Forest Works Supervisor

Job summary

What you’ll do…

Your focus will be on ensuring the successful establishment of the new woodland sites. This will involve overseeing the on-the-ground operations of the new sites as work begins. You will be responsible for managing and coordinating contractors to complete works to a high health & safety and quality standard, ensuring targets are met within a given time frame. You should be able to work closely with a team to solve problems and manage challenges that may arise throughout the process. In addition you will monitor success rates, tree protection and advise when interventions may be needed.

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

Where you’ll work…

You will be based in the Central District working out of a local office at either Sherwood, Market Rasen or Fineshade.

Central England Forest District Team manages 30,000ha of the Nations Forests within a triangle formed by Preston, Grimsby and Milton Keynes. We manage a diverse range of forests from ancient oak-wood to new community forests, producing 150,000 tonnes of timber every year and providing homes for a wide range of wildlife. Over 8 million people live within 20 miles of our forests, giving rise to a diverse range of customers, neighbours and stakeholders. We manage seven visitor centres, attracting over 2.5 million visits per year, and 23,000 hectares of accessible woodlands.

Job description

Key responsibilities & accountabilities

• Supervise the planting and establishment phase of new woodland creation to deliver outputs and results
• Monitor and supervise contractors to ensure compliance with contract specifications, ensuring health and safety requirements are met
• Assist in the planning of work programmes with the District Forester
• Effectively supervise, motivate and support colleagues and contractors ensuring a high quality of work, effective communication and team working
• You may be expected to assist with other tasks in the forest district although woodland creation tasks will be prioritized

Person specification

Skills, knowledge & experience
Essential professional and technical experience

• relevant experience of forestry or land management
• experience of effective team working
• experience of contract supervision
• experience working to meet tight deadlines
• sound understanding of health and safety in forest operations
• competent IT user with experience in MS Office suite of applications and GIS

Desirable professional and technical experience

• experience in new woodland establishment operations
• hold a recognised Forestry qualification
• good understanding of UKFS and UKWAS requirements

Qualifications
Desirable

• professional membership of the Institute of Chartered Foresters or another relevant professional body is desirable

Behaviours

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

• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

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

• You will also be asked to complete a short practical planning exercise based on planting maps for a woodland creation site

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.

• 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, Experience and Technical skills.

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.

You will be assessed on experience/skill in managing contractors on site with emphasis on ensuring health and safety standards are met. You will also be asked to complete a short practical planning exercise based on planting maps for a woodland creation site

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

Working Together
Communicating and Influencing
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 - Forest Work Supervisor - Woodland Creation (PB6A) Opens in new window (pdf, 74kB)