Team Leader – Countryside Stewardship Service. REF JF1686

Team Leader for the Countryside Stewardship Heritage Service required on a FTC until March 2025 with the potential to continue for approximately 4 more years. Working for the public body that looks after England’s historic environment. Helping people understand, value and look after their historic places.

This is a job share with one other person (already appointed) to cover the South West of England – Birmingham, London, Cambridge and Bristol. The role is hybrid working with an attached office (Bristol) – 21.5 hours per week.

Main duties and responsibilities:

Management:

• Lead and Manage a team of Heritage Service Officers (Countryside Stewardship) and a Business officer, providing additional capacity to support their work as necessary
• Develop the capabilities and manage the workloads of the team, building their confidence and professional ability
• Ensure knowledge of and compliance with agreed practices and standards
• Using your own expertise in Countryside Stewardship, you will support your team to provide advice on challenging Higher Tier Capital grants and PA2 Feasibility studies applications
• Take delegated responsibility for the delivery of challenging targets and timetable
• Take overall responsibility for the provision of advice and support to owners and agents
• As a manager, ensure all  the company’s legal obligations and the expectations set out in the company policies are met, including health and safety, equality and diversity, finance, procurement, information security and managing people.

Day to day responsibilities:

• Develop, oversee the implementation of and monitor Countryside Stewardship casework
• Lead advice on applications for Higher Tier Capital Works and PA2 Feasibility Studies. Countryside Stewardship funding agreements and lead the monitoring of successful delivery of heritage projects.
• Allocate and prioritise casework across the team
• Review data recording and reporting by the team
• Report on the activity of the team
• Represent the team at meetings, including the Service Delivery Board, Partnerships Forum, and the Rural Payments Agency
• Work to promote the Countryside Stewardship Heritage Service internally and externally as required
• To undertake any other reasonable duties commensurate with the grade and competencies required of the post requested by line management.

Key relationships:

• Working closely with the Business Improvement team
• Working closely with the Partnerships Team Leaders to deliver the service, ensuring that casework is complementary to regional priorities and is consistent with existing advice from regional teams
• Develop a close working relationship with the Rural Payments Agency team to enable mutual problem solving and delivery
• Work closely with identified owners and agents and team members ensuring Countryside Stewardship clients gain access to services of the Heritage Service Officers (Countryside Stewardship)

For the role you will be required to:

• Travel regularly to sites not serviced by public transport
• Visit and inspect sites in poor condition and under repair, which is likely to require climbing scaffolding, negotiating heights and confined spaces ( church roofs, etc)

The Person:

• Reliable, a good team player with effective negotiation, influencing and problem-solving skills
• Experienced with leading a team delivering advice to multiple clients in challenging timescales, achieving:-targets and deadlines, managing team’s workload across complex demands for service, with fairness and empathy
• Able to coach and mentor to develop skills and confidence
• Will have extensive experience of project management
• Will have training, experience and qualifications in leading and motivating a team.
• Will demonstrate capability in performance management
• Experienced in building and maintaining relationships with strategic partners and individual owners/agents
• Able to deal with pressure and challenge
• Pro-active in your attitude to work, always seeking to engage with colleagues and partners
• Personable and open communicative style
• Flexible and willing to adapt to changing circumstances
• Aware of equal opportunities, inclusion and diversity matters in dealing with the public and colleagues
• Car driver with own transport essential

A generous salary will be offered to the successful person. An excellent company pension and other benefits also part of the package.

To apply email – info@ruralrecruitment.co.uk