Energy Advice Programme Manager

Energy Saving Programme Manager – Burnham and Weston Energy CIC

Role summary

Job title
Energy Saving Programme Manager

Location
Home working, but must be rooted in the communities we serve: Weston-super-Mare,
Burnham-on-Sea, Highbridge, Mark, Winscombe and the surrounding rural areas

Salary
£45,000 FTE

Hours
Part time/full time – 3-5 days per week

Contract
Initially to March 2025, to be made permanent depending on ongoing success of the programme

Benefits
Basic pension, 25 FTE days holiday (pro-rata) + bank holidays

Reporting to
The non-exec Board of Burnham and Weston Energy

Application
Please send a CV and cover letter, which between them should demonstrate why you are interested
in the role and how you meet the requirements.

Applications should be emailed to Jake Burnyeat (Director of Burnham and Weston Energy
CIC and CfR CIC):
[email protected]

Application deadline
31st May but applications will be considered on receipt

Start date
ASAP

Background

Burnham and Weston Energy CIC is a
not-for-profit local energy enterprise working towards a future where our energy is locally
generated, locally owned and low carbon.

We own a 9.3MW community solar farm at Wick Farm, between Burnham-on-Sea and Weston-super-Mare.
The 36,000 panel solar array has been up and running since 2016, generating electricity for the
equivalent of over 2,000 homes. The electricity generated by the solar farm is sold to the grid
and surplus income (after operating and finance costs) is put to work to help tackle fuel
poverty in the local area, provide grants to local community projects, and fund renewables and
energy efficiency measures for local schools and community buildings. As a CIC our
priority is community organisations and households with the greatest need.

We are supported by CfR CIC, which set up Burnham and
Weston Energy, developed and financed the solar farm and provides ongoing support with company
administration and looking after the solar farm.

Our Home Energy Saving Service

Last year Burnham and Weston Energy launched a Home Energy Saving Service for local households
struggling to pay their bills. We work in partnership with Age UK Somerset, Citizens Advice
Somerset, Citizens Advice West Somerset and West Somerset Green Forum to help low income and
vulnerable households across the former districts of Sedgemoor and West Somerset and Taunton,
and North Somerset.

The service is delivered by a small team of trained Home Energy Advisors who visit people in
their homes to provide tailored advice on how they can save money on their bills and make their
homes warmer and healthier to live in. Our Home Energy Advisors also install small energy
efficiency measures such as LED lights, draft proofing and radiator reflectors. Households are
then referred on to further support to check they are receiving the correct welfare and
financial support and to help them access grant funding for home upgrades including insulation,
boiler replacement and energy efficient appliances.

Home visits are funded through a Local Energy Advice
Partnership (LEAP) with
AgilityEco. A grant from Somerset Community
Foundation enabled Burnham & Weston Energy to expand its service to help combat fuel
poverty experienced by people over the age of 60+ living in Sedgemoor and West Somerset and
seek to embed energy support in the community through establishing a network of community-based
Energy Ambassadors. We also run pop up energy advice sessions and are looking to establish
permanent Energy Hubs to reach those who would not ordinarily know how and where to find help
with reducing their energy bills, managing fuel debt, and keeping their homes warm.

The current team of 2 Home Energy Advisors have capacity to deliver around 700 home visits per
year. We receive referrals for households needing energy support from a range of local
organisations including our partners and other community organisations. We employ a full time
Programme Co-ordinator to manage and generate further home visit referrals and bookings,
provide follow up support, and manage events and communications.

From this foundation, our growth objectives for the Home Energy Savings
service are to:

• Continue to raise awareness of the service amongst local organisations and the public, and
  increase the number of referrals and vulnerable householders who benefit.
• Grow the team of Home Energy Advisors as demand requires, with a vision to at least double
  the team by the end of 2025.
• Secure additional funding to support the service to enable us to help more households and
  provide more in-depth support.
• Develop partnerships which broaden and deepen the ways we can help households, including
  unlocking funding and support for energy efficiency retrofit.

