Business Support Officer

Job summary

What you’ll do…

In this role, you’ll be an important part of the team, supporting the Procurement Systems Manager and the wider Commercial Services function to keep our procurement activity running smoothly across Forestry England and the Forestry Commission.

You’ll help look after our Tail-End Spend processes, making sure our procurement systems work well and that purchasing rules are applied consistently. Because this area involves lots of small, everyday purchases, your work will be varied — one moment you might be speaking with suppliers, the next you could be reviewing spend data or helping colleagues with system queries.

Everything you do will help us get good value for money, continuously improve how we work, and strengthen the way we buy goods and services across the organisation. It’s a great opportunity to learn, grow, and make a real difference in how our teams operate day to day.

Please see the job description below for more information and details about what we need from you.

Where you’ll work…

You'll be based at our National Office, Bristol with flexibility for blended working.

Job description

• Provide day-to-day support for procurement activities, including maintaining accurate records, data input, and document preparation.
• Assist in monitoring supplier performance and compliance with purchasing controls.
• Support the Procurement Systems Manager in managing procurement systems and platforms.
• Prepare reports, dashboards, and presentations on spend analysis, compliance, and supplier performance.
• Act as a point of contact for internal stakeholders, handling queries on purchasing processes and system use.
• Assist in organising stakeholder engagement sessions, training, and meetings.
• Support the preparation and distribution of procurement documentation.
• Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives by identifying process efficiencies and supporting benefits tracking.
• Any other tasks reasonably requested by your line manager.

Person specification

Essential:

• Experience in an administrative or business support role, in any organisational setting.
• A high level of accuracy and attention to detail when working with data and documentation.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain information clearly.
• Confidence using IT systems, including Microsoft Office applications (e.g. Outlook, Excel, Word).
• Ability to work collaboratively within a team.

Desirable

• Previous experience working in a procurement, commercial, finance, or contract related environment.
• An understanding of procurement processes, purchasing controls, or business systems.
• Ability to analyse information and produce clear, well structured reports or summaries.
• Experience supporting stakeholder engagement, guidance, or training activities.

Qualifications

Essential

• GCSE in Maths and English or equivalent functional skills.
• Competent IT user with MS Office experience.

Desirable

• A Level or Level 3 equivalent qualification.
• Working towards or interest in CIPS qualifications

Behaviours

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

• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £26,959, Forestry Commission contributes £7,810 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Benefits…

Alongside your salary, Forestry England contributes an average of 28.97% towards your pension. You will become a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension Scheme.

• 25 days holiday a year, raising by one day every year’s service, up to 30 days (pro-rated for part time employees) plus additional days off such as bank holidays.
• STaR is our employee benefits scheme offering discounts on everyday supermarket shopping, as well as other things such as hotel stays clothes, mobile phones, other electrical items, medical and car insurance, holidays, gym discounts, household bills, Headspace wellbeing app.
• free parking at Forestry England sites and free entry to our National Arboretums at Westonbirt and Bedgebury.
• a commitment to lifelong learning through career development. Forestry England will support your career development in a variety of ways, including continual professional development, support for individual learning plans and sponsored membership of professional bodies.

Read more about the benefits on the Forestry England website.

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 and Experience.

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. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.

You will be assessed on experience and behaviours based questions during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Working together
• Managing a quality service
• Delivering at pace

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 - Business Support Officer (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 118kB)