Team Leader, Strategic Access Management and Monitoring (SAMM) Project

Natural England is here to conserve and enhance the natural environment, for its intrinsic value, the wellbeing and enjoyment of people and the economic prosperity that it brings.

This role is based within the Thames Solent team, responsible for delivering environmental outcomes from Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire in the north to Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in the south, plus Berkshire, London and Surrey. The team uses a range of mechanisms including land management and planning advice, engagement with stakeholders and direct management of our own land, to achieve the protection and enhancement of biodiversity and landscapes within the patch.    

The Role

We are looking to fill a Team Leader role within the Thames Solent team specifically to line manage staff within the Strategic Access Management & Monitoring (SAMM) Project – an externally funded project working across the Thames Basin Heaths SPA in Berkshire, Hampshire & Surrey, one of the measures being used to avoid and mitigate against the impacts of housing development on the TBH SPA.  You will manage a team of year round and seasonal wardens and will be expected to be flexible, sometimes working outdoors.

We are looking for self-motivated, organised individuals with a genuine interest in people leadership.

As a Team Leader your primary motivation and focus should be on supporting your team members, prioritising their health and wellbeing, enabling them to deliver their work and supporting them with their personal development.

In addition to managing your team, Team Leaders are expected to take a lead on key external relationships in their patches, bring together internal project teams to integrate our input into major projects and use their own specialisms to shape a bespoke role for them in the area team.

Key tasks/principal accountabilities

• Line management and mentoring of the wardening team – currently 6 year round wardens and 6 seasonal wardens (full time equivalent) ensuring that the team are working in a healthy, safe way and that they are working efficiently, effectively and equably across the Thames Basin Heaths area. To include recruitment, induction and deregistration of the 6 seasonal wardens on 6 month contracts. Also line managing the education officer, communications officer and data officer within the project team.

• Co-ordinating the monitoring programme – transect surveys, team rota, people counter data, warden logs, SANG surveys, data compilation for analysis.

• Developing strong relationships and making new contacts in order to achieve common goals around heathland natural capital and management for protected species, access management and public engagement across the Special Protection Area. This relationship building will include internally within NE, with project partners and other mitigation projects.

• Developing new and exciting ways to engage with local dog walking and community walking groups. Understand motivations to find ways to best educate these groups in the fragility and value of heathland habitats and make them aware of the alternative greenspaces available to them locally.

• Working with colleagues in the SAMM team to develop and extend the resources and innovative public engagement strategies including inputting communication materials, public events, workshops, and leading guided walks.

• Contributing to the wider Thames Solent management team through regular meetings and calls and taking responsibility for progressing initiatives on behalf of the whole team as agreed.

Skills and knowledge

You will:

• be an experienced leader, who sets clear expectations and comes up with new ideas and ways of working and who creates a supportive environment that enables team members to innovate, take risks, and show creativity in the way they deliver the business objectives, and to reflect, review and learn lessons from their work.

• have experience of gathering and processing environmental or social data and handling it responsibly. Have experience of interrogating, processing and presenting data, its implications, and communicating the messages from it, to a range of internal and external recipients in order to maximise the impact of the data.

• have a good understanding of the importance of people accessing and engaging with the natural environment, and how to balance their needs with nature conservation objectives. Knowledge of heathland, urban environments, associated habitats and species and threats to the habitat would be an advantage.

• be self-motivated, enthusiastic and used to working without direct supervision, having a confident and innovative approach to developing ideas and projects and have a very good personal performance record.

• have a good working knowledge of Microsoft Office Outlook, Powerpoint, Excel and Word and be familiar with using social media platforms.

• be able to commute to the Thames Basin Heaths daily and be willing to undertake some early morning, evening and weekend work.

• have a full UK driving licence.
  

Key Capabilities

If you are successful we expect you to have a certain level of capability in a range of activities.  At the interview you will be asked questions related to your technical skills as well as to see how close you are to these levels in the following activities which are drawn from the skills framework for this role:

Leading and Managing People – Practitioner

• Create a supportive environment that enables team members to innovate, take risks, and show creativity in the way they deliver the business objectives, and to reflect, review and learn lessons from their work.
• Demonstrate and encourage a culture of open and honest communication with colleagues and partners.
• Develop an inclusive and trusting team environment that positively safeguards team  members physical and mental wellbeing.
• Use performance management to set clear expectations around delivery, ways of working and personal development, and use the approach to motivate, challenge, review, and develop your team’s performance.
• Facilitate and support the personal development of your team members in line with personal, team and organisational objectives.
• Set the direction and engage and support your team through change.

Work delivery – Practitioner

• Manage your team in line with available financial and non-financial resources and constraints, and implement plans to generate more resource.
• See the big picture and organisational strategy so you can set your team’s work within the context of the wider organisation and beyond, and help team members to understand how their work relates and supports this.
  

Personal effectiveness – Practitioner

• Use clear and appropriate language, communication styles and techniques that engage your audience.
• Identify, suggest and adopt ways to make improvements in your team and Natural England.
• Be decisive, combine your professional judgement with evidence to inform your decision making.
• Address challenging issues and manage conflict.
• Act positively to support the diverse needs of other people in everything you do.

Putting People at the Heart – Practitioner

• Understand and explain the outcomes that we seek in your local patch and how these fit in with local and national issues.
• Develop an understanding of the objectives and needs of our partners and customers.