Head of Recreation and Visitor Experience

We live and breathe forests.

As Head of Recreation and Visitor Experience, you will lead the Recreation and Communications function across the North of England, working collaboratively with colleagues across all teams and disciplines to help deliver the Forest District Business Plan and contribute to our national strategy, Growing the Future.

You will champion the development of high quality, engaging visitor experiences across the nation’s forests, ensuring programmes are delivered efficiently, safely, and to a consistently high standard. You will promote innovation, strengthen our health and safety culture, and drive commercial performance—delivering significant income to the District while seeking continual improvements in operational efficiency. You will also provide leadership for communications and stakeholder engagement across the District, ensuring this supports our teams to advance our objectives.

North England Forest District is the largest in England, covering some 86,000ha, made up of 61,000 ha of forest and 25,000ha of open land in Cumbria, Durham, Gateshead, Lancashire and Northumberland. The District is managed by a multi-disciplinary team of more than 140 staff. The forest area is currently 90% conifer and 10% broadleaf. Annual timber production is in the region of 550,000m3. The District has 45 SSSIs covering over 10,000ha and is a major contributor to nationally significant biodiversity projects which help support red squirrels, water voles, ospreys and red kites. Our built and agricultural non-woodland estate is extensive and we are engaged in a programme of business development and conservation initiatives.

The recreation experiences we provide are focussed on our five Forest Centres: Grizedale, Gisburn, Hamsterley, Kielder and Whinlatter. Around 1 million people enjoy these forests collectively each year, many staying overnight in the region. The outlying forests of Chopwell Wood, Ennerdale and the Forests of Rothbury are increasingly popular with local visits; enhancing the health and wellbeing of our local communities.

The recreation and communications function includes around 40 staff and 650 volunteers. Within this, the marketing and communications team promotes recreation income growth and supports storytelling, reputation management, and strategic communications across the North of England.

Benefits include:

• 25 days holiday a year, increasing by one day every year of service, up to 30 days (pro-rated for part time employees) plus additional days off such as bank holidays.
• STaR is our employee benefits scheme offering discounts on everyday supermarket shopping, as well as other benefits such as hotel stays, clothes, mobile phones, other electrical items, medical and car insurance, holidays, gym discounts, and Headspace wellbeing app.
• Free parking at Forestry England sites and free entry to our National Arboretums at Westonbirt and Bedgebury.
• A commitment to lifelong learning through career development, including continual professional development, support for individual learning plans and sponsorship of professional bodies.

You will be asked to upload your CV and to write a 200-word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.

You will be assessed on your experience and technical skills during your interview. The behaviours being assessed at interview are – Leadership, Managing a quality service, Changing and Improving, Seeing the big picture. You will be asked to prepare and deliver a presentation within the interview process. Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.

If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk.

If you’re planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you have read our guidelines here first.

Forestry England is part of the Civil Service. The Civil Service has a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS). This means candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria during the application process will be guaranteed an interview. We also offer a Redeployment Interview Scheme to current civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the role. This role is also part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans and Prison Leaver Recruitment initiative.

Within Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016, it is essential that applicants should have the ability to communicate in accurate spoken English.

Our recruitment process makes appointments based on fair and open competition and merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in line with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, please email englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk.