Business Support Officer

Job summary

What you’ll do…

As a key member of the Business Support Team, you will play an essential role in delivering high-quality financial and administrative services to managers and function leads, supporting the achievement of our strategic business objectives. You will be responsible for accurately processing financial transactions within agreed timelines, ensuring full compliance with established policies and procedures. In addition, you will liaise effectively with members of the public, colleagues and contractors, gathering and collating relevant information to support operation needs

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

Where you’ll work…

Sherwood Pines Forest Park, NG21 9JL

Job description

· Provide finance support to the business function across Forestry England, including entry of sales and purchase ledgers, processing cash account, in line with policy and guidance.

· Provide administrative and finance support to the business functions and deal with enquiries from the public, monitoring the various business mailboxes ensuring correspondence is dealt with in a professional and timely manner.

· Provide contract admin support including preparation of documentation, monitoring, recording of financial transactions and health and safety compliance.

· Serve as a point of contact for internal and external stakeholders, handling enquiries and requests promptly and professionally.

· Arrange and coordinate district meetings for up to 150 district staff.

· Ad hoc projects, tasks and general office duties as reasonably requested by your line manager.

· The role may involve occasional travel within the district, potentially with overnight stays to attend meetings

Person specification

Essential Professional and Technical experience

· The ability to deliver excellent customer service

· Working within an office environment

· Ability to work within and add value to a team

· Excellent organisational skills and an eye for detail

· Strong verbal and written communication skills

· A sound knowledge of Microsoft Office packages

· Proof reading and editing of documents and data

· Experience of handling numerical data

· Excellent task prioritisation and time management skills

Desirable Professional and Technical experience

· Knowledge of purchase ledger.

· Experience of dealing with the public and complaints procedures.

Qualifications

Essential

· GCSE grade C/4 in Maths & English

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

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

• to be confirmed.

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.

• 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 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. 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 a technical skill and strength based questions during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivery 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 PB6B 2026 Opens in new window (pdf, 131kB)