Forest Reproductive Materials Support Officer

Job summary

We are looking for one administrative officer to work within the Forestry Commission’s Plant Health Forestry (PHF) team. The successful candidate will provide administration support in relation to the delivery of operational, legislative, and policy-led forest reproductive material activities.

Forest Services as part of Forestry Commission are the Government’s forestry experts. We advise nationally and locally on how to unlock the full potential of woodlands and support the forestry sector to protect, improve and expand England’s valuable woodland assets, ensuring that they continue to provide benefits to people, the environment and the economy.

By joining the Forestry Commission, you will become part of a team of passionate, committed colleagues, and be able to build on a wealth of expertise to take this ambitious work forward.

The Plant Health Forestry team supports healthy trees, woods, and forests, now and in the future. We work together to prevent entry, provide early detection, and minimise impacts of harmful tree pests and diseases, and to ensure traceability of forestry planting material. This role supports the implementation of the Forest Reproductive Material (Great Britain) Regulations which provide a system of control for seed cuttings and planting stock that is used for forestry purposes in Great Britain. This ensures that planting stock is traceable throughout the collection and production process to a registered source of Basic Material. In addition, it provides information on the genetic quality of the stock.

Job description

This Administrative Officer post focuses primarily on the provision of support to the FRM Operations Manager, to ensure Forest Reproductive Material statutory actions are processed and progressed efficiently and precisely.

Work is varied and fast-paced and the successful candidate must be able to adapt to seasonal peaks in workload across the year in a dynamic way, working to established protocols and procedures.

The role will also involve helping the FRM Operation Manager adapt to new ways of working using Office 365 and SharePoint technology, and the transition of sensitive case material from old to new systems.

Key Work Areas:
- Handle enquiries and requests, from members of the public and other stakeholders, relating to Forest Reproductive Material.

- Provide support to the FRM Ops Manager to include management of an email inbox, booking meetings, planning and assisting with training events and other ad hoc tasks as appropriate.

- Assist members of the public and stakeholders with setting up new accounts on the FRM online system, providing support and guidance on how to use the system.

- Monitor seed collection notifications and allocate a percentage of these to Woodland officers for inspection, liaising with WOs and seed collectors. Check and issue Master Certificates for collections of FRM. Check and issue OECD certificates and labels for imports and exports.

- Support the FRM Ops Manager with the National Register of Basic Material. This will include liaising with landowners, agents and inspectors, allocating inspections, reviewing inspection reports and updating the register to provide accurate information on basic material.

- Work alongside FC Comms to update and improve the FRM webpages.

- As required, lead on, or participate in, workstreams or projects related to FRM.

- Provide reports and analysis on FRM data to partner organisations when required.

Person specification

Essential:
• Experience working in an administrative post or posts
• Excellent interpersonal and customer service skills
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to coordinate multiple work streams
• Excellent attention to detail
• Comfortable working with numbers and large data sets
• Competent IT user with a good working knowledge of standard MS Office applications including Outlook, Word and Teams.
• Experienced user of MS Excel, with experience of managing data and generating reports.
• Experience of working at pace, and independently managing caseloads
Desirable:
• Experience of working within the UK forestry or environmental sector.
• Experience of handling customer queries over the phone and in writing.
• Experience of using ArcGIS or similar mapping software
• Experience reviewing processes and / or systems, assisting with development, and implementing change.

Behaviours

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

• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Making Effective Decisions

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £30,105, Forestry Commission contributes £8,721 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• A Civil Service pension.
• A range of family friendly benefits.
• An environment with flexible working options.
• Learning and development tailored to your role.
• A culture which promotes a diverse and inclusive work environment.
• A range of wellbeing benefits including discounted Civil Service Healthcare, access to an Employee Assistance Programme 24/7, Bike to Work Scheme, plus many more.
• 25 days annual leave, with 1 additional day for each years’ service up to 5 years (pro rata), plus 10.5 bank holidays/privilege days (pro rata).
• Ability to buy or sell 5 days annual leave.
• 3 days volunteering per year (pro rata).

We aim to provide a great place to work, whichever location you work from. Blended working forms part of our flexible and inclusive approach to future ways of working. It is an informal arrangement which gives you the option to work some of the week from home, and some of the week from our Forestry Commission workplaces, subject to role requirements, business needs, and regular review. Informal blended working arrangements will be available as agreed with the line manager.

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.

Fixed Term Appointment until 30th March 2027 with possibility of extension or permanency, but no guarantee.

As part of the application process, you will complete the following:

1. A tailored CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements, of no more than two pages. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
2. A personal statement – in no more than 750 words showing how you meet the criteria of the Person Specification.
3. You will also be asked to provide 250-word statements relating to the behaviours Delivering at pace and Managing a Quality Service

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Should a large number of applications be received, the initial sift may be conducted using the lead behaviour, Delivering at pace.

At interview candidates will be assessed on Behaviours and Experience.

We will be conducting online interviews with the use of Microsoft Teams or equivalent online communication methods. Candidates would therefore require access to a computer and internet at interview stage.

Indicative timeline:

Shortlisting to take place w/c 29th June 2026

Interviews to be carried out w/c 6th July 2026

Dates may be subject to change.

Further Information

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to Forestry Commission from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments.

You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service/Disclosure Scotland on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk

Existing Civil Servants (excluding Forestry Commission employees) and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply, and will only be considered on a loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

Existing Forestry Commission, Forestry England and Forest Research employees are eligible to apply for this Fixed Term Appointment and will only be considered if there is written confirmation from their line manager and HR that their current role will be temporarily backfilled or held open before commencing the application process.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Please note that this vacancy requires a minimum of 37 hours to be worked per week. applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply but your preferred working pattern may not be available.

Where a role has been identified as one which falls under the scope of the Public Sector English Language Requirements, within Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016, it is essential that applicants should have the ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English. Applicants will be assessed in the selection process in accordance with the requirements.

The duties of this post require the applicant to have a full current driving licence that enables them to drive in the UK. 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.

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via FCERecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

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 : FS Recruitment
• Email : fs.recruitment@forestrycommission.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : fcerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.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.