Forest Reproductive Materials Support Officer

We are looking for one administrative officer to work within the Forestry Commission’s Plant Health Forestry (PHF) team. The successful candidate will provide administration support in relation to the delivery of operational, legislative, and policy-led forest reproductive material activities.

Forest Services as part of Forestry Commission are the Government’s forestry experts. We advise nationally and locally on how to unlock the full potential of woodlands and support the forestry sector to protect, improve and expand England’s valuable woodland assets, ensuring that they continue to provide benefits to people, the environment and the economy.

By joining the Forestry Commission, you will become part of a team of passionate, committed colleagues, and be able to build on a wealth of expertise to take this ambitious work forward.

The Plant Health Forestry team supports healthy trees, woods, and forests, now and in the future. We work together to prevent entry, provide early detection, and minimise impacts of harmful tree pests and diseases, and to ensure traceability of forestry planting material. This role supports the implementation of the Forest Reproductive Material (Great Britain) Regulations which provide a system of control for seed cuttings and planting stock that is used for forestry purposes in Great Britain. This ensures that planting stock is traceable throughout the collection and production process to a registered source of Basic Material. In addition, it provides information on the genetic quality of the stock., This Administrative Officer post focuses primarily on the provision of support to the FRM Operations Manager, to ensure Forest Reproductive Material statutory actions are processed and progressed efficiently and precisely.

Work is varied and fast-paced and the successful candidate must be able to adapt to seasonal peaks in workload across the year in a dynamic way, working to established protocols and procedures.

The role will also involve helping the FRM Operation Manager adapt to new ways of working using Office 365 and SharePoint technology, and the transition of sensitive case material from old to new systems. Key Work Areas:

• Handle enquiries and requests, from members of the public and other stakeholders, relating to Forest Reproductive Material.

• Provide support to the FRM Ops Manager to include management of an email inbox, booking meetings, planning and assisting with training events and other ad hoc tasks as appropriate.

• Assist members of the public and stakeholders with setting up new accounts on the FRM online system, providing support and guidance on how to use the system.

• Monitor seed collection notifications and allocate a percentage of these to Woodland officers for inspection, liaising with WOs and seed collectors. Check and issue Master Certificates for collections of FRM. Check and issue OECD certificates and labels for imports and exports.

• Support the FRM Ops Manager with the National Register of Basic Material. This will include liaising with landowners, agents and inspectors, allocating inspections, reviewing inspection reports and updating the register to provide accurate information on basic material.

• Work alongside FC Comms to update and improve the FRM webpages.

• As required, lead on, or participate in, workstreams or projects related to FRM.

• Provide reports and analysis on FRM data to partner organisations when required., We aim to provide a great place to work, whichever location you work from. Blended working forms part of our flexible and inclusive approach to future ways of working. It is an informal arrangement which gives you the option to work some of the week from home, and some of the week from our Forestry Commission workplaces, subject to role requirements, business needs, and regular review. Informal blended working arrangements will be available as agreed with the line manager., * A tailored CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements, of no more than two pages. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.

• A personal statement – in no more than 750 words showing how you meet the criteria of the Person Specification.

• You will also be asked to provide 250-word statements relating to the behaviours Delivering at pace and Managing a Quality Service

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Should a large number of applications be received, the initial sift may be conducted using the lead behaviour, Delivering at pace.

At interview candidates will be assessed on Behaviours and Experience.

We will be conducting online interviews with the use of Microsoft Teams or equivalent online communication methods. Candidates would therefore require access to a computer and internet at interview stage.

Indicative timeline:

Shortlisting to take place w/c 29th June 2026

Interviews to be carried out w/c 6th July 2026

Dates may be subject to change.

Further Information

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to Forestry Commission from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments.

You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out., The duties of this post require the applicant to have a full current driving licence that enables them to drive in the UK. However, the Forestry Commission is willing to consider any proposals put forward by applicants that would allow them to do the job by any other means.

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes., * UK nationals

• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Do you have a valid Driving License license?, Do you have experience in SharePoint?, • Experience working in an administrative post or posts • Excellent interpersonal and customer service skills • Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal • Strong organisational skills with the ability to coordinate multiple work streams • Excellent attention to detail • Comfortable working with numbers and large data sets • Competent IT user with a good working knowledge of standard MS Office applications including Outlook, Word and Teams. • Experienced user of MS Excel, with experience of managing data and generating reports. • Experience of working at pace, and independently managing caseloads Desirable: • Experience of working within the UK forestry or environmental sector. • Experience of handling customer queries over the phone and in writing. • Experience of using ArcGIS or similar mapping software • Experience reviewing processes and / or systems, assisting with development, and implementing change., * Delivering at Pace

• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Making Effective Decisions, Where a role has been identified as one which falls under the scope of the Public Sector English Language Requirements, within Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016, it is essential that applicants should have the ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English. Applicants will be assessed in the selection process in accordance with the requirements., Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

4.04.0 out of 5 stars Edinburgh Hybrid work Full-time, Fixed term contract, Pulled from the full job description

• Childcare
• Annual leave
• Employee assistance programme
• Company pension
• Cycle to work scheme, Alongside your salary of £30,105, Forestry Commission contributes £8,721 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides .

• A Civil Service pension. • A range of family friendly benefits. • An environment with flexible working options. • Learning and development tailored to your role. • A culture which promotes a diverse and inclusive work environment. • A range of wellbeing benefits including discounted Civil Service Healthcare, access to an Employee Assistance Programme 24/7, Bike to Work Scheme, plus many more. • 25 days annual leave, with 1 additional day for each years’ service up to 5 years (pro rata), plus 10.5 bank holidays/privilege days (pro rata). • Ability to buy or sell 5 days annual leave. • 3 days volunteering per year (pro rata).

The Forestry Commission’s Plant Health Forestry team are based throughout England and Scotland. Forest Services has offices located around England and near Edinburgh. This post will be based at the National Office in Bristol or Northern Research Station, Roslin near Edinburgh, with an option of blended working arrangements. Some travel is likely for activities such as field visits, team meetings, training and event support.