The Role
Do you want to make a real difference, working in a high priority area, securing significant environmental gains at a national level? These roles are a rare opportunity to play a part in bringing about systematic change to how the planning system works for nature and growth.
We are seeking ambitious individuals with great communication and organisational skills to join our highly performing, supportive and friendly teams across Natural England’s Sustainable Development work. Natural England’s new Strategy includes making a shift from isolated interventions to nature recovery happening at scale, ensuring our efforts deliver lasting improvement across whole landscapes and seascapes. As part of this, our Sustainable Development work is helping build better places, ensuring nature is designed into development and investment plans from the outset. We do this by advising and influencing Government Departments, regulators, the Office of Environmental Protection, industry, NE colleagues and others on how the land use and marine planning systems can protect and restore nature.
In these roles you will be working on the most important development impacts of our age. These are mostly cumulative, indirect impacts such as air pollution, water pollution, water shortage, habitat fragmentation, disturbance of sensitive species, and obstruction of natural coastal change. These are the impact types which present most risk to development and delivery of economic growth because they are difficult to resolve at site scale. They require strategic solutions which will address impacts at many sites and deliver gains for nature on a large scale. We are looking for win-wins which will help society to meet its broad objectives, including the boosting of nature’s recovery.
The team is currently engaged in a range of strategic solutions for offshore energy generation, air pollution, recreational disturbance and water resources. The breadth of this work will grow, as we aim to expand radically the range of strategic solutions available to secure positive outcomes from development
Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities
- Shape and deliver legislative planning, policy reforms and infrastructure projects to ensure that they are customer focused, digitally enabled and sustainable in the long term with a shift to nature’s recovery at scale delivered through the planning system.
- Developing innovative Strategic Solutions to high-risk planning casework with widespread or large-scale environmental implications.
- Provide positive leadership of your work area ensuring and articulating a clear vision and work programme.
- Develop and oversee delivery of your work programme, working collaboratively across the organisation providing strong internal leadership and integration across national teams and Operations.
- Provide expert advice to colleagues to help inform and shape new approaches and decision-making within and outside the organisation.
- Ensure a positive and collaborative working relationship with key contacts in Government departments etc.
Provide expert advice to Government on your area of responsibility to shape key policy development/strategy/legislative initiatives.
Knowledge, Skills & Experience
- Work with government departments and key stakeholders to influence emerging policy and strategy as it relates to planning strategic solutions, to maximise environmental outcomes.
- Identify opportunities for and lead the design and implementation of new strategic solutions. This will include:
- Reduce uncertainty in decision making, by making better use of existing data and driving partnership approaches to better understand environmental impacts and deliver environmental benefits, commissioning new evidence where required.
- Develop solutions which address issues of cumulative and in-combination impacts for key habitats and species where environmental limits are being reached; and appropriate monitoring measures to ensure the solutions are effective.
- Look for opportunities and challenges of existing or new external strategic initiatives, policies or other external influences; and seek out opportunities for shared endeavour projects.
- Support, and enable, the delivery of strategic solutions by:
- Developing and testing new strategic approaches, bringing together the expertise of colleagues across Natural England to provide appropriate assurance.
- Challenging current approaches and drive discussions on improvements and reforms, focused on Natural England’s mission of building partnerships for nature recovery.
- Leading organisation-wide discussions and networks; testing and embedding ideas, ensuring programme direction draws on organisational and external expertise.
- Inputting into stakeholder planning and leading on key strategic stakeholder relations, including government.
Developing and lead relevant projects through appropriate governance processes.
Benefits
At Natural England, we support a healthy work-life balance by offering full-time, part-time, and flexible working arrangements.
We provide excellent opportunities for career progression, training, and development tailored to your role. This includes ten days annually for personal learning and development, plus three additional days for volunteering.
You’ll receive a generous leave allowance of 33 days per year (pro rata), access to the Civil Service Pension scheme with a 28.97% employer contribution, and a range of benefits such as shopping discounts and a cycle-to-work scheme. Staff can also join the Civil Service Sport club for discounts on sports, leisure activities, and social events.
We are committed to fairness, equality, and inclusivity. Our employee-led diversity networks help foster a welcoming environment where everyone feels valued and supported
Locations
Natural England has adopted 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. Staff are expected to attend their associated office for 20% of their contractual hours.
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 while Area Team roles will be linked with an office in the relevant geographic area.
View a map of our office locations here: online map of 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. We now provide primary interview questions in advance for all formal recruitments.
This vacancy uses competency-based assessment. We'll assess you against the competencies below during the selection process:
- Technical Skills and Knowledge
- Work Delivery
- Putting People at the Heart of the Environment
- 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 Action.
Please note that STAR format is not required when answering a Technical Skills & Knowledge competency.
Examples should be given in no more than 250 words for each competency.
If you are successful at the shortlisting stage, you will be invited to attend an interview via MS Teams or a suitable alternative, where you will be asked to give examples for all competencies as set out in the Job Description.
Please note: Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application. However, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
