Assistant Gardener - Cityparks, Brighton & Hove Help Keep Our City Green and Thriving Brighton & Hove City Council's Cityparks team are recruiting Assistant Gardeners to help care for the city's much-loved green spaces. If you enjoy working outdoors in unique environment and want to make a real difference in our community, we want to hear from you. As an Assistant Gardener, you'll join a friendly, supportive team of gardeners, working together to maintain and improve green spaces across our vibrant coastal city. You will be involved in looking after a wide variety of areas, including: Public parks and gardens Social housing green spaces Roadside verges across the city Cemeteries and memorial gardens Recreational and conservation areas What You'll Be Doing Working as part of a team, your day-to-day work may include: Grass cutting, strimming, hedge trimming and shrub pruning Planting, weeding, mulching and general bed maintenance Litter picking and ensuring safe, tidy public areas Supporting planting schemes and biodiversity projects Assisting with maintenance of cemeteries and memorial grounds Using horticultural tools and machinery About You Enjoy working outdoors and being part of a team Are motivated, adaptable, and keen to learn Bring a positive, can-do attitude Are reliable, punctual, and committed to good customer service Have an interest in horticulture or environmental maintenance Encouraging a diverse workforce Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans. Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk). Why work for us? As a council, we want to: • be connected • be confident • be innovative and creative • be diverse and inclusive • be healthy and psychologically safe For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development. How to apply Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you've submitted your application and at interview. As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process. AI advice for candidates We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application. We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert. All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants' responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words. Additional information Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.