Education Consultancy Project: Fire Prevention

The Sherwood Forest Trust (SFT) is a charity dedicated to protecting, restoring, and celebrating the landscape, wildlife, and heritage of the legendary Sherwood Forest. We are a registered charity with a 30-year track record in landscape-scale conservation. We work in partnership across the Sherwood Forest landscape, promoting protection, restoration, and sustainable engagement.

From 2025 to 2028, we are undertaking a project to help restore, create, and maintain lowland heathland across the National Character Area and engage communities in its ongoing stewardship. You can find out more on the wider project here: https://sherwoodforest.org.uk/projects/sherwoods-no-longer-forgotten-heathlands/

One of the challenges faced by these important habitats, particularly those close to urban areas, is fire. At sites such as Oak Tree Heath, one of the county’s most important and rare lowland heathland areas, recent fire incidents have caused lasting ecological damage, threatening populations of reptiles, birds, and characteristic heathland flora. Many of these fires result from preventable human actions and can have long-term impacts.

Through this project, the Sherwood Forest Trust aims to significantly reduce the risk and frequency of heathland fires by delivering innovative educational outreach around fire prevention, conservation, and community engagement. We want to take learning from a previous project (See case study 4 here) and broaden the reach to 2000 young people with a focus on people living in proximity to urban heath sites (a site map is contained here), to protect vital habitats while raising awareness and empowering local communities to actively safeguard their natural heritage.

We invite quotations from experienced organisations or individuals with proven expertise in community engagement and designing and delivering educational programmes that achieve lasting impact in fire prevention and community engagement in conservation. The successful tenderer will deliver a Fire Prevention Project as part of our wider programme, funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and match-funded by local partners, Mansfield Building Society.

Timescale

Project duration: 1 January 2026 – 31 March 2028.

Project Proposal & Budget

This invitation seeks proposals for interventions to be delivered in schools engaging children/young people in a Fire Prevention Project. One of the deliverables should be to develop and test a youth‑appropriate project/campaign name and key messages aimed at reducing deliberate and anti‑social fire‑setting.

A strong focus should be placed on engaging schools in close proximity to the sites at risk from wildfire, such as Oak Tree Heath (Mansfield), a SSSI and Local Nature Reserve recently affected by deliberate fire-setting. The project should support landowners, local groups, schools, and Nottinghamshire Fire Service in proactive fire prevention.

Project outcomes should include:

• Develop and test a youth‑appropriate project/campaign name and key messages aimed at reducing deliberate and anti‑social fire‑setting.
• Work with SFT colleagues to help engage schools in the programme.
• Design and deliver an educational programme reaching 2000 young people, who report an increased awareness of fire risks and their effects on nature.
• Produce legacy of resources for use by schools into the future eg digital content, print media for use by school champions.
• Provide robust evidence collection for the project outcomes and contribution to wider project evaluation activity.

Budget: £15,000 (inclusive of VAT). Please provide a detailed cost breakdown within this limit.