Team Leader - Development Advice

Summary

We are the public body that looks after England's historic environment. We champion historic places, helping people understand, value and care for them.

Historic England are seeking a Team Leader to join the Development Advice Team.

You will lead the Development Advice Team's provision of statutory and non- statutory advice to help improve peoples' lives by sustaining the significance of historic places, buildings and sites while securing their wider value to society. You will ensure both in their own caseload - including the more complex and contentious cases - and that of their team, that Historic England's advice is soundly based in law; relevant national, regional and local policy and guidance; and reflects our ethos of constructive conservation. You will develop the capabilities and manage the workloads of staff, ensuring knowledge of and compliance with outlined practices and standards. You will ensure that the team engages where our expertise will add most to public value, and that the team also assists the wider Regions Group and other colleagues in the advancement of Historic England's corporate priorities.

What you will be doing

To be a constructive member of the North West Leadership Team, taking delegated responsibility for the delivery of group targets as they apply and liaising closely with Leadership Team colleagues to ensure that the Development Advice Team functions efficiently and effectively.

To be an effective advocate for the sustainable management of the historic environment, influencing and supporting stakeholders such as local authorities, communities, dioceses and other religious bodies, Government agencies, sectoral partners and amenity societies, in order to:

• develop and sustain a strategic engagement plan for Development Advice in the North West, ensuring strong and purposeful relationships with a diverse range of relevant stakeholders;
• promote awareness of the value of historic places, buildings and sites, both as a cultural resource and as an asset for social and economic well-being;
• assist people and communities in their management of historic places.

Within the relevant team's geographical area, to take overall responsibility for providing statutory and non-statutory planning advice, including in relation to the development of planning policy, to help people to sustain the significance of historic places, buildings and sites while securing their wider value to society, including by:

• ensuring that we engage where our expertise will add most to public value;
• allocating responsibility for Historic England's advice, escalating where appropriate;
• delivering or guiding the delivery of that advice to confirmed timescales and to excellent customer service standards.

Within the relevant team's geographical area, to take liability for providing management advice in relation to historic places, buildings and sites, either directly or by delegation, including by

• providing advice and taking action in respect of un-authorised works and damage to scheduled monuments;
• promoting the development and critical review of management agreements where they would improve and streamline management of the historic environment;
• providing IHT advice to HMRC;
• taking the lead when asked to in relation to Public Inquiries and Examinations in Public
• providing advice in respect of other categories of work referred to Historic England.

To lead and manage a team comprising Historic Environment Planning Advisor, Inspectors and Assistant Inspectors and a Landscape Architect, and assisting them by:

• developing capabilities;
• managing workloads;
• ensuring knowledge of and compliance with agreed practices and standards.

To assist, and ensure that the Development Advice Team assists the wider London & SE Regional team and other colleagues in the advancement of Historic England's Future Strategy and Corporate Plan.

Who we are looking for

• Strong experience in Development Advice
• Broad experience of managing change to heritage assets in urban and suburban contexts, particularly through the planning system and in situations attracting the highest levels of external scrutiny.
• Experience of appearing at public inquiries, local plan examinations or equivalent.
• Knowledge of the planning system and, either, ancient monuments or secular and ecclesiastical architectural history, designed landscapes and the morphology of historic places in England and the techniques of their study.
• Excellent negotiating, influencing and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Excellent team-working, collaboration and project management skills.

We are an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusion. If you have a disability or neurodiversity, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you. Having just won the Gold Award from MIND, we also recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance.

We are an inclusive employer and believe that flexible working options are for everyone. We want to make sure our working arrangements don't prevent anyone from joining us because of their personal circumstances. We also want to provide you with the best balance in your home and work life that we can.

We are open to considering options including job sharing, part-time working, compressed hours working and different working locations, including hybrid working. Please visit our jobs pages or contact us to find out more.

Why work for Historic England

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive pension scheme starting at 26% contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the country and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.

We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for everyone. Diversity helps us to perform better and attract more people to support our work. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and candidates with disabilities as they are underrepresented within Historic England at this level.

Historic England want all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email at if you have any recruitment queries.

To ensure a fair and inclusive recruitment process for everyone the use of AI or automated tools is not permitted.

Provisional interview dates: 08th and 9th February 2024

For a full copy of the job description, please visit our website via the button below.