Beat Forester

Job summary

What you’ll do…

As one of the four Thetford Beat Foresters, you will play a key role in evolving our forest management practices - diversifying tree species to sustain timber production under future climate conditions, maintaining SSSI/SPA habitats for rare Breckland fauna and flora, protecting our unique heritage and providing extensive access to the countryside for an increasing number of visitors.

At Thetford Forest, we work at a landscape scale. The 20,000 hectare forest is divided into four beats, each producing a share of the forest’s 85,000m³ typical annual timber harvest and contributing to the up to 1million tree-planting programme.

The Beat Forester plans and organises forest operations, preparing large-scale silvicultural and estate maintenance programmes and ensuring they’re delivered safely, on-time and to exemplar professional standards.

In addition to managing planned work, Beat Foresters frequently need to react to unexpected or unusual situations (for example wildfires, windblown trees), quickly organising a response which complies with procedures.

If this job advert has inspired you to consider turning a passion for forests and trees into a career, but you don’t yet have the technical knowledge required for this role, you will find information about routes into forestry and qualifications on the Royal Forestry Society and tree work on the Arborictultural association websites. You may also find opportunities to gain experience through volunteering.

Please see the attached document for more information and details about what we need from you.

Where you’ll work…

This post is based at the Santon Downham Office near Brandon, Suffolk IP27 0TJ.

A Beat Forester is a management role, so you can expect to spend part of most days in the office, but you must also be prepared to work outdoors in all seasons and be able to walk across rough ground with obstacles.

The standard working pattern is 44 hours a week 7am Monday to Friday but the operational pay and responsibilities of the role require flexible working to meet the needs of the team, and for you to be available on-call out-of-hours at times.

Sometimes meetings and training events will take place elsewhere in the country, which may require overnight stays.

Job description

Key responsibilities & accountabilities

• manage a team and volunteers meeting Forestry England’s organisational values and behaviours.
• champion improvements in Forestry England’s health & safety culture.
• deliver a positive and inclusive culture, fostering cross-functional collaboration and support.
• promote learning and development opportunities amongst the team.
• maintain professional and productive relationships with stakeholders across several beats and work collaboratively with colleagues across the wider district.
• create, manage, and execute operations in the beat in line with the UK Woodland Assurance Standard (UKWAS), UK Forestry Standard (UKFS).
• manage operations in a specific beat, including tree harvesting, regeneration and conservation programmes, outdoor recreation, and public engagement provision, collaborating with district foresters and specialist district leads.
• plan, procure, and manage contracts to effectively meet forest management and timber harvesting objectives, whilst meeting all relevant guidelines and legislation.
• engage proactively and respond constructively to existing and prospective customers and show the highest standards of professionalism when representing Forestry England in the marketplace.
• manage aspects of wildlife, woodland, and heritage conservation, and have awareness of legal and financial implications.
• make sure work you are responsible for health and safety guidance, and communicate the importance of working safely, to manage risks across operations for staff, contractors, customers, and the environment.
• liaise with the local mechanical engineering services team on vehicles, machinery and equipment.
• help maintain Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) accreditation.
• be responsible for the beat’s budget.
• efficiently manage resources so beat projects, programmes, and business as usual operations are delivered effectively and efficiently.
• prepare the annual beat business plan - monitor, reforecast and report on budgets and key performance indicators throughout the year.

This post will require occasional out-of-hours and weekend working including for emergency call outs, council meetings, etc.

And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.

Person specification

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential professional and technical experience

• experience of managing a team, as well as demonstrating successful team working.
• experience of planning and supervising forestry operations, and ability to demonstrate a significant understanding of health and safety in forestry.
• experience of managing a budget, and a sound understanding of and experience of managing contracts.
• competent IT user with experience in MS Office suite of applications.
• silvicultural knowledge

Desirable professional and technical experience

• experience of using (forestry) Geographic Information System.

Qualifications

Essential

• degree or Higher National Diploma (HND) in Forestry or significant equivalent experience in forestry or land management.

Desirable

• membership of the Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF) or a commitment to achieve membership.

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• You will be assessed on your technical skills at interview via formal questions and exercises

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £37,537, Forestry Commission contributes £10,874 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 employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

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.

How to apply…

You will be asked to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. Please ensure you write about your skills and experience in Silviculture knowledge, planning and delivery of forest operations that meet environmental safety standards and managing staff

You will be assessed on these during sifting. Please complete all sections so we can score your application. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.

The interview will be conducted in person at Santon Downham. You will be assessed on behaviours, strengths and technical skills during your interview. The interview will include formal questions and exercises relating to these.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

Leadership
Working Together
Delivering at Pace
Making Effective Decisions

Please refer to the Civil Service Success Profiles for more information about the different types of questions and assessments.

Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.

If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk.

If you're planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you've read our guidelines here first.

Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.

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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

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 : FC Recruitment Team
• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

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: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.

Attachments

Forestry England Job Description – Beat Forester (PB5ops) Opens in new window (pdf, 118kB)