Head of Recreation and Visitor Experience

We are Forestry England.
We live and breathe forests.

Join us. We’re foresters, professionals and experts. We are a passionate team who love to share our enthusiasm and want to make a positive difference for you and the environment.

Together, we’re using our scale and expertise to grow the nation’s forests for everyone. We’re already adapting our landscapes for tomorrow, and getting stuff done today, like creating amazing places and experiences for you to enjoy. We’re providing vital homes for wildlife, making our air cleaner to breathe and producing sustainable timber.

What you’ll do…

As Head of Recreation and Visitor Experience, you will lead the Recreation and Communications function across the North of England, working collaboratively with colleagues across all teams and disciplines to help deliver the Forest District Business Plan and contribute to our national strategy, Growing the Future.

You will champion the development of high quality, engaging visitor experiences across the nation’s forests, ensuring programmes are delivered efficiently, safely, and to a consistently high standard. You will promote innovation, strengthen our health and safety culture, and drive commercial performance—delivering significant income to the District while seeking continual improvements in operational efficiency. You will also provide leadership for communications and stakeholder engagement across the District, ensuring this supports our teams to advance our objectives.

Please see the job description for more information and details about what we need from you.

Where you’ll work…

North England Forest District is the largest in England, covering some 86,000ha, made up of 61,000 ha of forest and 25,000ha of open land in Cumbria, Durham, Gateshead, Lancashire and Northumberland. The District is managed by a multi-disciplinary team of more than 140 staff.

The forest area is currently 90% conifer and 10% broadleaf. Annual timber production is in the region of 550,000m3. The District has 45 SSSIs covering over 10,000ha and is a major contributor to nationally significant biodiversity projects which help support red squirrels, water voles, ospreys and red kites. Our built and agricultural non-woodland estate is extensive and we are engaged in a programme of business development and conservation initiatives.

The recreation experiences we provide are focussed on our five Forest Centres: Grizedale, Gisburn, Hamsterley, Kielder and Whinlatter. Around 1 million people enjoy these forests collectively each year, many staying overnight in the region. The outlying forests of Chopwell Wood, Ennerdale and the Forests of Rothbury are increasingly popular with local visits; enhancing the health and wellbeing of our local communities.

The recreation and communications function includes around 40 staff and 650 volunteers. Within this, the marketing and communications team promotes recreation income growth and supports storytelling, reputation management, and strategic communications across the North of England.

Benefits…

Alongside your salary, Forestry England contributes an average of 28.97% towards your pension. You will become a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension Scheme.

• 25 days holiday a year, raising by one day every year’s service, up to 30 days (pro-rated for part time employees) plus additional days off such as bank holidays.
• STaR is our employee benefits scheme offering discounts on everyday supermarket shopping, as well as other things such as hotel stays clothes, mobile phones, other electrical items, medical and car insurance, holidays, gym discounts, household bills, Headspace wellbeing app.
• Free parking at Forestry England sites and free entry to our National Arboretums at Westonbirt and Bedgebury.
• A commitment to lifelong learning through career development. Forestry England will support your career development in a variety of ways, including continual professional development, support for individual learning plans and sponsored membership of professional bodies.

Read more about the benefits on the Forestry England website.

How to apply…

You will be asked to upload your CV and to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.

You will be assessed on your experience and technical skills during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Leadership
• Managing a quality service
• Changing and Improving
• Seeing the big picture

You will be asked to prepare and deliver a presentation within the interview process. Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.

If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email [email protected].

If you’re planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you’ve read our guidelines here first.

Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.

Nationality requirements…

Read more about nationality requirements here.

Working for the Civil Service…

Forestry England is part of the Civil Service. The Civil Service has a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS). This means candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria during the application process will be guaranteed an interview. We also offer a Redeployment Interview Scheme to current civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the role. This role is also part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans and Prison Leaver Recruitment initiative.

Within Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016, it is essential that applicants should have the ability to provide conversation in accurate spoken English.

Our recruitment process makes appointments based on fair and open competition and merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in in line with/according to these principles and you wish to make a complaint, please email: [email protected].