Head of Recreation and Visitor Experience

Job summary

What you’ll do…

As Head of Recreation and Visitor Experience, you will lead the Recreation and Communications function across the North of England, working collaboratively with colleagues across all teams and disciplines to help deliver the Forest District Business Plan and contribute to our national strategy, Growing the Future.

You will champion the development of high quality, engaging visitor experiences across the nation’s forests, ensuring programmes are delivered efficiently, safely, and to a consistently high standard. You will promote innovation, strengthen our health and safety culture, and drive commercial performance—delivering significant income to the district while seeking continual improvements in operational efficiency. You will also provide leadership for communications and stakeholder engagement across the district, ensuring this supports our teams to advance our objectives.

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

Where you’ll work...

North England Forest District is the largest in England, covering some 86,000ha, made up of 61,000 ha of forest and 25,000ha of open land in Cumbria, Durham, Gateshead, Lancashire and Northumberland. The District is managed by a multi-disciplinary team of more than 140 staff.

The forest area is currently 90% conifer and 10% broadleaf. Annual timber production is in the region of 550,000m3. The district has 45 SSSIs covering over 10,000ha and is a major contributor to nationally significant biodiversity projects which help support red squirrels, water voles, ospreys and red kites. Our built and agricultural non-woodland estate is extensive and we are engaged in a programme of business development and conservation initiatives.

The recreation experiences we provide are focussed on our five Forest Centres: Grizedale, Gisburn, Hamsterley, Kielder and Whinlatter. Around 1 million people enjoy these forests collectively each year, many staying overnight in the region. The outlying forests of Chopwell Wood, Ennerdale and the Forests of Rothbury are increasingly popular with local visits; enhancing the health and wellbeing of our local communities.

The recreation and communications function includes around 40 staff and 650 volunteers. Within this, the marketing and communications team promotes recreation income growth and supports storytelling, reputation management, and strategic communications across the North of England.

Job description

Key responsibilities & accountabilities

Leadership

• Provide a clear sense of direction and accountability for the Recreation and Communications team.

• Inspire, support, and develop staff to deliver high-quality results aligned with district and organisational objectives, and our values.

• Build a positive, inclusive team culture; encourage cross-functional collaboration, and engagement with national teams. Play an active role within the district senior leadership team.

• Ensure all operations comply with organisational guidance, with a focus on safe working practices and facilities for staff, volunteers, contractors, and visitors.

• Embed continuous improvement, ensuring learning, development, and knowledge-sharing across district and national teams and site partners.

• Ensure agreed plans are delivered effectively through the wider team.

Business Development

• Shape and evolve the district’s recreation and communications strategy, ensuring alignment with national priorities.

• Lead district teams to manage resources efficiently and deliver operational plans and services.

• Own and maintain the recreation and communications team business plan and investment pipeline.

• Build, monitor, forecast, and report budgets accurately throughout the year, taking necessary action to ensure we meet or exceed targets.

• Understand and respond to existing and emerging markets, using insight and understanding of audience to strengthen product development, marketing, commerciality and visitor engagement.

Communications

• Clearly communicate strategy and the value of Forestry England’s work to staff, volunteers, visitors, partners and stakeholders, representing at local and national forums.

• Build positive, productive relationships with internal and external stakeholders across all recreation, communications, and district interests.

• Lead the District communications function and provide advice to other teams on stakeholder engagement and strategic communications matters.

Person specification

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential professional and technical experience

• Proven track record of leading, inspiring and coaching diverse teams to consistently deliver high-quality visitor experiences.

• Experience driving commercial growth and innovation, achieving both financial and non-financial outcomes within complex operational environments (ideally in outdoor recreation, leisure, or tourism).

• Experience in stakeholder engagement and/or strategic communications, with the ability to engage, influence, build partnerships, and coach others through challenging external public relations issues.

• Demonstrable commitment to fostering a positive health and safety culture.

• Clear commitment to diversity and inclusion, with a track record of building inclusive teams and ensuring accessible, welcoming public services.

• A valid driver’s licence and be able to travel to the 5 main forest sites within the district.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Experience leading capital projects through planning, development, and delivery.

• Experience working with local residents and communities.

• Knowledge of countryside access, land management, volunteering, or community outreach.

Qualifications

Desirable

• A relevant project or programme management qualification.

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Managing a Quality Service
• Changing and Improving
• Seeing the Big Picture

Technical skills

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

• You will be assessed on a technical skill at interview

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £48,765, Forestry Commission contributes £14,127 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 upload your CV and 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 your experience and technical skills during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Leadership

• Managing a quality service

• Changing and Improving

• Seeing the big picture

You will be asked to prepare and deliver a presentation within the interview process.

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 - Head of Recreation and Visitor Experience Opens in new window (pdf, 196kB)