What are the responsibilities and job description for the National Head of Recreation and Visitor Experience position at Forestry Commission England?
National Head of Recreation and Visitor Experience
Forestry England is the largest provider of outdoor recreation in the UK, welcoming c. 285million visits to the nation’s forests each year. Last year 97% of visitors said that their visit had a positive impact on their physical and mental wellbeing.
As Head of the national team of experts who lead the policy and practice that enables this to happen, you will promote the health and wellbeing benefits of connecting with nature in the nation’s forests for all, ensuring safe Recreation operations, while maximising social benefit and commercial return. You will champion and enable access for all and outstanding customer service through collaborative partnership working, thought leadership, stakeholder management and leadership of cross-functional collaboration across teams, across England.
This role is part of the Leadership team for Forestry England’s Recreation Directorate and reports to Forestry England’s Director of Operations - Commercial Visitor Development.
Recreation forms an integral part of Forestry England’s National Operations team, who provide direction, guidance, assurance and core support systems across Forestry England’s operations spanning Recreation, Forestry, Investment and Engineering. National Operations is a dynamic multi-functional team of subject matter experts. International leaders in Forestry and Recreation, we work highly collaboratively across functions, with external partners and District teams to deliver quality and impact through all we do.
Person Specification
Key Work Areas
- Lead the development of policy and guidance ensuring our nation’s forests are for everyone and accessible to all.
- Lead the national team of strategic leads and subject matter experts in Recreation including : Volunteering, Access, Health and Wellbeing, Safeguarding, Cycling and Customer Service.
- Enable and empower own and other teams and functions to maximise social and commercial benefits realisation across all Recreation programmes.
- Ensure investments and innovation are co-created through person-centred design, creating accessible, engaging and inspiring visitor experiences in the nation’s forests.
- Ensure Recreation experiences in the nation’s forests are safe and high quality, through the implementation of appropriate Health and Safety, Technical Training and industry quality assurance standards in visitor experience.
- Relationship management for national stakeholders, including Defra, Sport England and National Governing bodies, ensuring Recreation in the nation’s forests is maximised for the benefit of all and is financially and environmentally sustainable.
- Relationship management with existing and future commercial partners to ensure current and future offerings are engaging, safe, accessible and sustainable environmentally and commercially.
Essential
Desirable
Behaviours
Location
East Midlands (England), East of England, London (region), North East England, North West England, South East England, South West England, West Midlands (England), Yorkshire and the Humber
How to apply
As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement as follows :
A CV setting out your employment history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years. A Personal Statement (no longer than 750 words) explaining how you consider yourself a good candidate for the advertised role, taking into consideration how you meet the key work areas and essential and desirable criteria as set out in the person specification. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the insert Personal Statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment / interview.
Please note we are expecting interviews for those shortlisted candidates to take place virtually on video interviews on Tuesday 8
April 2025.
Interview
If successful at sift, as part of the interview there will be a 10 minute presentation, further details will be provided to shortlisted candidates.
At interview you will be assessed on behaviours and experience.
Sift date 25
March 2025
Contact for enquiries
Bridgette Hall MBE - National Head of Recreation and Visitor Experience, Forestry England bridgette.hall@forestryengland.uk