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Contracts and Surveys Support Officer

Job details
Posting date: 14 May 2025
Salary: £32,089 to £32,724 per year
Hours: Full time
Closing date: 08 June 2025
Location: York
Company: Government Recruitment Service
Job type: Temporary
Job reference: 404808/3

Summary

Forest Services (FS), as part of Forestry Commission (FC), 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 expand, protect, improve and connect England’s valuable woodland assets.

This post sits within the FS Plant Health Forestry team (PHF), forming part of the Plant Health Service reporting to the National Plant Protection Organisation (Defra). A multidisciplinary team, it is responsible for public and sector liaison, operational delivery, policy and regulations, programme management, contingency planning, and for computation and publication of official reports and pest management information. PHF is a high performing geographically distributed team with staff responsible for delivery across GB.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and well organised individual to help collate and analyse data, maintain records, and support contract management actions. The successful candidate will have a keen eye for detail and strong communication skills. Able to learn quickly, they will be able to critically assess and quality assure information received, before communicating it in a timely manner. A passion for the protection of trees, woodlands and forests from pests and diseases and familiarity with contracting services is also desirable.

The purpose of this role is to provide support to the Contracts and Surveys Manager. This will include assisting with plant health projects, working alongside other government departments, and communicating with contractors providing plant health support services. This is primarily a desk-based role.

Key work areas:

Support production of PHF reports through identifying, collecting, computing and validating data from a range of sources across and outside the Forestry Commission, and helping to draft and collate text for internal and external communications.Support production of plant health management information, including creation and production of dashboards for various stakeholders. This will involve working with others to clarify and refine information received.Maintain accurate records and organise data and documents as directed and suggest improvements where relevant.Provide assistance to the Plant Health Forestry Contracts and Surveys Manager to communicate information to contractors, uphold contract management processes across the team, and review contract documentation.Deliver contract resumption tasks. These include performing tax checks by completing annual review of contractors, ensuring annual insurance checks are completed, and assisting with procurement exercises.Undertake other ad hoc work as required, including providing secretariat and planning support for meetings/working groups, and administrative support during the planning and delivery of annual quarantine pest surveys, outbreak response, and border inspections. Work consistently and in a timely way to some tight timescales within professional standards.Provide assistance to the Plant Health Forestry Business Support Unit during periods of high demand such as data cleansing exercises, peaks in public reporting, and implementation of new systems or processes. Assist in the dissemination of information to the team and implementation of process changes.

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Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.