About the job

Summary

This position is based Nationally

Job description

We are the Government’s statutory advisor for the natural environment, playing a vital role in delivering the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan. This describes an ambitious vision, bringing new opportunities to protect and enhance, and to achieve real outcomes for the environment.

At Natural England, we love what we do. We’re here to make sure people and nature can thrive. A healthy natural environment is fundamental to our wellbeing, prosperity and happiness – that’s why we collaborate with scientists, lawyers, project managers and experts to implement environmental policy and shape decisions.

We work with a wide range of partners, stakeholders and customers on a huge range of projects, from influencing construction, advising farmers and landowners how they can manage their land in a sustainable way for the benefit of the environment, gathering and analysing environmental data, and carrying out vital statutory duties. Across the country, we’re helping nature to support people and our planet.

We are focusing our efforts on six key programmes:

Greener Farming and Fisheries – supporting those who manage land and sea to operate in harmony with the environment

Sustainable Development – creating great places for people to live and work

Connecting People with Nature - promoting health and wellbeing through the great outdoors

Resilient Landscapes and Seas – protecting and restoring wildlife and natural beauty for future generations

Specialist Science and Evidence - an evidence-led organisation that is driven by science

Managing the Organisation – gathering business data to enable decision making

Natural England staff are inclusive, motivated and ambitious to achieve results for our environment, for everyone. We welcome and encourage applications from all communities and we operate a guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the role.

Wherever possible Natural England accommodates requests for both full-time and part-time hours and other flexible working patterns to help employees achieve a good work/life balance and maintain their health and wellbeing.

From induction to ongoing learning and development, everyone in Natural England is supported to develop their skills and capabilities. Where appropriate there will be offers of training under our apprenticeship schemes.

See more about the work of Natural England at:

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/natural-england

We are looking to recruit an Economist to join our team at Natural England. In economics, our aim is to ensure the full value of the natural environment is included in decisions. We achieve this by undertaking high-quality economic analysis and applying it to real world decision-making, improving the environmental economics evidence base and the way it is applied and used. This role will involve applying your technical knowledge, experience and critical thinking to complex and novel questions.

Based in the Chief Scientists Directorate, we work closely with other disciplines, such as social science and natural capital specialists to provide practical, evidence-based, advice that makes a difference to decision-making. We therefore bridge the worlds of research, on-the-ground delivery and decision-support.

Economists in Natural England work in a small, collaborative team, undertaking a variety of cross-cutting, high-profile projects. These include undertaking economic analysis to support Spending Review bids and develop Impact Assessments, producing Natural Capital Accounts, developing economic models to assess environmental projects and developing tools to support organisations in factoring environmental considerations into strategic and site-based decision-making.

We work across the organisation, applying economics to a wide range of subject areas, including health and wellbeing, nature recovery, economic development, marine and green finance. We also work closely with other organisations, such as Defra and Other Government Departments, on new research to improve the valuation evidence base and to develop guidance on the inclusion of natural capital in economic analysis.

Natural Capital has a high profile across Government and the private sector.

Our economists stay at the forefront of developments in environmental economics and have built a reputation for providing innovative, high-quality analytical advice.

The location is fully flexible across England, and we are open to home-working, being office-based or a mixture of the two.

You can view a map of our office locations here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/natural-england-office-locations

Job description

Salary information - £26,224 to £30,427 Whilst it is NE’s policy to appoint at salary minimum a higher starting salary within the pay range may be considered for exceptional candidates

Role Responsibility

The successful candidate will be a confident economist, able to support on specific topics within Natural England’s work. Specifically, this will include:

• Undertaking economic analysis to demonstrate the value of the natural environment.

• Working with others across Natural England, and outside the organisation, to identify the economic analysis and research required to support delivery of Natural England’s objectives.

• Appropriately framing environmental economic challenges in order to influence decision-makers.

• Commissioning high-quality analysis, research and decision-support tools.

• Reviewing analysis, research and decision-support tools produced by others, and

• Contributing to coaching and training in economics to Natural England staff.

Economists would primarily be expected to provide support to, rather than lead, areas of work. Where Economists do have responsibility for individual areas of work, these would be smaller and less complex and/or technically challenging. Economists will be provided with support in the role by Senior Economists.

We are also currently recruiting for Senior Economists. Senior Economists would be expected to lead on areas of work and would require a greater level of experience. If you would also like to be considered for the Senior Economist position, you will also need to submit a separate application for that post.

Are you the right candidate?

Technical/specialist knowledge/qualifications

The successful candidate must have:

Qualifications and experience:

• current expertise in economics or environmental economics, and

• a good under-graduate or post-graduate degree in economics (or environmental economics) or equivalent experience. Applicants that do not hold the required degrees should specify experience and outputs that they have produced that demonstrate that they have an equivalent level of knowledge.

Skills and knowledge:

• strong numerical and analytical skills and experience of employing these in the application of economics, and

• good verbal and written communication skills. The successful candidate must be able to work effectively as part of a team and to explain complex economics concepts in a meaningful way to non-economists.

How to apply

We'll assess you against the competencies below during the selection process. When completing the application form you should present relevant examples using the STAR format. STAR stands for:

• Situation

• Task

• Action

• Result

Examples should be given in no more than 250 words for each competency. Please ensure you read the Candidate Information Pack before you begin completing the application form.

If you are successful, we would expect you to be working to a certain level in a range of activities described in Natural England’s skills framework for this role. Within the framework, levels of increasing skill are described using the following three categories: basic, practitioner and expert. At the interview you will be asked questions to see how close you are to this level in the following capabilities and activities: