Find your place in the field of good food

Our goal is to connect good people with good food. We advertise sustainable food jobs and training opportunities to help jobseekers and employers find each other.

Roots to Work is a project of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.

Job description

Job Title: Nature Recovery Ranger (x3) 

• Salary: £24,000 for 4 days a week (£30,000 FTE), plus Outer London weighting of £3,600 (£4,500 FTE) for East and North Herts post 
• Full/part-time: 0.8FTE, 4 days a week  
• Contract type: Fixed term until 31st March 2027 
• Location: Across NHS sites in one of four locations: Nottinghamshire, East and North Herts, Newcastle upon Tyne and Dorset. 

Job Title: Senior Nature Recovery Ranger (x1) 

• Salary: £35,000 FTE, plus Outer London weighting of £5,250 for East and North Herts post 
• Full/part-time: Full time, 5 days a week 
• Contract type: Fixed term until 31st March 2027 
• Location: Across NHS sites in one of four locations: Nottinghamshire, East and North Herts, Newcastle upon Tyne and Dorset. 

The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare inspires and empowers people to transform healthcare for a sustainable future. We collaborate with partners inside and outside healthcare to engage professionals, patients and the wider community in understanding the connections between health and environment, and to reduce healthcare’s carbon footprint.  

Our Green Space for Health Programme helps to realise the value of green space for physical and mental health, both at healthcare sites and across communities.  We support and encourage NHS sites in developing their green space for the benefit of patients, staff and wider communities, while also improving biodiversity and combatting climate change. This can mean planting trees, creating therapeutic gardens, vegetable gardens, orchards, meadow areas and outdoor trails, and offering outdoor wellbeing activities. To find out more about our green space projects, see http://sustainablehealthcare.org.uk/what-we-do/green-space-and-health 

With new funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, we are appointing three Nature Recovery Rangers and one Senior Nature Recovery Ranger to develop a programme of green space activities and community engagement at specific NHS sites in Nottinghamshire, East and North Herts, Newcastle upon Tyne and Dorset, including sites supporting people experiencing acute mental illness. 

We are looking for outdoor conservation/ecology professionals, with excellent skills in community engagement. You will have a good background knowledge about wildlife and habitat management in the context of urban sites, practical technical and horticultural skills, and experience in the safe use of tools and machinery. You will be a passionate advocate for biodiversity and nature recovery and an engaging communicator, with the ability to manage and inspire volunteers and to involve them safely in a wide variety of exciting outdoor projects. You will be well organised and able to plan, promote and deliver a programme of on-site conservation-focused activities, in consultation with our NHS partners and – crucially – with the local communities in which the sites are located.  

In addition to the above knowledge and skills, the Senior Nature Recovery Ranger will also have line management and project management experience and must be confident leading and providing guidance and direction to a small and geographically disperse team. They will also ideally have experience in bid writing and/or securing funding for community-based activities. The Senior Nature Recovery Ranger can be based in any of the four project locations.  

Each of the Nature Recovery Rangers appointed will work with an NHS partner to develop a bespoke programme of activities for the NHS site(s) where they are based. Activities will be designed to engage patients, health staff and local residents and may include managing food growing projects, supervising tree-planting with local residents, conducting habitat and species surveys, running community events to support biodiversity, for example through creation of ‘hedgehog highways’ and wildlife homes, and leading on other green space enhancements such as the creation of meadow areas, green on-site walking routes and pollinator-friendly planting schemes. 

In addition to delivering a programme of activities for the NHS site(s) where they are based, the Senior Nature Recovery Ranger will spend one day a week providing project and line management support and guidance to the wider team of Nature Recovery Rangers.  

Job Specification 

All roles are expected to include:  

1. Working with our NHS partners to develop a programme of work and activities 
2. Promoting the programme to attract participation from different communities, including patients, health staff, local residents and schools 
3. Initiating, organising and delivering green space engagement activities, including leading small-scale conservation projects, guided nature walks and ecologically-focused workshops  
4. Working on practical projects to implement green space enhancements to the site, for example, through tree planting, food growing, path clearance and other horticultural activities 
5. Organising, carrying out and reporting on site biodiversity surveys as agreed with NHS partners and CSH 
6. Attending and providing project updates at regular meetings, including but not limited to weekly team meetings, quarterly working group meetings, wider ad hoc meetings across the ICS and local relevant events and conferences.   
7. Managing all tools, materials and resources as needed by the programme activities  
8. Capturing high-quality content to support the success of the communications element of the project  
9. Taking responsibility for and operationalising health and safety arrangements, such as risk assessments and protocols on the use of machinery, as agreed with NHS partners and CSH 
10. Acting at all times in accordance with your responsibility to safeguard the health and wellbeing of children and vulnerable adults, and being willing to undergo a DBS check 
11. Supervising and mentoring volunteers to safely assist in the delivery of green space engagement activities and green space enhancements at the site  
12. Facilitating the monitoring and evaluation of the ranger programme, through the collection of data as directed by CSH 
13. Notifying the Senior Nature Recovery Ranger / CSH of project risks and issues 
14. Seeking opportunities for further capital funding to support project activities and assisting with funding bids. 
15. Acting as an ambassador for the project; working sensitively, attending meetings, forums and events to promote the project and the work of the partnership. 

In addition to the above, the Senior Nature Recovery Ranger role is expected to include: 

1. Leading and providing line management support to the team of Nature Recovery Rangers 
2. Ensuring ranger activities are coordinated where appropriate across the partnership and there is effective communication amongst the partners for successful delivery  
3. Taking a lead role in ensuring monitoring and progress reports are planned and completed, and being responsible for any required data collection, surveys, research, appraisals and information gathering to enable monitoring and evaluation of the project. This includes commissioning and working with external consultants when necessary 
4. Leading on the development of bids for further capital funding to support project activities. 

Person Specification  

We are looking for applicants with the following skills and experience: 

1. Experience in community engagement and a demonstrable commitment to the inclusion of marginalised groups  
2. Experience in leading enjoyable environmental engagement activities with groups of participants  
3. Experience in recruiting and managing volunteers 
4. Experience in ensuring the safety of engagement activity participants  
5. Background knowledge and understanding about wildlife and habitat management to inform the activities undertaken  
6. Technical practical skills such as installing a bench or building raised beds   
7. The ability and commitment to act as a passionate advocate for environmental conservation and its importance for physical and mental health, and to share this passion and explain to people why it is important  
8. The initiative and ability to design a work programme that will engage participants from a range of groups both within the hospital and in the wider community 
9. The ability to act as an ambassador for the programme, and to work with NHS partners to recruit participants, in a way which encourages diversity and social inclusion   
10. The ability to work both independently and collaboratively, engaging well with both NHS partners and CSH team members   
11. Understanding of initiatives to improve wellbeing 
12. The ability to cope with working in an environment that can be emotionally charged e.g. a cancer centre 
13. Experience in gardening and vegetable growing.  
14. Ideally, existing skills in using tools and machinery such as chainsaws and brush cutters (please indicate your experience in using a range of equipment safely, and whether you have the technical certificates to demonstrate this) 

In addition to the above, the Senior Nature Recovery Ranger should also have:  

1. Proven project/programme management skills, and experience of successfully delivering nature-related and/or community-based projects 
2. Collaborative leadership skills, and proven experience of building and maintaining a cohesive virtual project team across a partnership with a shared purpose  
3. The ability to manage information in an effective way, enabling easy access to information for key stakeholders and ensuring project activity is tracked and monitored  
4. Ideally, experience in bid writing and securing funding for nature-based community activities.  

Location 

These posts will be based across the following NHS sites in one of four locations: 

Nottinghamshire at two main sites: 

• Sherwood Oaks Hospital, Sherwood Avenue, Sherwood Oaks Business Park, Mansfield, NG18 4GW  
• Blossomwood, Kings Mill Hospital, Mansfield Road, Sutton-in-Ashfield, NG17 4JT   

And to a lesser extent at: 

• Bracken House Rehabilitation Unit, 1-6 Heather Close, Stockwell Gate, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, NG18 5QJ   
• Hopewood Unit, Foster Drive, Nottingham, NG5 3FL   
• Highbury Hospital, Highbury Road, Bulwell, Nottingham, NG6 9DR   

East and North Herts at one main site: 

• Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, Rickmansworth Road, Northwood, Middlesex, HA6 2RN 

And to a lesser extent at:  

• Lister Hospital, Coreys Mill Lane, Stevenage SG1 4AB  
• New QE2 Hospital, Howlands, Welwyn Garden City AL7 4HQ  
• Hertford County Hospital, North Road, Hertford SG14 1LP  

Newcastle upon Tyne: 

• Royal Victoria Hospital, Queen Victoria Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4LP  
• Freeman Hospital, Freeman Road, High Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE7 7DN 
• Regent Point, Regent Farm Road, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE3 3HD  
• Various local NHS community sites and local parks 

  Dorset: 

• Dorset County Hospital, Williams Avenue, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 2YJ  
• South Walks House, Charles Street, Dorchester, DT11EE  
• Dorchester Borough Gardens, Cornwall Road, Dorchester, Dorset, DT11RU  
• Community Allotments, Poundbury, Dorchester, DT1 3AR 

We encourage the use of sustainable travel where this is feasible. 

• Closing date: 6th April  
• Interview dates:  
• Nottinghamshire: 24th April 2025 
• Newcastle upon Tyne: 25th April 2025 
• Dorset: 28th April 2025  
• East and North Herts: 29th April 2025 
• Proposed start date: 1st June  

For any questions please contact info@sustainablehealthcare.org.uk 

Application information

To apply please email your CV and a cover letter (max. 2 A4 pages), explaining how your skills and experience match this role, and including referees, to: info@sustainablehealthcare.org.uk. Please show clearly at the start of your application which of the four project locations you are applying to work at and where you are currently based. Please also mention whether you are interested in the Nature Recovery Ranger or Senior Nature Recovery Ranger role or would like to be considered for both.  

Please mention Roots to Work when applying for these jobs