Natural England
Senior Manager - Thames Basin Heaths - ( Ref : 6813 )
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Job Summary
This position is based at Reading.
Job Description
Join us in shaping a future where nature and people thrive. Whether you're drawn to hands-on conservation or playing a vital part behind the scenes, your work at Natural England will support lasting benefits for the environment and society.
Our Role
Natural England is the Government’s adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.
Strategic Outcomes for Nature
Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving nature.
- Recovering Nature – Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives.
- Building Better Places – Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us.
- Improving Health and Wellbeing – Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live.
- Delivering Security through Nature – Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.
Find out more about the work of Natural England at: Natural England’s Strategy: Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security - GOV.UK
The Role
This role is based at Heather Farm, Woking, GU21 4XY and requires regular attendance at the site office and on the heathland sites in the Thames Basin Heath’s area.
Based in the Thames Solent Area Team, you will be working as the Senior Manager for the Thames Basin Heaths Partnership (TBHP) project.
The team provides an on-the-ground warden service on the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area (TBH SPA). Working closely with the Special Protection Area (SPA) landowners and managers and other key partners (including local authorities, Wildlife Trusts, the RSPB, Ministry of Defence, Forestry Commission, and The Crown Estate), the team engages directly with the public to raise awareness amongst visitors of the importance and sensitivity of this internationally important heathland site.
The Thames Basin Heaths Partnership (TBHP), hosted by Natural England’s Thames Solent Team, is fully funded from developer contributions, and is overseen by the Thames Basin Heaths (TBH) Joint Strategic Partnership Board (JSPB), a body comprising eleven local authorities, and Hampshire and Surrey County Councils.
Working in partnership with Natural England (NE) colleagues, the TBH local authorities, SPA landowners and managers, and other stakeholders, you will line manage the warden team, consisting of both permanent and seasonal wardens and enable the project to achieve its objective of helping to protect the SPA from recreational pressures arising from new housing development.
Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities
- Work closely with the Senior Project Officer and the Senior warden as a key member of the TBH SAMM leadership team, championing the project through engaging with stakeholders/partners/councillors at regular meetings and site visits.
- Provide effective line management for a team of wardening staff, including leading the annual recruitment of seasonal wardens.
- Support the team by regularly meeting them on site, organising team face to face meetings (monthly) and support the team on their delivery of key public engagement events such as Heath Week.
- Take charge of Health & Safety (H&S) for the SAMM team, participating as the SAMM team’s H&S committee representative, reviewing risk assessments, keeping hostile sites excel spreadsheet and hostile sites on the rota up to date. Have regular catchups with H&S Business Partner and ensure compliance with regular schedule of testing for the People Safe system.
- Manage staff performance and the quality of the service delivery, to meet engagement and wardening hours targets – reported to the JSPB on a 6 monthly basis.
- Lead procurement activity and online portal management of the People Safe system, and other services that the TBH SAMM team procure for their operations – such as vehicle leasing and cleaning services for the site office base.
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Knowledge, Skills & Experience
- Experience of leading and managing groups of people to help them understand and deliver against priorities to ensure targets and outcomes are met. (Essential)
- The ability to lead people and teams through periods of change and an understanding that individuals adapt and react to change differently. (Essential)
- Experience of managing the performance of individuals, ensuring that delivery standards are met. (Essential)
- Understanding and experience of using coaching and mentoring skills to develop and support individuals within a team. (Essential)
- Demonstrate leadership by sharing skills to help others achieve their capability and career goals. (Essential)
- Ability to manage several complex areas of work at the same time, to prioritise and communicate decisions that are taken. (Essential)
- Demonstration of good communication skills, both written and verbal, as well as the ability to actively listen and relate to people from different backgrounds or with different levels of understanding. (Essential)
- Good understanding of heathland management and ecology and the development pressures and issues affecting this habitat. (Desirable)
- Good understanding of access management and monitoring techniques and their use in managing recreational pressures. (Desirable)
Benefits
At Natural England, we support a healthy work-life balance by offering full-time, part-time, and flexible working arrangements.
We provide excellent opportunities for career progression, training, and development tailored to your role. This includes ten days annually for personal learning and development, plus three additional days for volunteering.
You’ll receive a generous leave allowance of 25 days per year (pro rata), increasing by one day for each year of service up to 30 days (pro-rata), access to the Civil Service Pension scheme with a 28.97% employer contribution, and a range of benefits such as shopping discounts and a cycle-to-work scheme. Staff can also join the Civil Service Sport club for discounts on sports, leisure activities, and social events.
We are committed to fairness, equality, and inclusivity. Our employee-led diversity networks help foster a welcoming environment where everyone feels valued and supported.
Locations
Natural England has adopted hybrid working – which means our staff work from a flexible range of locations, encompassing home, offices (ours and our partners) and relevant sites. All new staff will be formally linked to one of our 25 offices across England, and the expectation is that all new staff will be able to access their local office to be part of the community of staff in their geographical area. Staff are expected to attend their associated office for 20% of their contractual hours.
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Staff members are required to carry out all their duties working in this way and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time. Travel expenses will be paid if work-related travel is required but does not apply to travel between home and your associated office.
National team roles can be linked with any Natural England office while Area Team roles will be linked with an office in the relevant geographic area.
View a map of our office locations here: online map of Natural England office locations
Pay
It is Natural England policy to employ at the entry point of the salary range.
You will become an active member of the relevant local leadership community, the group of senior Natural England staff in each of the localities across England who we ask to provide support and co-ordination for the local group of staff.
Please note: Licensed visa sponsoring organisations are employers authorised by the government to recruit and sponsor overseas workers, enabling them to obtain the appropriate visa to work legally in the country. Natural England is NOT a licensed sponsorship employer.
As part of the Natural England’s application process, candidates are asked to confirm their right to work and remain in the UK. If a candidate says that they meet these requirements, ID is checked, a provisional offer of permanent employment is made and pre-employment eligibility checks commence. Only after these checks are candidates given firm offers of employment.
Natural England is unable to employ individuals who cannot provide the required evidence of their right to work.
How To Apply
We welcome and encourage applications from all communities. Natural England is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the role at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview.
If you require a reasonable adjustment at interview, or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you should notify us of this at application stage where possible, or well in advance of your interview. We now provide primary interview questions in advance for all formal recruitments.
This vacancy uses competency-based assessment. We'll assess you against the competencies below during the selection process. Please be aware that we reserve the right for roles that receive a high volume of applications to initially sift applications for one competence only.
Competencies
Competence 1
Professional competency
Leading and Managing People
- Develop an inclusive and trusting team environment that positively safeguards team members’ physical and mental wellbeing. (Practitioner)
- Lead by example, engage and support your team through change. (Practitioner)
- Set clear plans and expectations for your team, explain reasons behind decisions, be clear on the outcomes to be achieved, and make things happen by sharing and delegating work to
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