Orchard Heritage Programme Development Manager

Duration of post and working hours:
18 months initially, with expectation of being kept on for further three years of project delivery subject to funding approval.
0.6 FTE - 22.5 hours per week.

About The Orchard Project

The Orchard Project is the only UK charity dedicated to bringing orchards into the heart of urban communities. Our vision is for everyone in urban areas to be within walking distance of a community orchard. We believe community orchards transform lives and help nature to thrive, so we support people to create new orchards or restore existing ones back to health. Through urban orchards we help strengthen and connect communities, improve local green spaces for people and wildlife, train volunteers to learn new skills, run events and activities, and develop a local free source of healthy fresh fruit. See more about our impact on our website.

We started in 2009 and have grown to become the country’s national community orchard charity. We have created and restored over 700 community orchards in that time and we run training programmes with adults and schools and orchard celebration events. We have been working in Wales since 2020 and our team have been working in and around Swansea to create, restore and celebrate orchards with a focus on offering training in orchard management, which includes our excellent accredited training course in Managing Community Orchards (CICO).

We offer a range of benefits to our staff, which include:

• Holiday allowance of 25 days FTE with flexible bank holiday usage and additional days off between Christmas and New Year
• Time off in lieu for additional hours worked outside of standard working days
• Flexibility around working days and hours, and the option to work from home, although some weekend working is required
• Training opportunities and budget for each staff member to address identified training and personal development needs
• Pension contribution of 5% of salary
• A flexible wellbeing budget every month to support an individual’s personal wellbeing

About this programme

Achub Ein Treftadaeth Berllan (Saving Our Orchard Heritage), funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, sets out to protect and promote our Welsh orchard heritage: the forgotten local fruit varieties that tell us so much about the history of Wales; the neglected ancient trees that house critically endangered species; and the suite of traditional orchard skills held by a diminishing pool of passionate experts.

Our goal is to create and support a network of community-led orchards, and increase access and participation through events, training and skills sharing.

We will particularly look to engage underserved and marginalised groups with orchard heritage, to maximise the project’s impact for both nature and people, and work towards greater equitable access for people underserved by heritage.

There are three strands to the project;

Strand 1: Focus on natural heritage: Delivering a community-led orchard revival

• Restoration and management of heritage orchards
• Re-discovering and re-planting heritage fruit varieties that are at risk of being lost
• Nature restoration in traditional orchards

Strand 2: Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage – our traditional skills

• Training for community groups
• Revival of heritage orchard skills such as pruning and grafting
• Accredited training and traineeships to support skills for jobs in the green and heritage sectors

Strand 3: Re-connecting people with the natural and intangible cultural heritage of Welsh orchards

• Community events to connect people with heritage orchards
• Schools programme to excite young people about our rich Welsh orchard history
• Juicing and harvesting events to connect people with traditional orchard activities

The project is being supported with funding from the Heritage Fund for four and a half years, with an 18-month development phase to begin with. The project is being delivered in partnership with Social Farms and Gardens and Cwm Arian to benefit communities across Wales.

Main purpose of the job

This post will be responsible for overseeing the initial development phase of the Achub Ein Treftadaeth Berllan project and the development and successful submission of the full application for funding for the subsequent three delivery years. This role involves a detailed level of project and budget development and management ensuring the project delivers its aims and outcome, partnership engagement and management, liaison with other project staff and external consultants, monitoring & evaluation, reporting & liaison with Heritage Fund and key partners.

The post will work closely with the South Wales project managers within The Orchard Project, as well as staff from our partner organisations who are also delivering key aspects of this project across Wales. They will also have support from the rest of our team based across the UK, to share good practice, develop peer-to-peer support and become an engaged member of our friendly and passionate team of 18 people.

Initially this post is for the development phase of the project – 18 months, but we anticipate for it to manage the full 4.5 years if the project progresses as expected.

Scope of job

Programme management

• Manage the smooth delivery of the development phase of the programme, ensuring the project achieves high-quality outcomes, on time and within budget
• Prepare the delivery years application form and produce all supporting information necessary for submission including; detailed activity plan for delivery years, updated detailed budget, a marketing and communication strategy, updated project timetable, consultant briefs, evaluation plan, risk assessments.
• Recruit and oversee external consultants involved in the project
• Manage the project budget
• Manage and develop relationships with the partner organisations, including chairing regular working group meetings
• Oversee the development of a monitoring and evaluation framework for the project working with a consultant
• Be the key contact within the organisation for liaison with the Heritage Fund, supported by the Head of Operations and Programmes and provide timely responses for requests for information including monitoring reports
• Ensure that all partners are aware of and keeping on track with delivery targets for the development phase
• Work with partners to evaluate pilot activity undertaken during development year to inform the planning of the delivery phase of the project
• Support the development of delivery models and partnerships for delivering the accredited training programme and aftercare traineeship for the project delivery years
• Secure sources of match funding to meet project targets with support of the Head of Fundraising
• We anticipate that this role will take on line-management of a new member of the team once the delivery phase of the project starts.

Additional responsibilities

• Take part in relevant training
• Attend and contribute to staff visioning away-days and UK wide team meetings
• Share best practice with partners and other staff
• Any other reasonable organisational tasks appropriate to the successful delivery of the project and to being part of The Orchard Project team
• This role will involve travel across Wales to meet with partners and attend key events

Person specification

Experience required for this role:

• Outstanding project management skills
• Experience with managing budgets
• Fundraising experience, in particular large and complex bids
• Implementing monitoring and evaluation frameworks and reporting to funders
• Managing partnership projects
• Developing and maintaining relationships with community groups, local authorities, corporates and other stakeholders
• Working on own initiative
• People management skills
• Work in the voluntary or the not-for-profit sector
• Experience working on Heritage Fund projects would be an advantage

Knowledge and skills required:

• Resourceful, creative and enjoys problem solving
• Background in relevant activities, including sustainable development, environmental education, community projects, food growing etc.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Extremely well organised and able to give attention to both the bigger picture and smaller details
• Outstanding communication and interpersonal skills
• Welsh language speaking would be desirable for this role

Personal attributes and behaviours we want to see:

• A passion and interest in Welsh heritage orchards and a desire to share this with others
• A proactive approach to sharing learning with other staff and partners
• An excellent advocate for the charity and the project
• Passionate about the potential to transform communities across Wales and improve the lives of individuals through the project
• Preparedness to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in
• Flexible and innovative in your approach to delivering projects

Achub Ein Treftadaeth Berllan is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we will be able to protect and promote our Welsh orchard heritage: the forgotten local fruit varieties that tell us so much about the history of Wales and the neglected ancient trees that house critically endangered species. We are working in partnership with Social Farms and Gardens and Cwm Arian to support communities across Wales.

To apply please visit our website using the provided link.