Project Officer - Volunteering

Job summary

Forestry England cares for the nation’s forests for people, nature, and the economy. Our volunteers and the partners we work with play a vital role in connecting communities with nature and supporting the management and enhancement of the nation’s forests across England.

While Forestry England has not always been known for our conservation work, we have bold ambitions to be a leading force for nature recovery. Our progress is real and measurable: FSC certified since 1999, WWF’s 'Gift to the Earth' award in 2001, and commitments to restore all our ancient woodlands in 2007 and 11,000 hectares of open habitats in 2013. In 2022 we launched our first Biodiversity Plan with a clear goal to make the nation’s forests the most valuable places for wildlife to thrive and expand in England.

Explore our work to see how we’re putting nature recovery at the heart of England’s forests:

• White-tailed eagle reintroduction
• Nightjar Conservation
• Creating Wilder Forests

This role is part of Forestry England’s National Community Partnership and Volunteer Team and works directly to the Project Manager for Volunteering. As a Defra funded post within a Forestry England–wide project, the Project Officer for Volunteering will provide essential operational support to deliver high quality, safe, and
inclusive volunteer programmes that contribute to the aims of the Nature Recovery Programme and the organisation Volunteer Strategy.

The post will work hands on with District Volunteer Coordinators, operational supervisors, ecologists, and Nature Recovery colleagues to support the recruitment, onboarding, placement and ongoing engagement of volunteers across biodiversity and forest resilience activities, along with fostering strong and rewarding community partnerships. You will ensure volunteers are welcomed, supported, and set up to succeed within their roles.

This role will also work closely with colleagues across the wider Community Partnership and Volunteer Team to support the design and delivery of training, communications, systems development, and people management initiatives. By contributing to these national functions, you will help ensure that volunteers and staff receive the guidance, tools, and support needed to deliver outstanding volunteering across the nation’s forests.

Job description

Key responsibilities & accountabilities

• Work directly with District Volunteer Coordinators, supervisors, ecologists and Nature Recovery teams to support the operational delivery of biodiversity and ecological volunteer roles.
• Support the Project Manager Volunteering and Technical Advisor by taking forward hands-on tasks including recruitment, selection, onboarding and induction of Forestry England Directed Volunteers within the Nature Recovery Programme and where required the wider volunteer team.
• Assist districts with developing and maintaining high-quality volunteer opportunities, supporting the creation of role descriptions, welcome materials and engagement tools.
• Provide practical advice and day-to-day guidance to staff and volunteers, helping to ensure safe and meaningful volunteer participation in nature recovery activities.
• Work with colleagues leading on training to help coordinate, promote and implement training opportunities for volunteers, including role-specific learning, field-based training and refresher sessions.
• Support staff and volunteers in the use of Forestry England’s volunteer CRM system (Connections) and volunteer portal (My Forestry England), ensuring accurate data entry and effective monitoring of volunteer involvement.
• Assist in the day-to-day management of the digital tools which supports effective volunteer management and engagement, including the My Forestry England Volunteer Portal, and communications sites such as Facebook, and SharePoint.
• Assist in collecting data, feedback and insights from volunteers and districts to support programme reporting, evaluation and continuous improvement.
• Support the National Volunteer Team with consistent delivery of Policy, Practice and Guidance (PPG) relating to volunteering and community partnerships.
• Help coordinate operational elements of pre-engagement checks for volunteers, ensuring compliance with safeguarding and organisational standards, alongside the Volunteer people advisor.
• Work collaboratively with district teams, Ecology, Wildlife, Nature Recovery and other programme areas to ensure volunteer activity aligns with wider national objectives.
• Assist in identifying opportunities, risks, or issues within volunteer delivery and escalate to the Project Manager Volunteering or Community Partnership and Volunteer Lead where required.
• Support partnership-based volunteer initiatives by helping District teams engage effectively with community groups, local organisations and environmental partners.
• Provide logistical or practical support for volunteer activities, training events, workshops and volunteer celebrations or recognition events.

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

Person specification

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential professional and technical experience

• Experience of working directly with volunteers or supporting volunteer programmes.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to build relationships and motivate a wide range of people.
• Knowledge of relevant health and safety considerations for volunteers working in outdoor environments.
• Experience working collaboratively within a dispersed team and with a range of stakeholders.
• Competent with Microsoft systems including Teams, SharePoint, Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
• Ability to support others to follow processes, good practice and compliance standards.
• Experience handling data or using digital systems to manage volunteer or customer information.
• Experience of working in outdoor, environmental or community-based settings.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Experience of volunteer recruitment, induction or coordination.
• Understanding of ecological or biodiversity work within a land-management context.
• Experience of working in public-facing environments with high levels of visitor engagement.
• Experience supporting training delivery.
• The duties of the post require the applicant to have a full current driving license that enables them to drive in the UK. Forestry England will consider proposals allowing the applicant to fulfil the role by other means.

Qualifications

Desirable

• A degree or equivalent experience in land management disciplines, volunteer or people management.

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• 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, Strengths and Experience.

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 and strength based questions during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions

If candidates pass the interview but are not the leading candidate they can be placed on a reserve list. We may offer candidates on the reserve list for this role the opportunity to be considered for other roles at the same or lower pay bands.

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 - Project Officer Volunteering (PB5) Opens in new window (pdf, 177kB)