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
• Providing ways for people to better connect with nature, including green social prescribing

We are the Government’s advisor 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.

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

About the Job

As the freshwater agenda continues to grow within Natural England we are looking for a Senior Adviser providing leadership and coordinating the delivery of a breath of work within the freshwater agenda across the West Midlands.

Natural England’s West Midlands Area Team covers Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands Combined Authority. Our offices are in Telford and Worcester.

The West Midlands landscape is rich in nature and cultural heritage, from its industrial heartlands to the hills of the Welsh border in the West. We have accessible nature next or near to dense conurbations, home to over 6.5 million people. Most of the area is farmed, with the River Severn and its many tributaries snaking through the landscape. The area boasts a great natural diversity, including rivers, meres, mosses, lowland heaths, uplands, ancient woodland and grassland.

Our vision for the West Midlands reflects the ambitions set out in the Government’s 25 year Environment Plan. We want to see big green connected places, with lots of wildlife, thriving habitats and people enjoying it forever; a West Midlands that is characterised by distinctive landscapes of connected high quality habitats, teeming with a diversity of species. Our urban environments providing high quality green space that connects both people and nature to the wider landscape.

National Nature Reserves (NNR) and protected sites form the heart of many of these landscapes, and the catalysts for building a healthy thriving Nature Recovery Network. NNRs are also places to help people engage and understand the value of nature, and work together to continue to enhance it

Our freshwater work covers a huge range of these unique habitats, from the meres and mosses which are internationally unique wetland sites, to the Severn Estuary and its diverse assemblage of migratory fish. Our protected sites also include the unique Cotswold Water Park, the stunning River Wye, as well as the River Clun and the Teme which hold one of the last remaining populations of freshwater pearl mussels in England. The work is diverse, interesting and challenging and there has never been a more exciting time to deliver our ambitions for water.

The post holder will work closely with the wider leadership team with-in the West Midlands, as well as national staff, to help contribute to the wider strategic water programme in NE and the local area team Nature Recovery ambitions. You will support the lead advisers across the geographical area of the post to deliver their work, providing technical leadership and effective networks to support this. You will need to work closely with a range of partners and stakeholders providing strategic engagement and relationship management - such as with the Environment Agency, Local Authorities, landowners and the Water Companies.

It is expected that candidates will have excellent understanding of freshwater issues. The person should be knowledgeable on water quality and/or resources and how the protected sites system works to be confident to support casework across the team

Job description

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities

• Provide leadership, oversight and direction of the team’s engagement and input into Strategic Water Planning. Identifying and securing opportunities to address the challenges affecting our water environment e.g. climate change, drought, flooding, abstraction, pollution etc.
• Strategic engagement and relationship management of key partners (such as the EA, Water companies etc.) to maximize joined up and effective delivery of opportunities across the West Midlands.
• Engaging actively with our Strategic Headwaters Projects, embedding landscape scale restoration thinking across the Area Team.
• Provide leadership in working across the area team with Farm Advice, National Nature Reserves, Protected Sites and Sustainable Development to embed opportunities to deliver our strategic water ambitions.
• Seek innovative and novel solutions to long standing intractable site-based issues working with other to implement;
• Champion Nature based water solutions and put our water programme at the heart of Nature Recovery;
• Build and lead effective networks to facilitate and influence thinking in this area, sharing information across the team.
• Provide risk oversight and act as the escalation point for high risk casework in the local area team and provide technical leadership on hydrological issues
• Provide mentoring and training to grow the capability and capacity of our team to provide technical water advice, creating resilience in this work area, and expanding the understanding of water across the whole team.
• Engage with new tools such as Green Finance, Biodiversity Net Gain and Local Nature Recovery Strategies to deliver our strategic water ambitions.

Support our freshwater Lead Advisers and Advisers with:

• Technical advice on water related consultations.
• Completion of Diffuse Water Pollution Plans with the Environment Agency and embed the roll-out of their actions.
• Provision of Discretionary Advice Service (DAS) work related to statutory water company plans (drought plan, water resource management plan and business plan) in particular Drought Plan Environmental.
• Work with others to input or develop protected sites monitoring strategy, which integrates all aspects of our work.

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
• Providing ways for people to better connect with nature, including green social prescribing

We are the Government’s advisor 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.

See more about the work of Natural England at:

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/natural-england

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 & Knowledge
• Personal Effectiveness
• Work Delivery
• Putting People at the Heart of the Environment
• Creating Resilient Landscapes and Seas

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.

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

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

• Technical Skills & Knowledge (STAR format not needed for this competency)
• Putting People at the Heart of the Environment
• Personal Effectiveness
• Work Delivery
• Creating Resilient Landscapes and Seas

• 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%

Job contact :

Name :
Claire Minett
Email :
claire.minett@naturalengland.org.uk
Telephone :
07825761776

Recruitment team

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