Forest Craftsperson

Job summary

What you’ll do…

We are looking for an enthusiastic, hardworking and highly motivated team player who enjoys practical tasks in an outdoor environment. You must be able to work independently as well as part of a team. You will be part of the South Downs beat team completing a wide range of management and maintenance tasks to help meet the team's and District's work commitments as instructed by the beat manager.

This role can be physically challenging, and you will be working outdoors in all weather conditions using a variety of equipment including vibrating power tools.

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

Where you’ll work…

The post covers two geographic areas and time will be split evenly between these areas.

The South Downs beat covers 4,300 ha of mixed woodland that varies from pure beech on the South Downs to ancient broadleaf woodland - remnants of the Royal Hunting Forest of Bere. The woodlands are spread across East Hampshire and West Sussex and include well used recreation sites, conservation areas and sites of Special Scientific Interest. The Beat team are based at Forestry England Operations Yard, Liss, GU33 7QP.

The Chiddingfold beat covers 2,800 ha of mixed woodland ( 60% BL, 40% conifer) that varies from designated ancient woodlands in the west to areas of production conifer in the Surrey Hills to the east. The woodlands are spread across Surrey and East Hampshire. They are well used for recreation and contain nationally important conservation areas consisting of sites of Special Scientific Interest and SNCI’s. Much of the beat area is contained within the Surrey Hills AONB. The Beat team are based at Forestry England Operations Yard, Farnham, GU10 4LS.

Job description

Operational:

• restock and establishment work: hand planting, tree guard construction, repairing fences and controlling clearing and maintaining trees: high pruning, cutting back and tree safety work: surveys, putting up safety signs and safety tree survey work related to managing potentially hazardous estate maintenance work such as high pruning operations to maintain access and the management or clearance of trees or other vegetation.
• make sure work programmes you are responsible for are delivered effectively and surveying, including measuring/tariffing, tree safety, stocking density and a variety of recreation when needed, gather operational data accurately and efficiently and maintain appropriate up to date records to the standard required.
• assist with delivering the annual tractor programme of works – mowing, flailing, reinstating tracks, recovering timber and delivering materials amongst the key tasks.

Team working and health and safety:

• operate and maintain tools and resources to required standards and make sure work on site meets our health and safety standards.
• by effectively liaising with colleagues and stakeholders, plan, implement and deliver efficient work programmes that help meet Forestry England’s aims and objectives.
• engage proactively and respond constructively to existing and prospective customers and present the highest standards of professionalism when representing Forestry England in the marketplace.
• carrying out risk assessments working to high health and safety standards which are guided by FISA (Forest Industry Safety Accord).

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

Person specification

Essential professional and technical experience

• practical experience in forestry or countryside / environmental management.
• general understanding of forestry, arboriculture, nature conservation, outdoor recreation and countryside- related issues.
• competently use a range of hand tools.
• awareness of health and safety systems relevant to practical countryside work e.g. risk assessments, Forest Industry Safety Accord (FISA) guides and lone working systems.
• competent IT user with experience in MS Office suite of applications.
• good interpersonal and communication skills, and ability to work effectively alone and as part of a team.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• experience in tractor based operations including NPTC tractor base unit and flail & mulcher qualifications.

Qualifications

Essential

• City & Guilds NPTC Level 2 Award or equivalent in one or more practical forestry skills such as chainsaw maintenance, cross cutting, and felling and processing trees up to 380mm or equivalent qualification.
• full UK driving license, however the Forestry Commission is willing to consider any proposals put forward by applicants that would allow them to do the job by any other means.
• NPTC (or equivalent) in safely applying pesticides using handheld applicators.

Desirable

• forestry or land management qualification.
• further NPTC and Lantra qualifications in Forestry based skills.
• emergency first aid at work + forestry (F).
• a GCSE in Maths and English or functional skills equivalent.

Behaviours

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

• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Managing a Quality Service

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.

During the interview you will be asked questions relating to your skills and experience, and be assessed against behaviours.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Managing a Quality Service

You will also undertake a practical skills test to evaluate your experience.

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 - Forest Craftsperson (PB 6b) Opens in new window (pdf, 122kB)