Project Support Officer - Dynamic Dunescapes DuneLIFE

This is an exciting opportunity to work as part of a large partnership project to restore sand dunes across England and Wales for the benefit of people, communities and wildlife.

Although the post is based at Natural England, the post-holder will deliver work on behalf of the Dynamic Dunescapes Partnership.

The partners are: Natural England, Plantlife, National Trust, Natural Resources Wales and the Wildlife Trusts.

The role holder will work closely with the Dynamic Dunescapes Project Manager and Finance Officer, also based at Natural England, and will work closely with all the partners. The team works across England and Wales, with the Project Manager based in Bristol.
Job description

Dynamic Dunescapes aims to restore the natural processes of our most important sand dune sites. Through our engagement with local communities and visitors we will explain, demonstrate and create opportunities for them to actively contribute towards the conservation of these iconic sites. We will extend this learning beyond the project to ensure a legacy of improved sand dune management and interpretation across England and Wales.

There are nine key project areas: Lincolnshire Sand Hills; Studland Dunes; North Cornwall Dunes; Braunton Burrows; Swansea Neath Port Talbot; Carmarthen; Anglesey - Gwynedd; Sefton Coast; and Cumbria. These are some of the most important dune complexes in England and Wales. The project will deliver exciting and innovative capital works and introduce effective sustainable habitat management integrated with large scale public engagement work, including citizen science.

Collectively this project will have a big impact both for conservation and local communities and will provide transferable learning across all dune sites. The project will:

• Inspire and engage people - working with communities, specialist groups, schools, universities, tourism organisations, local authorities, museums and the media to engage with up to 600,000 people nationally through a programme of engagement, publicity, volunteering and citizen science
• Re-energise the dunes – undertaking capital works to enable dunes to become more dynamic, remove invasive native and alien vegetation and reintroduce sustainable management to restore currently degraded habitats
• Rejuvenate and create dune slacks and ponds to benefit the sites’ unique and threatened insects, amphibians, birds and plants

Natural England is leading the project, working together with Plantlife, National Trust, Natural Resources Wales and the Wildlife Trusts.

Key tasks



• Provide general administrative support for the Dynamic Dunescapes, DuneLIFE project utilising the systems and processes of Natural England, partners and funders.

• Responsible for maintaining, collating and monitoring records of project delivery and budget in compliance with funder guidelines. This will include organising invoices and claims, and monitoring staff time recording.

• Ensure volunteer records and other in-kind contributions are being properly collected by project partners.

• Maintain the project folders within TRIM (NE’s Information Management System) together with maintenance of hard copy files required for Audit purposes.

• Provide secretariat support for steering group, partnership meetings and other project meetings.

• Support the Project Manager and Finance Officer in the preparation of quarterly reports and claims to funders.

• Support the project team in the procurement of goods and services and helping administer work contracts.

• Contribute to NE’s month end financial reporting.

• Achieve an effective working relationship with the partners to obtain timely and robust financial and project delivery information.

• Ensure compliance with funder rules and regulations governing the grants.

• In liaison with the Finance Officer, ensure that the Financial Statements and the Consolidated Financial Statement are current and that all supporting documentation is available in readiness for progress reports, inspections and internal and external audit purposes.

• Assist in keeping the project change log up-to-date.

• Support the Communications Officer with the organisation of events and workshops, and support the project's website and social media.

• Provide office services to the project team.

• Contribute to the delivery of other relevant Dynamic Dunescapes project outcomes as may be required.

Additional information

• This is a Fixed Term Appointment to the end of September 2023.

• National travel will be required, which may involve some overnight stays and anti-social hours.

• On taking up this post, the post holder will be required to sign a letter allowing Natural England to use their payroll information and request copies of payslips for project claims and audits.

Competence 1

Professional competency

Detail

Technical and specialist knowledge

Description

• Experience in project and administrative support, ideally in a partnership project

• Excellent organisational skills and the ability to work in co-operation with others

• Good attention to detail

• Effective communication skills (written and verbal) and be able to successfully engage with colleagues and project partners

• Excellent IT skills (Excel, Word)

• Experience of procurement and maintaining finance records for audit trail

• Competent at record-keeping and filing

Competence 2

Professional competency

Detail

Work delivery

Description

• Manage and deliver your work to meet agreed targets and deadlines.

• Understand and use digital (web; social media) channels

• Identify, understand and follow the instructions, policies, procedures and standards relevant to your work and handle data responsibly.

Competence 3

Professional competency

Detail

Communicating effectively

Description

• Communicate complex or difficult messages clearly and effectively.

• Use clear and appropriate language, communication styles and techniques that engage your audience.

Responsibilities

Please refer to job description