Forest Planner

Job summary

A Forest Planner at Forestry England plays a key role in shaping the long-term future of the nation’s forests. Forestry England manages over 1,500 forests, each guided by a detailed forest management plan that sets out how the woodland will be cared for over the next 30 years or more. As a Forest Planner, you will develop these plans, working collaboratively with colleagues from across the organisation and drawing on their specialist knowledge to inform evidence-based decisions.

The role involves carefully balancing multiple objectives, including conserving wildlife and biodiversity, supplying sustainable, home-grown timber, and ensuring forests remain welcoming and accessible for people to enjoy. Ensuring forest plans are UKFS compliant and that Forestry England maintains its UKWAS certification is also an important part of Forest Planner’s responsibilities.

Forest Planners consult widely, both internally and with external stakeholders and partners, to gather expertise, build support, and meet statutory requirements, such as the protection of scheduled monuments and designated sites. They are also responsible for maintaining accurate data systems and use a range of digital tools, including GIS and standard office software, to underpin both operational and longer-term planning work.

Forestry England’s Central District covers an area from Liverpool, across to Hull and down to Bedfordshire. As Forest Planner you will work across Central England, helping to deliver our goals for biodiversity, forest resilience, timber production and more. You’ll be supported with tailored development and training, opportunities for coaching and mentoring, and you will sit within a wider national network of forest planning specialists. You can expect to spend around a quarter of your time outdoors, often working on your own. You will usually be expected to manage your own time to maximise efficiency and effectiveness.

Job description

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities

Forest Planning -

• Collect and verify data relating to Forest Plan areas to inform the forest planning process.
• Design and prescribe long term forest management which delivers resilient forests in industry best practice Forest Plans ensuring that Forestry England land is managed for people, wildlife and timber.
• Communicating, consulting and consensus building with a wide range of Forestry England staff, statutory and non-governmental organisations to ensure proposed plans are in compliance with policies, UK Woodland Assurance Standard and UK Forest Standard.
• Monitor and report on progress with delivery.

Data, mapping and monitoring -

• Interrogate and manage of Geographic information Systems.
• Provide support in areas of data analysis to inform business decisions, including timber production and long-term financial models.
• Undertake forest surveys to improve data and maintain monitoring programme.

Operational support -

• Support the district team in areas of survey, data management and mapping to support forest operational planning to ensure all opportunities and constraints are fully considered.
• Provide support to colleagues in areas of specialism such as UKWAS, regulatory approvals, GIS, and production forecasting as training and skills allow.
• Champion high standards of health and safety within the team resource, ensuring compliance with relevant legislation and guidance.

Project management -

• Project manage a range of small to medium-sized projects related to forest planning, biodiversity, and forest resilience programmes, including project planning and the management of delegated budgets.
• Contribute to other project teams as a forest planning specialist.

Person specification

Skills, Knowledge & Experience

Essential Professional and Technical experience

• Good team worker with the ability to work alone and use own initiative as necessary.
• Excellent written communication skills.
• Excellent verbal communication skills with an ability to bring people together and gain consensus.
• Experience working in forestry, conservation, or other land management areas.
• Experience with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to manipulate and analyse spatial data.
• Competent IT user with experience in MS Office suite of applications.
• A good understanding of Health & Safety in the workplace.

Desirable Professional and Technical experience

• Knowledge and understanding of forestry industry standards and best practice, including UKWAS and UKFS.

Qualifications

Essential

• Degree or Higher National Diploma (HND) or significant equivalent experience in forestry or land management, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), geography or environmental sciences.
• Full driving license that allows you to drive in the UK.

Desirable

• Membership of the Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF) or a commitment to achieve membership.

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:

• Changing and Improving
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions

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.

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.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Changing and Improving
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions

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.

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

CEFD - FE Job Description - Forest Planner Opens in new window (pdf, 205kB)