Forestry Commission Grants & Regulations Update: West Midlands June 2011
Grants & Regulations Update: West Midlands June 2011
Information on the SR10 Spending Review and the Forestry Commission England
Purpose
1. To update organisations with which we need to work about spending review proposals and initial decisions on new Forestry Commission England structures.
Recommendation
2. You are asked to note the contents of the paper.
Background
3. Following the Arms Length Bodies review, the Government decided that the Forestry Commission should be retained but substantially reformed. Our Spending Review settlement required Forestry Commission England to reduce our resources budget by 25% by 2014/15. In addition, following the cancellation of the external consultation, the Secretary of State established an Independent Panel to advise on the future direction of forestry and woodland policy in England and the role of the Forestry Commission in implementing policy. This panel is due to report in spring 2012. All forestry sales remain suspended.
4. In the meantime, we will continue to manage the existing public forest estate, carry out statutory regulatory functions, to manage grant schemes and to provide expert advice. We also continue to support new or increasing activities such as biosecurity, engagement with Big Society, The Big Tree Plant and the work of the Woodland Carbon Task Force.
5. An internal staff consultation for achieving this reform and making these savings closed on 1st April and initial management decisions were announced on 23rd May 2011. These changes will be implemented over the coming four years. Note consultations on Forest Research Forestry Commission Shared Services and England Corporate Functions are yet to conclude.
6. There was an excellent response to the consultation on Shaping the Future of Forestry Commission England. Over 500 responses were received from individuals, teams and the Trade Unions. We have made a number of significant changes as a result, and further detailed suggestions will be incorporated as part of the detail of the implementation plans. In addition there may be, as yet unknown, consequences that arise from the Independent Panel’s report to Ministers.
The way forward to 2015
7. The Government has laid out new challenges for the Forestry Commission to meet growing public aspirations, to improve its efficiency, to protect, improve and expand England’s woodlands and to focus on those tasks which only government should do. Along with the reduction in our budget between now and 2014/15, the Forestry Commission is facing unprecedented change.
8. We need to make radical changes to what we do and how we do it. This means a fundamental shift away from getting directly involved in delivery and putting our efforts into supporting and encouraging business and civil society engagement, informing forestry policy and advising on best practice for sustainable forest management.
9. Our focus for the next four years is to empower and engage with partners including other government bodies, businesses, charities and civil society organisations in order to protect, improve and expand England’s woodlands, empowering and enabling people to determine and deliver what they want from woodlands and promoting economic activity within the forestry sector and wider business.
10. Our intention is that by April 2015 the Forestry Commission in England has evolved in its scale, remit and approach, to lead the delivery of Government policy for trees, woods and forests, whilst achieving deficit reduction funding targets and to be resilient so as to continue to be able to deliver into the future.
11. We will create two principal delivery teams of Forest Services and Forest Enterprise, with an integrated senior management structure. Our Director General post is absorbing the Director England responsibilities and we are introducing a new Chief Executive role, providing clearer support and a single point of contact for Westminster.
12. For Forest Services we will move to a 5-area structure each led by an Area Director and based on amalgamated regional boundaries (Annex 1). Staff numbers are planned to reduce from 211 to 172 full-time equivalents. Delivery and partnership / expertise teams will be based within these areas with a greater lead in sub-national or national roles. Front line Woodland Officers numbers will be maintained with refreshed roles to reflect the new delivery framework and based locally to reflect their working areas. Administrative teams will be primarily organised in hubs and managed from the national office, although some additional work is required before a final conclusion in 2011.
13. A national expertise team will be organised around ecosystem services and with greater distribution of expert roles to local teams and recognition and use of the expertise within local teams. A combined Strategic Development Team in the national office will support the whole of Forest Services (national and local) delivery. A single Management Board will be set up consisting of 4 senior Forest Services posts with representation from local delivery teams from an Area Director on a rotating basis. An Interim Transition planning team is now leading the workstreams to take forward implementation.
14. Forest Enterprise will move to 6 Forest Districts (see Annex 2). Beat structures remain at the heart of the proposals. There will be an additional management unit (as currently) for Westonbirt (with head of unit having a role in all tree collections). Staff numbers will reduce from 854 to 661, some 40 fewer losses than the original proposal. This is due largely to the suspension in woodland sales and the need to manage the total current area of the Forestry Commission Estate.
15. There are a number of areas of work still subject to consideration through task and finish groups. These include: Administration – quantifying and organising support required for new structures; Wildlife Management – moving to a mixed delivery model; and Learning and Retail –moving out of direct delivery.
16. Funding has been secured from the Defra Modernisation Fund for a staff Voluntary Early Exit scheme this year. The proposals are forecast to save £5.2m per from a current budget of £20.8m. It is expected that the reduction of full-time equivalents from the parts of the Forestry Commission supported by Westminster (Great Britain, England and Forest Research) will be around 400 posts of which about 300 will be from Forestry Commission England.
17. The Forestry Commission is an organisation built on the commitment and experience of people who really know and care about trees. We have years of experience of making things happen and we shall draw upon this and the experience of our partners and customers to develop new systems and processes.
18. The next four years will inevitably be challenging as we move towards implementing the new structures and ways of working. However, we all have a role to play in implementing these changes and we appreciate your support through this change.
Next steps
19. We will provide regular updates as changes to structures and staffing take place.
June 2011
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