Events Manager

Job summary

What you’ll do…

To lead on the co-ordination of the events programme at Westonbirt Arboretum, helping to achieve strategic aims and financial targets. You will work closely with colleagues across Westonbirt and from the National Forestry England Event Team, 3rd party event management companies, contractors and other key stakeholders to deliver a wide range of events at Westonbirt in a safe and sustainable way.

You will ensure compliance with Forestry England policy and legal requirements, including Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM) and licensing. Visitor Experience will be at the forefront of your mind, not only in terms of events but also day-to-day operations. You will need to ensure the programme runs with minimal disruption to the visitor attraction and with the utmost consideration given to our historic heritage landscape.

The current events at Westonbirt can be categorised into three primary strands – commercial, cultural and sporting. The programme includes well-established mass participation events such as the Christmas at Westonbirt, Forest Live summer concert series and 10k race. Newer events which include outdoor cinema, festival of archelogy and CaniX, and small events where we rent our space such as Nordic Walking, Orienteering and facepainting.

You will take the lead in developing and delivering an events strategy including new events that diversify our income streams and attract new audiences to the arboretum, this will also include looking at corporate events.

You will have line management responsibilities for an Event Supervisor. In addition, you will be responsible for engaging staff and volunteers with the event programme at Westonbirt, encouraging and coordinating their involvement to successfully promote and deliver events.

This role has Duty Management responsibility and would require cover 1-2 days per week and may include one weekend day per month.

Where you’ll work…

Westonbirt Arboretum is a world-renowned botanical garden in Gloucestershire, UK, featuring a vast collection of 15,000 trees and 2,500 species from around the globe, celebrated for its beauty, significant conservation work, research, and stunning autumn foliage.

Job description

Coordinate the operational planning and delivery of all events at Westonbirt Arboretum

• Lead on overseeing compliance with health and safety onsite
• Manage contracts and contractors effectively including the procurement of new goods and services when required
• Work closely with other members of the Westonbirt Management team to ensure all plans are supported by the various departments onsite
• Develop relationships and lead on communications with local authority event safety officers and other responsible authorities
• Prepare event management documentation which can be used for both internal and external comms
• Review and comment on event planning and health and safety documents prepared by the national team or external contractors
• Prepare, monitor and review the events budget and resources needed to deliver work programmes
• Develop the events strategy by keeping abreast of wider industry practice and using creativity to introduce appropriate services that will inspire and entertain visitors
• Work closely with the Customer Relations Team and Marketing Team to devise appropriate ticketing models and confirm marketing and promotion strategies
• Respond to and resolve visitor feedback
• Provide Duty Management support when regular Duty Managers are unavailable
• And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.

Person specification

Essential professional and technical experience

• You will have experience of delivering large scale events
• You will have experience in people management
• Can demonstrate a collaborative approach to cross-functional working within a larger organisation and with external stakeholders
• Understanding of health and safety around events, crowd control and building of temporary structures
• Commercial experience, with a particular emphasis on revenue management and budgets
• Can demonstrate strong contract management skills, including ensuring contractors meet key KPIs (key performance indicators)
• Ability to communicate clearly, both in writing and in presentations, engaging internal and external stakeholders
• Competent with the use of IT, especially Microsoft Office

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Experience of Customer Relationship Management within an events context
• Knowledge of outdoor recreation or land management sector
• Knowledge and experience of applying CDM Regulations
• Full UK Driving license

Qualifications
Desirable

• Health and Safety qualification such as IOSH
• Personal Licence Holder

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

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

• You will be asked in advance to prepare a 5 minute presentation on a topic which will be presented back to the interview panel on the day

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.

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 Technical skills.

How to apply…

You will be asked to write a 500 word statement on your relevant experience and career history. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.

You will be asked in advance to prepare a 5 minute presentation on a topic which will be presented back to the interview panel on the day

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• 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 - Events Manager (PB5) Opens in new window (pdf, 137kB)