6879 - Catchment Sensitive Farming Higher Officer

Job description

6879 - Catchment Sensitive Farming Higher Officer

Number of jobs available

2

Region

South East

City/Town

Eastleigh , Reading

Building/Site

NE Eastleigh, SO50 9YN, Reading

Grade

HEO

Organisation Grade

NE Level 3.

Post Type

Permanent

Working Pattern

Full Time, Part Time, Part Time/Job Share

Role Type

Operational Delivery, Other

Salary Minimum

£33,780

Job description

The Role

The primary focus of this role is to work directly with farmers and land managers, providing practical, on-the-ground advice and support to encourage the adoption of practices that protect and enhance water quality, air quality, and soil health.

The role holder will also collaborate with partner organisations, the agricultural industry, farmers, land managers, and other government agencies to secure environmental improvements. This is achieved by a range of tools, including technical advice, guidance, and the promotion of sustainable land management practices.

The Catchment Sensitive Farming Adviser role sits within Area Teams and serves as the main interface between Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF), Natural England (NE), and key local stakeholders who wish to engage with and influence CSF activity. The role covers the full range of protected habitats and the wider farmed environment, encompassing a diverse range of agricultural sectors and land management practices.

The post holder reports to a Senior Manager for line management purposes. Functional management is provided by a Senior Officer within the relevant work area, unless the line manager is operating in a player-manager capacity with functional responsibility for that area. Catchment Sensitive Farming Advisers also work closely with the Catchment Sensitive Farming National Team.

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities

• Support farmers and landowners to improve water quality alongside long-term sustainable food production/agricultural transition and natural flood management.
• Work in priority areas to develop and lead specific CSF training, information and advice campaigns for farmers and landowners. Give bespoke advice on farm to farmers and organise and deliver, with the aid of specialists, further advice, group events and workshops.
• Deliver targeted CSF training, information, and advice campaigns for farmers and landowners in priority areas.
• Provide bespoke on-farm advice focused on reducing pollution through the principles of Source, Pathway, Receptor and other catchment-specific priorities.
• Secure farmer and landowner engagement, ownership, and commitment to addressing key pollution and environmental issues.
• Influence behavioural change and support the adoption of improved land management practices to reduce diffuse water pollution and other environmental impacts.
• Promote and advocate CSF activity internally across Natural England and partner organisations, and externally with farmers, land managers, and stakeholders.
• Collaborate with partners including the Environment Agency, Forestry Commission, water companies, catchment partnerships, and Defra programmes to deliver a coordinated catchment-based approach.
• Maximise delivery through specialist advice, training, contractors, grants, and incentives such as Countryside Stewardship, SFI, FETF, Capital Grants, and the Slurry Infrastructure Grant.
• Provide guidance on suitable management options, capital items, and wider environmental opportunities, including signposting to additional sources of support.
• Contribute to procurement and contract management processes for advisory services and events, ensuring quality assurance and delivery to agreed standards.
• Maintain accurate records of farmer engagement and advice provided, monitoring the effectiveness and outcomes of interventions.
• Understand and apply relevant Diffuse Water Pollution Plans, Shared Nitrogen Action Plans, and other catchment priorities within CSF delivery plans.
• Take responsibility for ensuring personal safe working in line with corporate guidance.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• A degree in agriculture, conservation, or equivalent degree and/or relevant experience in agriculture, nature conservation.
• Good level of agricultural knowledge and farming systems in the United Kingdom, and Agri-environment schemes in the United Kingdom, such as SFI, capital schemes.
• Good communication skills (verbal and written) with the ability to use clear and appropriate language adapted to the audience.
• Good IT Skills including, Word, Outlook, Excel, Teams and SharePoint.
• Good knowledge of and farm advice experience relating to agricultural water and air pollution and being able to recognise and identify farming practices which can cause water and air pollution.
• Basic knowledge of ArcGIS or similar GIS software.
• Full UK Driving licence.

Benefits

At Natural England, we support a healthy work-life balance by offering full-time, part-time, and flexible working arrangements.

We provide excellent opportunities for career progression, training, and development tailored to your role. This includes ten days annually for personal learning and development, plus three additional days for volunteering.

You'll receive a generous leave allowance of 25 days per year (pro rata), increasing by one day for each year of service up to 30 days (pro-rata), access to the Civil Service Pension scheme with a 28.97% employer contribution, and a range of benefits such as shopping discounts and a cycle-to-work scheme. Staff can also join the Civil Service Sport club for discounts on sports, leisure activities, and social events.

We are committed to fairness, equality, and inclusivity. Our employee-led diversity networks help foster a welcoming environment where everyone feels valued and supported.

Locations

Natural England has adopted hybrid working - which means our staff work from a flexible range of locations, encompassing home, offices (ours and our partners) and relevant sites. All new staff will be formally linked to one of our 25 offices across England, and the expectation is that all new staff will be able to access their local office to be part of the community of staff in their geographical area. Staff are expected to attend their associated office for 20% of their contractual hours.

Staff members are required to carry out all their duties working in this way and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time. Travel expenses will be paid if work-related travel is required but does not apply to travel between home and your associated office.

