Recreation Ranger, Facilities Management

Job summary

What you’ll do

As Recreation Ranger - Facilities you will support the Recreation Manager in the day to day running of a busy Forest Centre. The Recreation Ranger will plan, deliver, and supervise work programmes for contractors and staff to ensure compliance, safety and high standards of visitor experience across the busy site.

Your main responsibilities include making sure we have seamless day-to-day visitor operations, our visitors are having excellent experiences and maintaining a welcoming and safe environment for our customers.

You will supervise the Craftsperson team to ensure all maintenance and forest management work is undertaken alongside answering visitor enquiries and supporting your direct colleagues on site. A large part of the role is working in partnership with Dorset Council.

You will contribute to the overall safety of the visitor experience, drive efficiencies and income generation opportunities.

Please see the job description below for more information and details about what we need from you.

Where you’ll work

Moors Valley Country Park and Forest is jointly owned and managed by Dorset Council and Forestry England, working closely with several onsite concessions. The Park has previously won Gold for Large Visitor Attraction in the Southwest Tourism Excellence Awards and is one of two popular visitor centres in the south district for Forestry England.

Moors Valley is one of the most visited attractions in the south with more than 1,000,000 visitors annually enjoying its lakeside walks and bike rides, innovative forest play structures, Tree Top Trail, steam railway, Go Ape, Segways, Nets Adventure and Golf Course. Prized as much by the local community as visiting tourists the park also offers stimulating play facilities, nationally recognised green exercise initiatives, locally sourced resta­­­urant food and an extensive year-round events programme.

Job description

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities

In this role, you'll have the opportunity to maintain our recreational facilities focusing on health and safety and forest management. Here's a snapshot of your responsibilities:

• Be the face of Forestry England: you'll provide a visible presence for visitors. Maintain a safe and enjoyable Forest Centre: carry out regular inspections of car parks, cycle routes, recreational facilities, and litter management, to ensure a safe and enjoyable environment for all. Ensure defects are properly recorded and add findings to work plans. Build and maintain good relationships with on site partners and third party businesses.

• Ensure health and safety compliance: coordinate emergency procedures, complete accident and incident reports, undertake tree safety checks and adhere to health and safety guidelines. Work with the Recreation Manager to ensure risk assessments are being adhered to and that building management procedures and monitoring are in place. Ensure personal safety by using Peoplesafe (lone working) and by carrying out PPE and safety checks, in compliance with policy guidance. Input incidents into the reporting system, collating all relevant information.

• Working with others: work closely with volunteers, the wider Forest Centre team, partner organisations and Forestry England colleagues to ensure the smooth day to day running of the site.

• Delivering at pace: Working alongside the Recreation Manager and other Recreation Ranger, coordinate and monitor progress of tasks for the craftsperson team and contractors to ensure work is delivered in a timely and safe manner. Carry out maintenance to a variety of facilities including but not limited to play equipment, tracks, fencing, signage and general vegetation management.

And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager in line with the business need.

Person specification

Skills, Knowledge & Experience

Essential Professional and Technical experience

• Experience working in a public facing role delivering high-quality customer service
• Experience of practical work in countryside / forest management
• Willingness and ability to work outdoors in all weathers and to carry out manual tasks
• Excellent team working skills and the ability to work with dispersed team members.
• Practical understanding of Health & Safety best practices and a commitment to a positive health and safety culture in an outdoor environment.
• Competent IT user with experience in MS Office suite of applications.

Desirable Professional and Technical experience

• Carpentry skills
• Prior experience managing work plans for a team
• Experience with brushcutter / strimmer and chainsaw operations
• Experience in working around tractors and / or machinery

Qualifications

Essential

• Full UK Driving Licence

Desirable

• Qualifications in Brushcutter / strimmer and chainsaw operations
• Qualifications in 4 x 4 driving and tractor driving in a forest environment.
• First Aid
• Health and safety qualification / Site Safety and Supervision qualification

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service
• Changing and Improving

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £30,105, Forestry Commission contributes £8,721 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours.

How to apply

We cannot accept applications via email. Please follow the steps outlined below. Any CVs and/or personal statements sent outside the system will not be considered for shortlisting.

You will be asked 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.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –