NATIONAL FOREST FOR WALES TEAM LEADER
Location: Flexible
Salary: £39,700-£44,522 (Grade 7)
Contract Type: Permanent appointment to undertake a time-limited role until 31 August 2025. When the post ends the post holder will be managed in line with our redeployment procedures.
Work pattern: 37 hours,
Post Number: 203274,
Job Description
The National Forest is a long term, strategic programme for Wales led by Welsh Government. It is an umbrella programme under which various initiatives, partnerships and funding mechanisms will operate at different spatial and temporal scales.The National Forest must support the achievement of the following outcomes:
• Good quality, well designed and managed woodlands (essential)
• Woodlands accessible to people (essential)
• Community involvement in woodlands (essential)
• Connected woodlands (desirable)
• Dynamic, multi-purpose woodlands and trees (desirable)
• Woodlands that demonstrate learning, research, and innovation (desirable).
The post holder will lead a team of dedicated National Forest Field Officers who, alongside other partners, will be providing support to stakeholders in order to deliver the National Forest and its outcomes through engagement, advice and on-going support. The team will advocate the benefits of the National Forest and proactively communicate with and advise landowners and land managers to ensure that proposals meet the requirements of the UK Forestry Standard and deliver National Forest outcomes.
The two main outcomes for the team will be delivery of 30 additional National Forest sites and working innovatively with others to encourage action for trees and woodlands through a mixture of enhancement of existing woodland and new woodland creation by 2026. This will help form a coherent, connected network of woodland across Wales to bring social, economic and environmental benefits.
You will be responsible and accountable for leading the formation of a unified team of National Forest Liaison Officers, motivating the team to ensure that they achieve departmental and strategic objectives of both WG and NRW.
You will be the first point of contact for Liaison Officers seeking advice and guidance around woodland management, woodland creation, community engagement, and public access therefore the post holder will be expected to have a technical appreciation for the team’s role and remit, taking a lead on championing the National Forest for Wales.
Ideally you have a good all round knowledge of woodland creation process and what makes a good quality, well designed and managed woodland. You’ll need to be collaborative in style, a good listener, a motivated problem solver and willing to work through complex cases.
You will need to work closely with place based teams, the Sustainable Land Management Team in the Natural Resource Management policy group and work closely with the Welsh Government Team leading on the National Forest Programme. The post holder will be expected to develop an extensive stakeholder network and a crucial aspect of this role will be nurturing and supporting partnership working outside of NRW to secure National Forest outcomes.
You will be able to demonstrate knowledge and experience of the following:
1. Comprehensive experience of communicating effectively with external stakeholders including the public, explaining complex issues, and gaining support by influencing.
2. Extensive knowledge and experience of forestry/woodland creation/farming business models/public access/community engagement at all stages of project development from inception to delivery.
3. Established and Proven project management skills and the ability to inspire confidence and communicate at all levels in our organisation.
4. Substantial previous experience of line management and developing people, with coaching and mentoring skills. Alongside the ability to work well as part of a team and experience of leading dispersed teams of staff.
5. Experience of managing contentious issues and community liaison and public engagement activities.
6. Strong organisational, time management and interpersonal skills.
7. Professional Membership of the Institute of Chartered Foresters or another relevant professional body is desirable
This role will offer a range of benefits, including:
• Agile and flexible working
• Civil Service Pension Scheme offering employer contributions of 26.6% to 30.3%
• 28 days annual leave, rising to 33 days
• Generous leave entitlements for all your life needs
• Health and wellbeing benefits and support
• Weekly well-being hour to use as you choose
To apply, please visit our website.
Tel: Not Specified | E-mail: Not Specified
Web: https://naturalresources.wales | Closing Date: Sunday 28th August 2022
(Uploaded 10/8/22)