National team roles can be linked with any Natural England office while Area Team roles will be linked with an office in the relevant geographic area.

View a map of our office locations here:

Pay

It is Natural England policy to employ at the entry point of the salary range.

Please note: Licensed visa sponsoring organisations are employers authorised by the government to recruit and sponsor overseas workers, enabling them to obtain the appropriate visa to work legally in the country. Natural England is NOT a licensed sponsorship employer.

As part of the Natural England's application process, candidates are asked to confirm their right to work and remain in the UK. If a candidate says that they meet these requirements, ID is checked, a provisional offer of permanent employment is made and pre-employment eligibility checks commence. Only after these checks are candidates given firm offers of employment.

Natural England is unable to employ individuals who cannot provide the required evidence of their right to work.

How to Apply

We welcome and encourage applications from all communities. Natural England is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the role at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview.

If you require a reasonable adjustment at interview, or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you should notify us of this at application stage where possible, or well in advance of your interview.We now provide primary interview questions in advance for all formal recruitments.

This vacancy uses competency-based assessment. We'll assess you against the competencies below during the selection process. Please be aware that we reserve the right for roles that receive a high volume of applications to initially sift applications for one competence only.

• Technical Skills and Knowledge
• Creating Resilient Landscapes and Seas
• Personal Effectiveness
• Work Delivery

When completing the application form you should present relevant examples using the STAR format. Give us an example of how you have demonstrated the competency (which can be work related or from another area of your life) and tell us about the Situation, the specific Task you had to undertake, the specific Actions you took, and the Result (both immediate and in a wider context) of your Action.

Please note that STAR format is not required when answering the Technical Skills & Knowledge competency.

Examples should be given in no more than 250 words for each competency.

If you are successful at the shortlisting stage, you will be invited to attend an interview via MS Teams or a suitable alternative, where you will be asked to give examples for all competencies as set out in the Job Description.

As with all roles in NE, these roles require office attendance of a minimum of 20% of the working time - one day per week for those who work full time, subject to any reasonable adjustments and/or existing contractual homeworking.

The team

Our Role

Natural England is the Government's adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.

Strategic Outcomes for Nature

Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving nature.

• Recovering Nature- Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives.
• Building Better Places- Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us.
• Improving Health and Wellbeing- Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live.
• Delivering Security through Nature- Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.

Find out more about the work of Natural England at:

The Team

Catchment Sensitise Farming is a part of NE's farm advice service and a partnership with DEFRA, the Environment Agency and Forestry Commission. CSF operates through a network of locally based farm advisers and partner organisations to deliver DEFRA's EIP ambitious for Water Quality, air quality (ammonia) and sustainable water management through nature - based solutions. In additional, CSF works with farmers to help them make decision through the Agricultural Transition. We make a significant contribution to nature recovery through helping farmers to take environmental action.

The purpose of this role is to work with and provide on the ground advice to farmers and Land managers. The Adviser acts a local contact for Catchment Sensitive Farming, building relationships with farmers, land managers and partner organisations to influence and support environmental improvements at a catchment scale.

The Catchment Sensitive Farming Adviser works within the area team, providing advice to farmers and land managers to support practices that protect and improve water quality, air quality and Soil health.

These vacancies cover catchments across Surrey, Berkshire and Hampshire. The post holder will be required to visit farms regularly during their day-to-day work.

The Post holder will be required to hold a full UK driving license and some national travel may be required, which might involve overnight stays.

Contact and additional information (Recruiters Name, Email and Phone Number)

Name: Annmarie Clayton

E-mail:

Tel: 07584 586639

Closing Date:

25/11/2026, 23:55 hours

Interview dates

To be confirmed

Level of security checks required

Basic Check (BPSS)

Competence 1

Professional competency

Detail

Technical Skills and Knowledge

Description
• A degree in agriculture, conservation, land management or equivalent degree and/or relevant farm advice experience and knowledge of UK agriculture. (Essential)
• Good knowledge of and providing farm advice relevant to agricultural water and air pollution, and being able to recognise and identify farming practices which can cause water and air pollution. (Essential)
• UK full driving licence. (Essential)
• Basic knowledge of ArcGIS or similar GIS software. (Desirable)

Competence 2

Professional competency

Detail

Creating Resilient Landscapes and Seas

Description
• Recognise and identify the effects of diffuse water pollution from agriculture diffuse water pollution from agriculture (DWPA). (Practitioner)
• Understand and select most appropriate measures, including working with partners, to address DWPA at source, pathway, and receptor for individual sites. (Practitioner

Competence 3

Professional competency

Detail

Personal Effectiveness

Description
• Use clear and appropriate language, communication styles and techniques that engage your audience. (Basic)
• Respect the diverse needs and experience of other people, be inclusive in everything you do. (Basic)

Competence 4

Professional competency

Detail

Work Delivery

Description
• Manage and deliver your work to meet agreed targets and deadlines. (Practitioner)
• Handle data responsibly, understand your role in good governance, and comply with delegations, policies and procedures. (Practitioner)

Supporting document 1

Organisation

Natural England

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. .