Volunteer Assistant

The Organisation

The Royal Parks (TRP) is a charity created in March 2017. We manage over 5,000 acres of diverse parkland, rare habitats and historic buildings and monuments in eight Royal Parks across London. These are Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, The Green Park, St James’s Park, The Regent's Park and Primrose Hill, Greenwich Park, Richmond Park and Bushy Park.

We also manage other important public spaces including Brompton Cemetery and Victoria Tower Gardens. Our eight Royal Parks and other iconic green spaces are among the most visited attractions in the UK with tens of millions of visits every year.

We are now seeking a Volunteer Assistant to join our volunteer team on a full-time basis, working 36 hours per week, including minimum of 1 weekend per month.

The Benefits

• Salary of £28,864 - £30,000 per annum, depending on experience
• 26 days' annual leave plus public holidays,
• Pension scheme (3% employee contribution; up to 10% employer contribution)
• Hybrid/agile working options
• Private medical insurance and healthcare cash plan
• Employee assistance programme and access to mental health first aiders
• Learning and development opportunities
• Cycle to work scheme
• Offices in a beautiful location

The Role

As a Volunteer Assistant, your main focus will be to support the Volunteer Officer in delivering a wide range of practical conservation tasks across Richmond Park.  Overseeing volunteers to carry out important habitat management tasks at regular conservation group sessions. You will also support on delivering our corporate ‘Park days’ sessions. This role is varied and will see the successful applicant working primarily in the Richmond Park, but with work across all of the parks when support is required. 
 
This role involves a lot of in park time, working with and supporting volunteers on the ground in physical conservation work. On average the Volunteer support officer will spend 3-4 days each week in the parks delivering sessions.  The ideal applicant will be friendly, open, enjoy spending time outdoors and have experience working with and managing volunteers, in a hands-on conservation or park setting. 

You will champion volunteering best practice, inclusivity and diversity across the organisation, support with the development of volunteer resources and ensure the appropriate support and training is in place for volunteers, partners and the staff who manage volunteers. 

Additionally, you will: 

• Support in the writing of volunteer opportunity descriptions, work plans, and robust risk assessments, ensuring all volunteers go about their duties safely and to a high standard.
• Work towards independently leading volunteer groups on practical tasks, ensuring safe working outdoors and with hand tools on a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
• Be aware of and always follow guidelines safeguarding of children and adults at risk.
• Be willing to gain knowledge of safe use and maintenance of all tools, including hand tools, other equipment and PPE.  

About You 

To join us as a Volunteer Assistant, you will need:  

• Experience supervising or supporting volunteers in an outdoor setting, ideally in a park, or conservation setting.  
• Strong experience or interest in practical conservation, habitat, or park/horticulture management.
• Awareness of equality and diversity, health and safety and safeguarding 
• Excellent people skills including team working, negotiating, problem solving and the ability to be calm and decisive in challenging situations  
• Commitment to The Royal Parks’ values of being responsible, excellent, inclusive, open and respectful, and a commitment to supporting diverse and inclusive teams 
• A flexible approach to work including significant evening and weekend working
• A valid and current clean UK driving licence is essential
• Excellent operational use of Microsoft Office, CRM systems and other IT solutions to support the planning, delivery and evaluation of the volunteer programme would also be advantageous

A First Aid Certificate would also be desirable.

We want to put everyone in the best possible position to succeed and use Recite-me accessibility software. At the top of the application page, there is an “Accessibility Tools” button which you can use to complete the application form in a way that works for you. If you think that you may need more support to complete our application process, please do get in touch.

The Royal Parks is strongly committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace and is an equal opportunities employer. We value diversity and encourage applications from candidates from all backgrounds. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. Please click here to find out more on our approach to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. 

So, if you are interested in this unique opportunity as a Volunteer Assistant please apply via the button shown. Successful candidates will be appointed on merit.

For more information, view our Corporate Strategy (2022-2027) here: Corporate-Strategy-2022-27.pdf

Find out more about our values here: Our Values, Our Behaviours

Maps: The Map of Richmond Park | The Royal Parks