Agriculture Technical Assistant - Wessex

1

South West

Blandford Forum , Bridgwater , Chippenham

Rivers House Blandford, Chippenham Sub Area Office, Rivers House Bridgwater

Staff Grade 3

Permanent

Full Time, Part Time

Environment & Sustainability

£25,042

We are looking for a highly organised and enthusiastic graduate or other person to support the work of our Land & Water Agriculture teams in Wessex. This is an exciting opportunity to become part of a team working with farmers to help create a cleaner, safer and healthier environment in Wessex.

The Agriculture teams work directly with farmers to protect and improve our local environment and as a Technical Officer. You will provide technical support to enable them to meet their business targets and ultimately help to secure positive outcomes for people, wildlife and the environment.

You will support the team by:

• Receiving and responding to enquiries, acting as a point of contact for the team, ensuring requests are responded to in a timely manner and ensure statutory deadlines are met
• Administering team inboxes, ensuring adherence to records management requirements and the retention schedule
• Updating and maintaining the team’s filing system (paper and electronic) to ensure that information is accurate, up to date and available to use
• Assisting Officers with agricultural regulatory and enforcement administration, including helping Officers to prepare for and maximise site visits
• Contacting farmers to gather updates on any improvements made on farm to bring them in to compliance
• Generating compliance data reports for use by Team Leaders and National colleagues
• Organising and co-ordinating training and team events
• Liaising with our Customer and Engagement team to promote our work externally

Responding to incidents is a central part of what we do. You will be required to have an incident role and make yourself available to respond to incidents or provide business continuity support during an incident. This may attract an additional payment and full training and alternative working arrangements will be available to support you with your incident role.

You will be welcomed to a lively and dynamic Environment Management department. The teams regulate farming activities, water discharges and water abstraction licences to ensure compliance with environmental legislation. We also undertake pollution incident response and carry out investigation and enforcement work, including working with partners and customers to influence behaviour and encourage good practice to improve the quality of our precious environment.

We are looking for someone who has:

• excellent written and communication skills with an ability to manage and present information in a clear, comprehensible style and format
• the ability to prioritise tasks to make effective use of time and meet deadlines
• excellent organisational skills
• the ability to be tactful with customers
• a flexible approach, knowing when to call upon colleagues for help and support
• the ability to work on their own as well as part of a team
• the ability to establish good working relationships with colleagues, customers and partners
• proficiency and perhaps skills to be innovative in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook) and a willingness to learn about our internal IT systems and procedures,
• mapping skills, for example using digital maps to identify key features
• a background in agriculture would be beneficial, although not essential

This role can be based in Bridgwater, Blandford or Chippenham although some travel between offices may be required. We work flexibly with some home working permitted.

We welcome applications for part-time hours to support flexible working.

We offer extensive employee benefits and opportunities for continuous development. Please see the candidate pack for further details.

The Environment Agency values a diverse workforce and welcomes applications from all sections of the community who wish to join a workforce which embraces difference and welcomes everyone.

For an informal discussion or to find out more about the roles, please contact Rebecca Tavernor rebecca.tavernor@environment-agency.gov.uk or Chris Westcott chris.westcott@environment-agency.gov.uk.