Position of Project Manager at The Real Farming Trust – Closing 14th July 2023
Date Published: 27th June 2023
Post content supplied by The Real Farming Trust
Job Title: Project Manager: Progressive Landowners Platform
Part Time (3 days a week)
Salary: £32,818 (FTE)
Contract/Permanent: Contract – 14 months
Workplace: Work from home with occasional travel across the UK
About the Real Farming Trust
The Real Farming Trust (RFT) brings people of all food and farming backgrounds and experiences together. We are networkers and facilitators who run funding and support programmes for small-scale food and farming enterprises. We build the case for agroecology through sharing and gathering evidence. We work with others to disrupt the power imbalances in the food system.
We are a small charity, and we value honesty, empathy, care and compassion in our interactions with each other in the organisation and with the partners we work with.
About the role
Access to land is one of the major barriers for new entrants into farming. With land reform, particularly in England, unlikely in the short term and land prices continuing to rise, other solutions must be explored.
There are progressive farmers, landowners, land agents and organisations already working across the UK to bring about change. This project will bring those progressive voices together to create a platform for discussion, knowledge exchange and creative thinking. It will bring others into the conversation to explore the financial, social and ecological benefits of bringing new entrants onto the land. It will look to develop new ideas and new models for improving access to land. It will share its learning and make the case for new approaches to land access with decision-makers.
You will be supported to deliver this project by Ruth West, RFT’s founder, Clare Horrell, one of RFT’s ExecuAve Directors and our CommunicaAons Manager, Sarah Buckingham. You will be line managed by Clare Horrell.
We are grateful to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for funding this work.
Your main tasks will be to:
• Build relationships with individual landowners and land agents. It will be an advantage (but not essential) if you already have some relationships in this area
• Develop networks focussed around different types of landowners and land managers, e.g. institutional, estates, private individuals, and land agents.
• Develop a series of events and activities to support discussion and creative thinking within and amongst these groups
• Develop contacts with other groups and projects working in this space, create joint activities and share learning
• Disseminate learning from the project within the agroecological movement, decision-makers and leaders involved in land use (e.g. farming support organisations, local and national policymakers)
You will thrive in this role if you:
• Have a good knowledge and understanding of the issues surrounding land use in the UK and the needs of new entrants
• Are a great listener and facilitator
• Are a creative thinker
• Are confident in expressing and communicating ideas to different audiences both verbally and in writing
A typical week will be taken up with the following key tasks:
• A lot of telephone and Zoom meetings
• A lot of listening
• Planning, developing and facilitating events and activities
• A lot of creative thinking about how to get the best value from bringing people together in the events and activities
• Occasional in-person meetings
• Some number crunching, managing the project budget
What else you need to know:
• This is a 3-day per week position (0.6FTE)
• We do not have an office. We all work remotely from home and meet twice a year in person for a couple of days each Ame. Everyone is expected to come to the offsites. • You will need to provide your own laptop and phone
• We all work flexibly, but you will be expected to do the majority of your work between 9 am and 6 pm during weekdays
• You will report to Clare Horrell, one of the executive Directors and will be supported by Ruth West, one of RFT’s founders
The benefits you will get
• Salary: £32,818 pro rata
• 20 days annual leave, plus Bank Holidays, pro rata increasing by 2 days for every year of completed service
• Flexible working to suit your other commitments during the week
• Employer-matched pension of 4%
• Annual personal development/training budget of £250.
How to apply
Please email your CV, two referees (including at least one work reference from your most recent employer), and a cover letter (no more than 2 pages) detailing why you think you are suitable for the role and why you would like to join our team to Clare Horrell at clare@realfarming.org by 5 pm on 14th July. If you have questions about the role, please feel free to email Clare at the above address, and she will be happy to help you.
What will happen after you have sent in your application?
• We will let all applicants know if they have been shortlisted for an interview by 5 pm on 17th July
• Interviews will take place online on 20th and 21st July between 9am and 4pm. If these dates or times are difficult, please tell us in your application.
• We will share the interview questions in advance with you and may ask you to pre-prepare a task. The interview aims to help you show us how you would do the role, not to catch you out.
• We will let you know in advance who will be on the interview panel and their role within the RFT.
Equity and Anti-Oppression
We are committed to becoming a more inclusive workplace with a diverse staff. We believe this is essential to our effectiveness as an organisation and our ability to fulfil our mission of “good food for everyone, forever”. We need to address both inequity and oppression within our work to meet our aim. There will be tensions that this work creates and difficult questions that we need to address both internally and externally.
We know that people with certain backgrounds and characteristics are underrepresented in our team and in the alternative food and farming movement, and we want to address this. We are committed to working proactively to dismantle these systems of oppression and ensure equal opportunities for everyone, regardless of their background.
We have started to do this work internally, but we know there is much more to do. Every member of the RFT staff is involved and part of this work. We have an internal Equity and Anti-Oppression Group that leads and monitors this work and reports to the Board.
Equality and Diversity Monitoring Form
The Real Farming Trust is committed to promoting equality and diversity in line with the Equality Act 2010, providing an inclusive and co-operaAve environment in which all individuals feel respected. Filling in this equality and diversity monitoring form is voluntary. The information you provide will be kept confidential and only used for monitoring purposes. Please don’t enter any information that would identify you. This form is kept separately from your application and will not be seen by interviewers.
Please note that due to the volume of applications mean the Real Farming Trust cannot offer feedback to individual applicants.
