Communications Officer

Job summary

Forestry England is seeking a dynamic and skilled Communications Officer to bring the story of our Biodiversity Programme to life. This is an exciting opportunity to craft compelling narratives about our wild landscapes, species reintroductions, and conservation efforts across the nation’s forests. From ancient woodlands to innovative habitat restoration, you will engage diverse audiences, building awareness and support for our vital work.

Reporting to the national Nature Communications Manager, you will help shape public perception, work with leading conservationists and champion nature’s recovery on a national scale. This is a new role forming part of a Defra funded Biodiversity Programme. It requires creativity and strong storytelling skills to ensure Forestry England’s biodiversity work is widely understood and celebrated.

We are recruiting three roles: two with a regional focus (North and South) and one national role (location flexible). The regional posts will lead biodiversity communications activity within their assigned area. The national role will support biodiversity communications across the organisation, working closely with the
national external communications team and providing support to regions without dedicated coverage.

Job description

Key responsibilities & accountabilities

• Be responsible for biodiversity communications activity across a geographic area/s, supporting district and national biodiversity and engagement teams to tell our biodiversity story.
• Develop and deliver integrated local biodiversity project communications plans, working with colleagues in the engagement team to engage the public, stakeholders, and media in Forestry England’s biodiversity programme.
• Create engaging content across a range of channels, including digital, social media, press and print, ensuring all activity is consistent with Forestry England’s brand, tone of voice and key messages.
• Proactively identify and develop opportunities for supporter development, partnership working and corporate collaboration, helping to generate income and extend our reach.
• Work closely with programme managers, project managers, biodiversity experts and conservationists, both in the field and office to identify opportunities and translate complex information into accessible and inspiring stories.
• Work closely with the wider external communications team to support delivery of media campaigns, press releases and case studies positioning Forestry England as a leader in nature recovery and conservation.
• Collaborate with internal teams, district biodiversity leads and external partners to coordinate messaging and maximise impact across the business and external audiences.

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

Person specification

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential professional and technical experience

• Proven experience in communications/PR within the environment, conservation or science sectors – to include communications planning, scoping of opportunities and delivery.
• Strong ability to translate technical or scientific information into compelling stories for a wide range of audiences.
• Excellent writing, editing, and storytelling skills with experience across print, digital and social media.
• Experience of stakeholder engagement, including working with media, NGOs, government agencies and corporate partners.
• Strong time management skills, with the ability to juggle multiple priorities and deliver to deadlines.
• A self-starter, able to work independently while collaborating effectively across teams.
• Experience using digital tools, social media scheduling tools and analytics platforms.
• Competence in using AI to support communications delivery and improve outputs, applied in a safe, ethical, and quality-assured manner.
• Passion for biodiversity, conservation and environmental storytelling.

Qualifications

Essential

• Degree and/or professional qualification relevant experience in communications and PR or relevant communications work area
• Relevant experience within the environment, conservation or science sector.

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.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

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

• Technical skill to be confirmed at invitation to interview.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £33,854, Forestry Commission contributes £9,807 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 and Technical skills.

How to apply…

You will be asked to upload your CV and 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 a behaviour based questions at the interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Communicating and influencing
• Working together
• Managing a quality service
• Delivering at pace

If candidates pass the interview but are not the leading candidate, they can be placed on a reserve list. We may offer candidates on the reserve list for this role the opportunity to be considered for other roles at the same or lower pay bands.

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.

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

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

Nationality requirements…

Read more about nationality requirements here.

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.

Medical

Successful candidates will be expected to have a medical.

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

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.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 : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk
• 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 Biodiversity Communications Officer Job Description (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 191kB)