Senior Officer Tree Action Plan Delivery - ( Ref : 6473 )

Job summary

This position can be based at Crewe or Manchester

Job description

Join us in shaping a future where nature and people thrive. Whether you're drawn to hands-on conservation or playing a vital part behind the scenes, your work at Natural England will support lasting benefits for the environment and society.

Our Role

Natural England is the Government’s adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.

Strategic Outcomes for Nature

Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving nature.

• Recovering Nature – Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives.

• Building Better Places – Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us.

• Improving Health and Wellbeing – Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live.

• Delivering Security through Nature – Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.

Find out more about the work of Natural England at:

Natural England’s Strategy: Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security - GOV.UK

Job description

The Role

Creating new woody habitats, whether woodlands, scrub, wood pasture, wet woodlands can play a vital role in reversing biodiversity loss and building climate resilience across England’s landscapes. The Tree Action Plan Delivery (TAP-D) team in Natural England comprises 23 officers spread across our Area Teams and our National Operations. This role will be based in Natural England’s Cheshire to Lancashire Area Team and will help to deliver Natural England’s vision for Nature Recovery through leading on our Tree Action Plan Delivery and Woodland work.

The Area Team covers four counties of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region and Lancashire. It includes the uplands of Forest of Bowland and West Pennines through the diverse lowlands of Cheshire to the rich coastal habitats of the Irish Sea coast and its wealth of estuaries, and the large conurbations of Liverpool and Manchester.

You will be part of the Tree Action Plan Delivery Team (TAP-D), a national network focused on maximising the benefits of woodland creation for carbon sequestration, nature recovery, and public engagement. This role is critical to the delivery and support of woodland creation schemes and our work with Forestry Commission and wider woodland partners.

Flexible working options are supported, and regular travel within Cheshire to Lancashire is required for site visits and meetings. The role also includes participation in National TAP-D meetings.

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities

This role will lead the TAP-D work across Cheshire to Lancashire.

• Provide expert advice on woodland, wood pasture, agroforestry, and scrub, ensuring sensitive environmental areas are protected. You will also have or develop expertise in the England Woodland Creation offer.

• Strengthen collaboration with the Forestry Commission colleagues for a joined-up approach to tree establishment. The role will engage with other key forestry and woodland partners such as the Forestry England, the two Community Forests within the Area Team patch (the Mersey Forest and City of Trees), Woodland Trust, National Trust, Rivers Trusts and individual land managers.

• Support tree establishmentfor nature recovery, climate resilience, flood mitigation, water quality, and public benefitsthrough the new Local Nature Recovery Strategies.

• Provide technical advice on complex casework relating to tree establishment, including assessments of impacts on protected sites, priority habitats and species, waders and sensitive ecosystems such as peatland.

• Contribute to strategic decision-making by supporting the Area Leadership Team and facilitate knowledge-sharing through meetings, networking, and best practice promotion.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• Essential: Strong ecological understanding and experience in identifying priority habitats. Technical understanding of landscape-scale nature recovery, specifically the benefits and risks of new woodland establishment in relation to nature recovery: key priority habitats, priority species, ecosystem services and climate change.

• Essential: Strong collaboration skills and ability to build relationships across organisations. Understand and be able to engage with stakeholders and partners from a wide variety of organisations to provide effective leadership to collaborative working.

• Essential: Ability to communicate clearly and effectively using appropriate language, tone, and techniques. Demonstrate strong speaking, listening, writing, and presentation skills to engage diverse audiences.

• Essential: The role will require travel to sites and meetings with partners. A driving licence is essential for the role.

• Desirable: Knowledge of Countryside Stewardship and Woodland Creation grants, woodland management and ecology, relevant policy frameworks, Integrated Biodiversity Advice, use of GIS/mapping tools, and environmental regulations.

This role will require frequent travel within the Cheshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside so potential candidates are required to be within patch, or within very close proximity.

Benefits

At Natural England, we support a healthy work-life balance by offering full-time, part-time, and flexible working arrangements.

We provide excellent opportunities for career progression, training, and development tailored to your role. This includes ten days annually for personal learning and development, plus three additional days for volunteering.

