Area Manager

This is an exciting opportunity to join Forestry England in the west and south-west to drive a step change in leadership and business support. We are building a team of three Area Managers to provide leadership and business support to the front-line delivery teams. One of the new posts will cover the south-west from Exeter, and the other new post will cover the northern beats from either Ludlow or Coleford. Meanwhile the third area manager is already in post leading and supporting our delivery in the Forest of Dean.
Background
Forestry England is part of the Forestry Commission. West England Forest District is responsible for the sustainable management of over 38,000ha of the Nation's Forests in the west and south-west of England. The north of the District extends from woodlands near Shrewsbury, southwards to the majestic oak and beech woods of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire and in the south-west the District stretches as far as Idless Woods near Truro in Cornwall. The District is managed from the District Office at Coleford, in the Forest of Dean, supported by 13 local Forest Beat or Forest Visitor Centre delivery teams dispersed across the Forest District. These local teams are responsible for the professional delivery of agreed work programmes assisted by a team of business support staff.
The Northern Beats (Area Manager - North) manage our woods in north Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire, as well as north WIltshire and the Bristol area. This region includes the nationally important veteran trees of Savernake, and the vast extent of the Wyre Forest which is designated as a National Nature Reserve.
The South Western Beats (Area Manager - South-west) cover our woods in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset. These are a mix of predominantly coniferous plantations on the south-west moors, as well as a rich collection of ancient woodlands throughout all 3 counties. The south-west includes our woods in Exmoor and Dartmoor National Parks.
The area manager roles are key for us to develop as an outstanding organisation, supporting our front-line forestry teams through excellence in people management, business planning and partnership working., The post holder will lead the front line delivery teams in either the south-west, or northern areas in support of delivering agreed programmes of work on time and to the standards required for the UK Woodland Assurance Scheme and our Forestry England Values - Look out & look after, Do it together, Be adventurous, and Think beyond a lifetime. The focus of the post holders will be on supporting the beat foresters through excellent people management, as we aim to ensure we maintain our expert, motivated and committed workforce, supporting recruitment and our commitment to training and development of our people. Business planning and financial reporting, and supporting procurement exercises will be key, actively engaging with the team to understand the real issues and reality of income and expenditure challenges. These roles are about facilitating the forestry teams to deliver superb forests through exemplary business support, they are not of themselves
forestry roles. The forestry programmes, standards and processes are led by the functional operations managers with whom the area managers need to engage and align with.
A part of the role is to support internal and external communications, and this is likely to include assisting your team in responding to complaints and information requests in a professional and timely way.
You can expect to spend nearly all of your time indoors and will be expected to manage your own time to maximise efficiency and personal effectiveness.
Key Work Areas
Leadership
+ To support the beat foresters and their teams, encouraging communication, networking, collaboration and team working;
+ To encourage a culture of life long learning, under pinning technical competence, and supporting the growth of people and business management skills;
+ Facilitate sound business planning, and monitoring and reporting of business delivery so that we can better match approved programmes to available resources, and more accurately forecast and report on expenditure and income targets in relation to the programmed work.
+ Embed realistic time management, supporting beat foresters with work planning and scheduling so that all work is properly planned and resourced as we aim to only deliver forestry that we are proud of.
Partnership
+ Understand the priorities of stakeholders and how they fit into plans and activities
+ Develop and maintain excellent relationships with local stakeholders and partners to strengthen their support and utilise their expertise for the delivery of mutual aspirations, maximising public engagement and understanding for all parties.
+ To support partnership projects, and working with communities to add value to our core work.
Communications
+ Deliver a step-change in the way both internal and external communications are planned and proactively delivered for your area of responsibility
+ Helping the Organisation to communicate the operating policies, customer issues and safety measures
+ Support local stakeholder and neighbour communications to defray tensions and promote positive messaging, take the lead when necessary on complaint resolution.
Financial Monitoring
+ Support the financial management of the cost centres within your area of responsibility, understanding the reality of how expenditure and income is matching to actual delivery and provide accurate, reliable reports to the Finance Manager based on the front-line experience.
+ Contribute data and information to enable the development of cyclical or ad-hoc business planning or business case development as we aim to better match delivery programmes to available resources.
Health and Safety
+ Ensure that all work programmes undertaken meet appropriate standards of health and safety, operational efficiency and quality of output.
+ Lead on incident investigation to aid learning and reduce unsafe working practices
+ Promote a safety first culture with our staff, partners and communities we work with., As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement as follows:
+ A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
+ A Personal Statement (no longer than 750 words) demonstrating how you meet the essential criteria as detailed in the person specification.
The anticipated shortlisting and interview timetable is noted below. Please note that these dates are subject to change.
Application Sift: From Monday 10th June to Wednesday 12th June 2024
Interviews: to be confirmed
Interview
Candidates who progress past the sift stage will be offered an interview/assessment date.
Interviews will be face-to-face and will involve you being assessed against Behaviours, Experiences, and Technical skills listed in the advert. The practical assessment will be ‘hands-on’ so candidates will need to wear suitable clothing for practical outdoor tasks, but any necessary equipment & PPE will be provided by Forestry England.
Should you wish to discuss the role in more detail please contact: Tom.Brockington@forestryengland.uk
Further Information
A reserve list will be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.
Any move to Forestry Commission from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.
In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.
However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
The duties of this post require the applicant to have a full current driving license that enables them to drive in the UK. However, Forestry England is willing to consider any proposals put forward by applicants that would allow them to do the job by any other means.
This role is full time only. Applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying.
All Forestry England staff are required to complete a medical questionnaire as part of the pre-employment checks and, if needed, you may be referred to our Occupational Health provider for a further assessment prior to formal appointment.
Where a role has been identified as one which falls under the scope of the Public Sector English Language Requirements, within Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016, it is essential that applicants should have the ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English. Applicants will be assessed in the selection process in accordance with the requirements
Reasonable Adjustment
If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:
Contact Government Recruitment Service via fcerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
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 the Civil 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.
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+ An exemplary approach to people management, coaching and development of professional teams, with a safety first culture.
+ Relevant work experience in delivering complex work programmes through others, with accurate forecasting, monitoring and reporting of income and expenditure against programme delivery.
+ A proactive approach to internal and external communications through multiple channels and in co-ordination with communications professionals.
Essential
+ Strong people management and leadership skills.
+ Experience of planning and delivering projects (land management based desirable).
+ Proven ability to manage competing demands and prioritise workloads.
+ The ability to build and maintain highly effective working relationships with a range of people (both internally and externally).
+ Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
+ Competence in the use of MS Office applications.
Desirable
+ Understanding of budgetary control and reporting.
+ Experience of collating data and generating reports., + Making Effective Decisions
+ Communicating and Influencing
+ Leadership
+ Seeing the Big Picture
+ Changing and Improving

Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
+ At the start of the interview we will ask you to make a 5 minute verbal presentation on a subject that will be advised when (if) you are invited to interview.

Alongside your salary of £37,485, Forestry Commission contributes £10,121 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
Across Forestry England, we are focused on ensuring that our staff are respected, included, supported and engaged. We love difference and know that every single person is unique. We encourage an environment that values the uniqueness in everyone.
Our wide range of Staff Benefits helps us to achieve this:
• A great environment with flexible working options and a range of family friendly benefits;
• Generous annual leave allowance of 25 days on entry increasing by 1 day each year to a maximum of 30 days (pro rata based on part time hours). After 20 years’ service you will receive a one-off award of 5 extra days’ holiday. On top of this, you'll receive all public holidays plus an additional 2.5 ‘privilege’ days (pro-rata for part time);
• A Civil Service pension, with the opportunity to choose from two pension schemes, one Career Average (Alpha) or a Defined Contribution Scheme (Partnership). If you join the Civil Service Career Average Scheme, we will contribute at least 26% of your salary towards your pension membership every month. Further details can be found at Civil Service Pensions;
• A range of wellbeing benefits, including access to an Employee Assistance Programme 24/7, Bike to Work Scheme plus many more;
• A culture which promotes a diverse and inclusive work environment;
• Free parking at Forestry England sites and free entry to our National Arboretums; and
• Three paid volunteering days per year (pro-rata for part time).
This is a fantastic learning opportunity, working with skilled and experienced colleagues across the organisation. Forestry England is committed to lifelong learning and we will support your career development in a variety of ways, including:
• Learning and development tailored to your role;
• Continual Professional Development: support for individual learning plans and sponsored membership of professional bodies (such as the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management);
• 5 dedicated learning days a year (from e-learning to traditional training, team activities to coaching and shadowing), to target the skills you need to take your career forward;
• Civil Service Learning (CSL) online platform provides access to a host of high quality training courses on a variety of useful and relevant subjects; and
• Dedicated Technical Training in support of our operational functions, ensuring that keeping people safe is central to everything we do., This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.