Plant Health and Propagation Officer

Job summary

As part of the Westonbirt Tree Team, you will play a vital role in safeguarding the health of the collection, ensuring compliance with national and international legislation. You’ll work with our propagator to support nursery operations and make sure that all material entering or leaving the arboretum nursery is free from pests and pathogens, upholding the highest standards of biosecurity aligned with our vision to be a world leader in trees through conservation, education, and participation.

Job description

Plant Health Compliance:

• Oversee and maintain Westonbirt’s Plant Healthy Certification Scheme accreditation and Plant Passport authorisation
• Work with Propagator to ensure incoming and outgoing nursery material complies with national and international regulations and the Plant Healthy Certification Scheme requirements
• Work with Curator to ensure the Integrated Pest Management strategy is kept up to date in compliance with the UK Woodland Assurance Standard
• Maintain mandatory records and delivery/dispatch information as necessary on plant records database
• Record use of biological controls
• Work with Propagator to monitor for pest and disease within the nursery and record findings
• Support Bedgebury National Pinetum in attaining Plant Healthy Certification Scheme accreditation for their nursery

Plant Health and Biosecurity:

• Ensure biosecurity compliance among staff and visitors to nursery
• Uphold and comply with nursery biosecurity measures and environmental obligations
• Act as Westonbirt’s Tree Health Champion and point person for Westonbirt’s role within the International Plant Sentinel Network
• Support Westonbirt’s Tree Conservation Manager in organising national and international fieldwork, particularly in relation to permits and phytosanitary certification
• Represent the arboretum at plant health related meetings and conferences both internally and externally
• Liaise with Forest Research on plant health matters
• Facilitate plant health related research within the collection

Propagation Support:

• Assist with watering (including some weekends as required)
• Work with Propagator to process incoming seed as required
• Assist with fieldwork activities as appropriate

Training and Development:

• Maintain up-to-date information on plant pests and pathogens, and disseminate this within the wider team
• Provide biosecurity support to wider team
• Keep a register of Tree Team plant health responsibilities and maintain Tree Team training record
• Actively develop your skills and knowledge through personal development and training

Supervisory:

• Supervise and facilitate the work of the volunteer Phenology Group

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

Person specification

Essential professional and technical experience

• organisational, communication and independent working skills
• ability to manage own time and workload efficiently, prioritise and meet tight deadlines
• strong written and oral communication skills
• good botanical knowledge (particularly temperate trees)
• knowledge of pest and disease threats to temperate tree species

Desirable professional and technical experience

• practical fieldwork experience
• experience working within botanical collections

Qualifications

Essential

• experience and/or a qualification in conservation, plant health, horticulture, arboriculture or another relevant discipline
• relevant plant science, forestry or horticulture degree or diploma (or equivalent)

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

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.

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 your experience, technical skills and behaviours during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

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.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

Forestry England Job Description - Plant Health and Propagation Officer (PB6a) (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 136kB)