National Landscape and Woodland Design Advisor

Never has there been a more important time for trees and forests to help tackle the climate emergency and provide a much-needed sanctuary for people and wildlife. We aim to at least treble tree planting rates in England by the end of this Parliament, reflecting England’s contribution to meeting the UK’s overall target of planting 30,000 hectares per year by the end of this Parliament. This acceleration in current planting rates in England will contribute to meeting the net-zero by 2050 ambitions, and to government’s wider environmental targets. This is supported by the £640m Nature for Climate Fund announced in the March 2020 budget. 
 
The Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Forestry Commission have set up a joint Nature for Climate Fund (NCF) tree programme for England to support the forestry sector, landowners and communities in the delivery of these ambitions. 
 
Forestry Commission leads the delivery of the following parts of the tree planting programme: 
 
– sector capacity 
– planting on public land 
– planting on private land 
– promotion and engagement 
 
If you are passionate about the role of forestry in creating a better future for England, and want to play a key part in that, we want to hear from you. 
 
By joining the Forestry Commission, you will become part of a team of passionate, committed colleagues, and be able to build on a wealth of expertise to take this ambitious work forward. You will be able to make your mark by helping the Forestry Commission to transform how we work together and reach new stakeholders. 

This role provides both a leadership role as well as support to local case work. As a chartered professional the role will provide guidance and technical advice on all aspects of landscape relevant to national forestry policy, as well as building capacity internally in the Forestry Commission (FC) and the wider sector. The role will involve working jointly with other FC landscape professionals, currently in post, to share workload and develop guidance and supporting documentation to all aspects of the tree planting programme.

The role will operate within an interdisciplinary environment, working directly with FC Policy leads and the Area teams as well as sharing good practice with other landscape professionals across the wider Defra family – including Forestry England, Natural England, the Environment Agency, National Park Authorities and AONBs, to develop and embrace complementary approaches to landscape design.

The role will report to the Head of People, Landscape and Historic Environment, and is part of a National Policy and Advice team, within Forest Services.

The Landscape and Woodland Design Advisor will work as part of a team to:

• Offer landscape input to the wider development of national forestry policy.
• Provide professional and confident advice and technical design input to case work on woodland creation and woodland management.
• Support other FC policy leads across Forest Services with the provision of visual and design skills
• Build capacity in landscape and design within FC and with external stakeholders through the development of good practice guidance, advice and training and skills development.
• Work alongside other landscape professionals from across the Defra family to jointly develop policy, share good practice and advice for wider landscape and land management.
• Maintain their own professional standing and look to communicate and share good practice in woodland design amongst the landscape profession and the wider forestry sector, including Non Government Organisations (NGOs)

The role involves travel to office and remote site locations so either a full current driving licence is required or another means of meeting the travel requirements of the post.

The post will be covering the Central part of England and ideally candidates should be living within the Area, or prepared for extensive travel within that area.

This is a full-time position, however there is potential to job share at a minimum of 22.2 hours per week each.

Experience

Essential:

• Expertise in landscape design featuring woodland and forestry
• Track record in working in collaboration with others to find compromise solutions that fit a multi-purpose objective

 Desirable:

• Experience of producing high quality graphic and visual designs for multi-purpose woodlands and forests
• Track record in providing advice and guidance to land management professionals
• Track record in developing guidance and supporting resource materials; including using a variety of communication tools to impart information.

Professional and technical expertise:

Essential:

• Chartered member of the Landscape Institute
• Degree/higher diploma level or equivalent professional qualifications in landscape architecture and significant experience working with forestry, land use planning, or environmental land management
• Expertise and proficiency in using specialised drawing and visual graphic software
• Competent IT user with experience of the MS office suite of applications
• Good partnership working, with a highly collaborative style

Please clearly demonstrate how the above applies to you throughout your application. Failure to do so will mean that your application is automatically sifted out

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

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

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

• Technical design skills: drawing/graphic design.

• A Civil Service pension.
• A range of family friendly benefits.
• An environment with flexible working options.
• Learning and development tailored to your role.
• A culture which promotes a diverse and inclusive work environment.
• A range of wellbeing benefits including discounted Civil Service Healthcare, access to an Employee Assistance Programme 24/7, Bike to Work Scheme, plus many more.
• 25 days annual leave, with 1 additional day for each years’ service up to 5 years (pro rata), plus 10.5 bank holidays/privilege days (pro rata).
• Ability to buy or sell 5 days annual leave. 
• 3 days volunteering per year (pro rata).

We aim to provide a great place to work, whichever location you work from. Blended working forms part of our flexible and inclusive approach to future ways of working. It is an informal arrangement which gives you the option to work some of the week from home, and some of the week from our Forestry Commission workplaces, subject to role requirements, business needs, and regular review. Informal blended working arrangements will be available as agreed with the line manager. Further information will be available for candidates invited to interview.

Job contact :

• Name : FS Recruitment
• Email : fs.recruitment@forestrycommission.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : fcerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk