each LR project.
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- Work with the Landscape Recovery (LR) project to adopt a one team working approach with colleagues across the Defra group (Defra, Natural England, Environment Agency, Historic England) to improve both grant design and delivery, ultimately delivering better environmental outcomes.
- Build and maintain relationships between Forestry Commission’s Landscape Recovery team and FC subject matter experts from other grants, regulations, policy and operational teams.
- Identify and enable the linkages between scheme design and operational delivery from central government to FC’s national office and area based operational teams.
- Analyse and manipulate project data, helping to inform Landscape Recovery’s role in reaching Government environmental targets.
- Semi-regular presentations to a diverse range of internal/external stakeholders.
Vision and Culture – Support the overall work of the team to ensure the effective delivery of our vision and culture ambition and to help lead on the development of a proactive Health & Safety culture. Play an active role in the wider work of the team including supporting Management and Area Team Meetings.
Person specification
Experience
Essential:
- Experience or relevant working knowledge of forestry Incentives and Regulations for land based schemes, such as Countryside Stewardship;
- Significant knowledge of forestry and silviculture, including having a clear understanding of the UK Forestry Standard;
- Confident interpersonal and communication skills with experience of presenting to a range of audiences, both verbally and written;
- Experience of stakeholder management - building strong business relationships and collaborative working to deliver mutually beneficial results;
- Demonstrate the ability to lead a team in delivering results within agreed timescales and quality standards.
- Demonstrate a proven ability to manage a team to deliver results and turnaround times to an agreed standard, and balance a range of work priorities.
- Proactively deal with complex and contentious issues relating to people and delivery of project outcomes.
Desirable:
- Experience of managing people and demonstrable ability to manage a widely distributed team to deliver results to an agreed standard;
- Practical woodland management experience of both deciduous and coniferous woodland;
- Experience of delivering forestry incentives and regulations.
Professional and Technical Expertise
Essential:
- Degree or Higher Diploma in Forestry, Land Management, Countryside Management, Environmental Management, or a related discipline. or significant related experience in land management / tree and forestry issues. Together with related experience in partnership working centred on land management / tree and forestry issues.
- Competent and effective IT user with experience of MS Office and also including remote working and associated communication tools (e.g. MS Teams).
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.
Desirable:
- Membership of a relevant professional institute (e.g. Institute of Chartered Foresters);
- Evidence of having undertaken appropriate management development training and supporting continuous professional development.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Making Effective Decisions
- Communicating and Influencing
- Working Together
- Developing Self and Others
- Managing a Quality Service
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We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:
Communicating and Influencing
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
Candidates will also be asked to complete a task at interview stage. Further information will be provided to those invited to interview.
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £40,388, Forestry Commission contributes £11,700 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).
- Learning and development tailored to your role
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- A Civil Service pension (opens in a new window) with an employer contribution of 28.97%
- A range of wellbeing benefits including discounted Civil Service Healthcare, access to an Employee Assistance Programme 24/7, Bike to Work Scheme, plus many more.
- 25 days annual leave, with 1 additional day for each years’ service up to 5 years (pro rata), plus 10.5 bank holidays/privilege days (pro rata).
- Ability to buy or sell 5 days annual leave.
- 3 days volunteering per year (pro rata).
We aim to provide a great place to work, whichever location you work from. Blended working forms part of our flexible and inclusive approach to future ways of working. It is an informal arrangement which gives you the option to work some of the week from home, and some of the week from our Forestry Commission workplaces, subject to role requirements, business needs, and regular review. Informal blended working arrangements will be available as agreed with the line manager. Further information will be available for candidates invited to interview.
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, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.
Fixed Term Appointment until 30th March 2027 with possibility of extension or permanency, but no guarantee.
As part of the application process, you will complete the following online:
- A tailored CV (curriculum vitae) setting out your qualifications, career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years. The CV should be split into 3 parts and provide: Job History, Previous Skills/Experience, Full Qualification Details.
- A personal statement – in no more than 750 words showing how you meet the relevant skills and experience as set out in the Person Specification.
- A statement, of no more than 250 words, providing an example of how you have demonstrated the key behaviour of communicating and influencing.
The sift will be conducted using your CV, Personal Statement and lead behaviour: communicating and influencing. Applicants will be expected to demonstrate the essential role requirements within the application behaviour responses.
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