We are looking for a collaborative, innovative individual to coordinate delivery of the Forest of Avon Plan: Tree and Woodland Strategy for the West of England which was launched in June 2021 across Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire as a partnership with the region’s authorities, the Woodland Trust, West of England Nature Partnership and many others.

You would be working in a truly dynamic and creative role with huge potential to create a big impact. You will be working with a diverse range of partners, landowners and communities across the region to deliver the Plan’s Goals, guided by the 5 Year Action Plan, as well as some of the flagship projects. You will also be looking at the targets to 2050 and planning how they will be achieved and progress recorded.

The Forest of Avon Trust have secured funding for this role together with a Communications Officer role and a substantial package of communications and engagement support under the Emergency Tree Fund funded by the Woodland Trust. The Emergency Tree Fund has been created to accelerate work towards targets under the Environment Act and England’s Tree Action Plan, to address the climate change and biodiversity emergencies and to create, protect and restore our trees and woodlands.

The Forest of Avon Trust is the West of England’s Community Forest, an independent charity and one of a national network of England’s Community Forests. We are growing our work and impact through implementing the Forest of Avon Plan, delivering a multi-million pound tree planting programme ‘Trees for Climate’ as well as delivering many other projects in woodland management, creation, skills, health and wellbeing.

Two-year fixed term contract to start as soon as possible:
• Salary of £35,000 gross per annum
• 5 days per week (37.5 hours)
• Flexible working hours
• Main office base at Lockleaze Bristol, with some homeworking optional
• Time spent at partner offices, with some travel for site visits
• Employee Pension Scheme with 3% employer contribution
• A very friendly team with training opportunities, a flexible approach to working and an opportunity to influence nationally through our network of England’s Community Forests and work with Defra and national partners

Job Description
Working as part of a team and with project communications and engagement support:

Coordinating Delivery of the Plan:
• Coordinating activity towards meeting the actions, goals and larger projects contained within the Forest of Avon Plan.
• Leading on the diverse actions set out within the ‘Five-Year Action Plan’ and regularly reporting on progress against these.
• Liaising with and building relationships with all partners and networks involved in the delivery of the Plan, reducing barriers to tree planting, care and preservation.
• Preparing and delivering a detailed programme management plan, with targets and dates to complete set activity and outputs, including actions around timber, agroforestry and woodland management.
• Coordinate with partners to deliver the ‘Flagship Projects’ contained within the Plan with at least two due to be launched by October 2024, through advocacy, preparing funding bids and coordinating and driving action. This may include supporting land acquisition projects.
• Engage with landowners and networks to deliver and support a woodland creation programme – drawing upon funds such as the Trees for Climate and MoreWoods.
• Accelerate expansion of new woodlands to include expanding existing woodland and focussing on strategic woodland areas and nature recovery networks for species to thrive, as well as developing resources for woodland management and health and wellbeing activity connected to woodlands.
• Coordinate and contribute to the development of innovative solutions to resourcing the longer term creation and management of woodlands.
• Enable other charities, Climate Action Groups, Friends Groups and other community groups to share information and to access all resources available to them to support their goals which are relevant to the Plan.
• Promote the actions set out for each of the 22 Landscape Character Areas across the West of England.
• Work with partners to ensure that the Forest of Avon Plan goals, principles and priorities are embedded into regional and local plans.
• Introducing systems to increase efficiency and to reflect upon, agree and share best practice across partnerships.

Reporting:
• Preparing regular brief update reports and detailed quarterly and annual Reports detailing impact and progress, satisfying funder criteria.
• Establish a baseline for reporting of tree canopy cover across the four authorities drawing upon research already completed regionally as well as national innovation, to enable us to harness the impact of projects.

Monitoring, Data and Evaluation:
• Recording progress and completing reviews, monitoring and evaluation, with a clear plan for this built into each project.
• Collate all data, working with the communications officer, Natural History Consortium and authority teams to develop the dissemination of that data and information about impact/metrics and feed into communications activity and a new website.

Funding Bids:
• Working with partners and others to secure funding for projects and resources to continue to implement the Plan.

Job Specification
Essential Criteria – evidenced with experience and skills
• Ability to coordinate projects and actions, working with multiple and diverse partner organisations and audiences.
• Ability to motivate others to engage in the Forest of Avon Plan delivery and achieving the Plan’s targets to include leaders, senior managers and political representatives across the region.
• Ability to motivate people and bring people together to work towards a common goal at different levels of organisations and with different levels of knowledge, ideas and perspectives.
• Ability to line manage and develop a small team of staff and volunteers.
• Ability to project/programme manage effectively.
• Ability to secure support for a cause, project or activity with definable results.
• Ability to achieve targets within required timeframes and to ensure others are supported and motivated to achieve goals within the project plan.
• Ability to manage budgets and funding bids and to prepare a budget/funding report in a timely manner.
• Ability to evaluate the projects as they develop and to analyse and report on the evaluation data.
• Strong administration skills and ability to organise work and coordinate multiple tasks with a clear plan and approach.
• Ability to use own initiative, improve systems and work proactively to support the team.
• Accuracy and attention to detail.
• Knowledge of or a strong interest in the environmental sector and/or woodland creation and delivery.
• A willingness and ability to occasionally challenge the status quo positively, creatively, productively and collaboratively.
• A professional manner in representing the partnerships of organisations and the project.
• A commitment to the Forest of Avon Trust’s and partner’s goals and values.
• Access to a vehicle and/or the ability to travel to work commitments in the West of England and occasionally further away.

Desirable Criteria
• Knowledge of the West of England region.
• A degree, or equivalent qualification or experience, in an environmental or forestry discipline.
• A Project management Qualification.

A Disclosure and Barring Service check may be required for this role.