You’ll receive a generous leave allowance of 33 days per year (pro rata), access to the Civil Service Pension scheme with a 28.97% employer contribution, and a range of benefits such as shopping discounts and a cycle-to-work scheme. Staff can also join the Civil Service Sport club for discounts on sports, leisure activities, and social events.

We are committed to fairness, equality, and inclusivity. Our employee-led diversity networks help foster a welcoming environment where everyone feels valued and supported.

Locations

Natural England has adopted hybrid working – which means our staff work from a flexible range of locations, encompassing home, offices (ours and our partners) and relevant sites. All new staff will be formally linked to one of our 25 offices across England, and the expectation is that all new staff will be able to access their local office to be part of the community of staff in their geographical area. Staff are expected to attend their associated office for 20% of their contractual hours.

Staff members are required to carry out all their duties working in this way and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time. Travel expenses will be paid if work-related travel is required but does not apply to travel between home and your associated office.

National team roles can be linked with any Natural England office while Area Team roles will be linked with an office in the relevant geographic area.

View a map of our office locations here: online map of Natural England office locations

Pay

It is Natural England policy to employ at the entry point of the salary range.

Leadership

You will become an active member of the relevant local leadership community, the group of senior Natural England staff in each of the localities across England who we ask to provide support and co-ordination for the local group of staff.

How to Apply

We welcome and encourage applications from all communities. Natural England is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the role at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview.

If you require a reasonable adjustment at interview, or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you should notify us of this at application stage where possible, or well in advance of your interview. We now provide primary interview questions in advance for all formal recruitments.

This vacancy uses competency-based assessment. We'll assess you against the competencies below during the selection process:

• Technical Skills and Knowledge

• Creating Resilient Landscapes and Seas

• Personal Effectiveness

• Work Delivery

When completing the application form you should present relevant examples using the STAR format. Give us an example of how you have demonstrated the competency (which can be work related or from another area of your life) and tell us about the Situation, the specific Task you had to undertake, the specific Actions you took, and the Result (both immediate and in a wider context) of your Action.

Please note that STAR format is not required when answering the Technical Skills & Knowledge competency.

Examples should be given in no more than 250 words for each competency.

If you are successful at the shortlisting stage, you will be invited to attend an interview via MS Teams or a suitable alternative, where you will be asked to give examples for all competencies as set out in the Job Description.

As with all roles in NE, these roles require office attendance of a minimum of 20% of the working time – one day per week for those who work full time, subject to any reasonable adjustments and/or existing contractual homeworking.

Competencies

Competence 1

Professional competency

Detail

Technical Skills and Knowledge

Description

Good understanding of habitat management and ecological knowledge with an ability to translate that to the planning and delivery of nature recovery. (Essential)

Identify how a site interacts with the surrounding landscape, habitats and local communities. (Essential)

Understand and be able to successfully engage with stakeholders and partners from a wide variety of organisations to provide effective leadership to support collaborative working. (Essential)

Competence 2

Professional competency

Detail

Creating Resilient Landscapes and Seas

Description

Identify how a site interacts with the surrounding landscape, habitats and local communities. (Practitioner)

Design your local projects to have beneficial impacts at the landscape scale. (Expert)

Competence 3

Professional competency

Detail

Personal Effectiveness

Description

Use clear and appropriate language, communication styles and techniques that engage your audience. (Practitioner)

Be ambitious, identify and adopt ways to make improvements in your team and Natural England and inspire others to act. (Practitioner)

Share expertise and knowledge with people and networks so that you can develop together. (Practitioner)

Competence 4

Professional competency

Detail

Work Delivery

Description

Manage and deliver your work to meet agreed targets and deadlines. (Expert)

Handle data responsibly, understand your role in good governance, and comply with delegations, policies and procedures. (Practitioner)

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Licences

Driving licence

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £39,660, Natural England contributes £11,489 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

Please refer to Job Description

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.

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

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 : Dr Amanda Wright
• Email : amanda.wright@naturalengland.org.uk
• Telephone : 07795 121644

Recruitment team

• Email : defra-recruitment-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk

Further information

https://networkrecruitment.tal.net/vx/appcentre-7/brand-4/spa-1/candidate/so/pm/1/pl/8/opp/6473-6473-Senior-Officer-Tree-Action-Plan-Delivery/en-GB

Attachments

DEF-001h - Candidate Pack Natural England v2.5 Opens in new window (docx, 424kB)