Marine Planning and Licensing Senior Advisors (Ref: 5254)

East Midlands (England), East of England, London (region), North East England, North West England, South East England, South West England, West Midlands (England), Yorkshire and the Humber

This is a National Role

The team  

Do you have a passion for nature and the environment? Do you want to make a real difference and secure significant environmental gains in the present and the future? Do you enjoy working in a team? Can you see yourself advising communities and customers to maximise gains for the Natural Environment?

If this appeals to you, a career at Natural England offers rewarding opportunities to secure environmental improvements and play your part in creating a better future for people and nature. 

The priority work Natural England is delivering includes:

• Establishing a Nature Recovery Network to help wildlife thrive;
• Monitoring environmental changes to identify and help reduce the effects of climate change; 
• Working with farmers and landowners to develop greener food production methods;
• Advising on plans for new developments to maximise gains for nature, and
• Providing ways for people to better connect with nature, including green social prescribing. 

We are the Government’s Adviser for the natural environment, playing a vital role in delivering the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan, an ambitious vision which brings new opportunities to protect and enhance and to achieve real outcomes for the environment. 

Find out more about the work of Natural England at www.gov.uk/government/organisations/natural-england 

The Team  

The Planning and Infrastructure Team forms part of the Sustainable Development Team, located within Strategy and Government Advice, in the Strategy Directorate of Natural England.

The Team works across the terrestrial and marine environment to:

• Advise Government on national policy issues, contributing to the development of planning policy, guidance and process changes and responding to national consultations.
• Provide strategic technical advice and leadership to our operations teams and develop new approaches to planning and marine licensing work
• Develop and maintain relationships with key national partners including Government, other regulators and agencies, NGOs and the commercial sector

Job description  

Natural England’s marine planning and licensing work is recognised within the organisation as offering a fundamental opportunity to shape improved environmental outcomes.  

We want to invest our planning skills, knowledge and evidence base in a more focussed and streamlined way so we can deliver effective and high-quality advice as well as the added gains for nature recovery. We want to grow our work around how we influence strategic plans for places such as Marine Plans and other spatial marine development plans and continue to shape complex planning casework in area teams. 

We are looking for two Senior Advisers to provide the leadership and technical focus to drive forward these ambitions for reform of Natural England’s engagement in the suite of marine development and licensing work areas. The post holders will need to maintain a flexible and adaptable attitude and approach. Initial broad work areas are likely to comprise those described below:

• Lead/contribute to Natural England’s input into marine plans and other spatial marine development plans.
• Work with Planning and Infrastructure Principal Advisers, Specialists, SD Programme Team, National Operations Team and other key staff on planning reform projects to ensure that our proposals for change are well thought through, considering both risk and opportunity.
• Lead/contribute to technical marine planning and licensing, briefings and, training
• Provide technical advice, internally and externally, on environmental assessment processes and proposed reforms Habitats Regulation Assessment (HRA). Marine conservation Zones (MCZ) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) via guidance, training, technical networks.
• Build effective relationships across marine planning and licensing sectors but particularly the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) to review and appraise our current engagement approach and develop options and a plan for taking this forward.
• Support the team’s wider work on planning and infrastructure planning policy reform, providing technical marine planning and licensing advice as required. 

Provide support and functional management to the Marine Planning and Licensing Lead Adviser

Benefits 

Wherever possible Natural England accommodates requests for both full-time and part-time hours and other flexible working patterns to help employees achieve a good work/life balance and maintain their health and wellbeing.

Natural England provides excellent opportunities for career progression, training and development tailored to your role. From induction to ongoing learning and development, everyone in Natural England is supported to develop their skills and capabilities. Everyone has 10 days to devote to personal learning and development, as well as an additional 3 days to volunteer. 

You will have access to Civil Service Pension and benefits arrangements and generous leave allowances (33 day per year pro rata), as well as flexible working, to help you achieve a work-life balance that works for you and us.

You will have access to a range of benefits including discounts on shopping vouchers, cycle to work scheme, and childcare vouchers. You can also join the Civil Service Sport club which offer discounts on a range of sports and leisure opportunities as well as social events.

Natural England is a fantastic place to work, where difference is celebrated. 

We’re committed to fairness and equality for all, so you feel valued for who you are and what you do. Our shared values help us work together to benefit the communities we serve. Our thriving employee-led diversity networks support our inclusive culture and contribute to our Diversity Action Plan. 

Locations

Natural England is adopting 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. Full time staff are expected to attend their associated office for a minimum of one day a week. 
 
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.

View a map of our office locations here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/natural-england-office-locations.

Pay

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

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.

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

• Technical Skills and Knowledge.
• Putting People at the Heart of the Environment 
• Creating Resilient Landscapes and Seas.
• Personal Effectiveness.

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 doing so.  

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.  

Competencies

Competence 1  

Professional competency

Technical Skills and knowledge

• A relevant degree and/or extensive experience in a related field. (Essential)
• Demonstrate technical expertise and experience of the application of environmental assessment processes to planning casework (MCZ Assessment and HRA, EIA in a marine context) (Essential)
• Demonstrate technical expertise and applied experience of marine licensing and consenting, ideally including Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (Essential)
• Demonstrate technical expertise and applied experience of the marine planning system, legislation, national policy and guidance (Essential) and the Town and Country Planning System (Desirable).

Competence 2  

Professional competency

Putting people at the heart of the environment

• Collaborate, influence and build trusting relationships to achieve pragmatic outcomes (practitioner)
• Develop an understanding of the objectives and needs of our partners and customers (Practitioner)

Competence 3  

Professional competency

Creating resilient landscapes and seas

• Identify and apply relevant planning and environmental legislation, policies and processes to deliver effective and proportionate evidence-based solutions and advice (practitioner).
• Identify appropriate solutions for avoidance, mitigation, compensation of environmental impacts and meeting shared outcomes; and identify opportunities for enhancing the natural environment (practitioner).

Competence 4  

Professional competency

Personal Effectiveness

• Use clear and appropriate language, communication styles and techniques that engage your audience (practitioner).
• Make and explain objective decisions which combine your professional judgement and evidence (Expert).
• Share expertise and knowledge with people and networks so that you can develop together (Practitioner)

Please refer to Job Description

• 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 average employer contribution of 27%

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.

Job contact :

• Name : Alexandra Southcott
• Email : alex.southcott@naturalengland.org.uk
• Telephone : 07788185648

Recruitment team

• Email : defra-recruitment-enquiries@gov.sscl.com