Flood Risk Community Engagement & Resilience Officer

Team / Directorate: National Flood Risk Services / Evidence, Policy and Permitting

Starting salary:  £36,246 rising to £39,942 per annum through annual increments being paid each year (pro rata for part time applicants)

Contract type: Permanent

Work pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week 

Interview date: Week commencing 16 and 23 June 2025

Post number: 203627

The role

We have an exciting opportunity in our flood community engagement and resilience team. If you want to help communities and individuals to be better prepared and more resilient when flooding occurs, then we would like to hear from you. 

Our flood community engagement and resilience programme is driven by Welsh Government’s National Strategy for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management in Wales which aims to reduce the risk to people and communities from flooding and coastal erosion. Our work directly supports two of the Strategy’s key objectives:  

-           Improving our understanding and communication of risk 

-           Preparedness and building resilience 

The role supports our flood community engagement and resilience work programme, through delivery of once for Wales activities, as well as working with and supporting Operations teams in delivery at a local level. The role works across our Directorates and with other organisations to raise awareness of the risk of flooding across Wales and help communities become more resilient, for example supporting them in developing community flood plans and establishing their own community flood volunteers. 

Key priorities over the next few years are to implement the recommendations from our Flood Community Engagement Review, in particular delivering improvements to our services, including online advice and support to communities, looking at new interventions such as behavioural insights and exploring opportunities for even more partnership working at a national and local level, including through the Public Service Boards. 

The role is required to work with a range of internal and external stakeholders, both local and national, including organisations operating elsewhere in the UK and/or at a UK level, for example Welsh Government, Local Authorities, Environment Agency, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, National Flood Forum, voluntary sector and the community flood volunteer network we support across Wales. 

Within our team the role works closely with and supports the Lead Specialist Advisor (Community Engagement and Resilience). 

You will also undertake the role of the Monitoring and Forecasting Duty Officer, Flood Warning Duty Officer or Assistant Flood Warning Duty Officer (to be determined depending on qualifications and skills on appointment). These are rota’d duty officer roles, on standby duty, 24/7, approximately one week in every six to eight weeks. As well as this, to be available as far as is reasonable, to assist in operational response during prolonged flood events when not on standby. 

As an organisation we support flexible working. You will be contracted to the NRW office at the above location and a suitable hybrid working pattern will be agreed on appointment. Any regular face to face meetings or training will be planned in advance.

To make an informal enquiry about this role, please contact Andy Wall at andrew.wall@cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk

Interviews will be conducted via Microsoft Teams.

Successful external applicants will be subject to a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service Check (DBS) check. We aim to make offers of appointment within 4 to 8 weeks of the closing date.

We anticipate the start date for this post to begin in September 2025 – To be discussed at interview

 

What you will do

• Provide support to community flood volunteers across Wales, including the provision of advice, information, newsletters and organising volunteer network support events with professional partners;
• Maintain and improve our online flood advice and information around the measures people can take before, during and after flooding to improve their personal or community resilience to flooding
• Produce specialist support materials (for example knowledgebase systems, social media assets and specialist internal and external bespoke branded publications and marketing material) to enable our Operations teams and professional Partners to deliver community engagement at a local level, on the ground as well as providing the public with consistent up to date advice and information so they can take ownership and increase their personal flood resilience;
• Support the development, monitoring and reporting of our flood community engagement activity across Directorates.
• Identify and collate flooding impact reports and images from social media channels to share with internally to improve our understanding of flood risk and report on flooding incidents, working with our Communications team to gain necessary permissions to use this information.
• Act as a public and external partner interface, working with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, both local and national, including organisations operating elsewhere in the UK and/or at a UK level.
• Contribute to the delivery of projects within our FRM Improvement Programme so that our community engagement and resilience services are continually improved to help strengthen the resilience of communities to flooding across Wales.
• Required to take part in incident response activities by undertaking the role of the Monitoring and Forecasting Duty Officer, Flood Warning Duty Officer or Assistant Flood Warning Duty Officer (to be determined depending on qualifications and skills on appointment). These are rota’d duty officer roles, on standby duty, 24/7, approximately one week in every eight. As well as this, to be available as far as is reasonable, to assist in operational response during prolonged flood events when not on standby.
• Undertake health and safety duties and responsibilities appropriate to the post
• Be committed to Natural Resources Wales Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policy, together with an understanding of how it operates within the responsibilities of the post
• Be committed to your own development *and that of your staff through the effective use of your personal development plan (known as Sgwrs).
• Any other reasonable duties requested commensurate with the grade of this role.

Your qualifications, experience, knowledge and skills

In your application and interview you will be asked to demonstrate the following skills and experience using the STAR method.

1.       Attained a qualification at least Level 5 of the Credit & Qualifications Framework for Wales or have equivalent knowledge.
2. Land based or science discipline and have acquired some specialist knowledge around flood, water or environmental management;
3. Marketing and communications skills, including preparation of bespoke publications and promotional materials
4. Trained and experienced in providing technical and specialist advice to non-experts
5. Experience of customer care, with negotiation and influencing skills to develop good working relationships;
6. Experience of dealing with politically sensitive or emotive subjects with customer focus

Welsh language level requirements

• Essential:   Level A1 – able to pronounce Welsh and use basic phrases
• Desirable:   Level B2 – able to use some basic Welsh

Please note if you do not meet the A1 requirement i.e., ability to understand basic phrases and ability to pronounce Welsh names correctly, then NRW offers a variety of learning options and staff support to help you meet these minimal requirements during the course of your employment with us.

Benefits 

This role will offer a range of benefits, including:

• Civil Service Pension Scheme offering employer contributions of 28.97% (successful internal staff will remain in their current pension scheme)
• 28 days annual leave, rising to 33 days
• generous leave entitlements for all your life needs
• commitment to professional development
• health and wellbeing benefits and support
• weekly wellbeing hour to use as you choose

See full details for all the employee benefits you will receive.

Please keep reading

If you think you have what it takes to do this role, but don’t necessarily meet every single point on the job description, please still get in touch and we will be happy to discuss the role with you in more detail.

We’re passionate about creating a diverse workforce and positively encourage applications from under-represented communities. We embrace equality of opportunity irrespective of disability, neurodivergence, ethnic origin, colour, nationality, gender expression and gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, culture, or religion.   We put the principles of human rights, equality, fairness, dignity and respect at the heart of our values.

We are committed to equal opportunities and we guarantee interviews for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

We want to attract and retain talented and highly skilled staff, so we make sure that our pay scales remain competitive. We advertise the full pay scale on our job descriptions. Appointed candidates start at the first point of the pay scale and annual increments are paid each year.

We want our staff to grow professionally and personally. From leadership development to access to further and higher education courses, our staff have opportunities to expand their knowledge on variety of topics, stay current in their field and continue to learn as their career progresses.  

We are a Bilingual organisation which complies with the Welsh Language Standards.  Welsh language skills are considered an asset to NRW, and we encourage and support staff to learn, develop and use their Welsh language skills. 

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