Our other local energy saving activities

• We are carrying out community engagement and feasibility work to understand local needs and
  interests for an energy efficiency retrofit support service that could include bulk purchase,
  finance, advice and project management support.
• We offer funded energy surveys for community buildings to develop energy savings plans, and
  help implement them.
• We offer schools and community buildings ‘Solar Soft Loans’ to fund solar PV, and recover
  the capital over 20 years out of a share of the savings generated.
• We provide small grants via our Sunshine Fund to support community-led environmental
  projects.

Who are we looking for?

Are you locally rooted? Are you passionate about helping lift people out of fuel poverty? Would
you be driven to help shape a future where our homes and community buildings are warm, healthy
and affordable to live in and energy is a benefit to rather than a drain on our local economy?
Do you have the ambition and confidence to grow our energy support programme into something
which could make a big difference to our local communities? Are you motivated by social and
environmental justice, a collaborator and a change-maker? Do you understand the complex world
of energy support funding and have experience of grant programme management? Do you recognise
the burdens energy advisors carry from the sometimes-challenging cases they have to deal with?
Can you manage yourself and your team with limited support from a board of non-exec directors?

If you are one of the few people that would say yes, to all of those questions then we would
love to hear from you!

Role responsibilities

Management and development of the Home Energy Saving Service (core to the
role)

The core responsibility of the Energy Saving Programme Manager is to manage the operation and
development of Burnham &Weston Energy’s Home Energy Saving Service:

• Manage, mentor and support our team of Home Energy Advisors and the Programme Co-ordinator.
  To expand the team to deliver our growth objectives for the Home Energy Savings service.
• Responsible for team safeguarding, H&S, mental health, team building, mentoring and
  training;
• Manage the delivery of our Home Energy Saving Service across North Somerset and the former
  districts of Sedgemoor and West Somerset and Taunton, seeking opportunities to strengthen and
  grow the service.
• Manage the delivery of the Somerset Community Foundation grant including ensuring KPIs are
  met, budgets managed and reports provided.
• Manage the delivery of our referral partnership contract with LEAP AgilityEco including
  ensuring KPIs and contractual requirement are met and that households referred to LEAP receive
  the best possible support possible given their needs and eligibility for funding.
• To secure and manage further funding partnerships (such as Redress or MCS funding) to
  deliver our growth objectives,
• Responsible for ensuring company policies relating to the advice programme are kept up to
  date and consistent with requirements or partners. Responsible for ensuring working practice is
  in accordance with our policies and that risk assessments and management plans are in place and
  adhered to.
• Manage relationships with organisations referring households to the energy support
  programme and receiving onward referrals from us.
• Develop partnerships which broaden and deepen the ways we can help households, including
  unlocking funding and support for energy efficiency retrofit.
• Develop our CRM and IT systems so we can work effectively and easily deliver funder and
  board impact reporting requirements.
• Represent Burnham & Weston Energy at local events and forums, nurture and grow our
  networks and relationships with local stakeholders and deliver our comms via the website and
  social media channels.

Management and expansion of our other local energy activities (optional)

Depending on capacity and experience, there is potential to broaden the Energy Saving Programme
Manager role to include:

• Manage the energy efficiency retrofit support service feasibility study, and development of
  the service.
• Work with our partner to help the 5 community buildings we are working with to implement
  their energy savings plans, including support with funding and procurement of contractors.
• Promote the ‘Solar Soft Loans’ offer to local schools and community buildings and work with
  CfR CIC to support them through the process of feasibility, loan contracting and procurement
  and management of installers.
• Promote and oversee the administration of our Sunshine Fund.

Candidate requirements

Essential:

• Experience of leading and managing home visit teams including safeguarding, H&S, mental
  health, risk assessment and management, team building, mentoring and training. Experience of
  managing front line service teams is more important to us than energy advice experience. We can
  organise mentoring support from other community energy enterprises who have developed and
  scaled up local energy advice services.
• Experience of overseeing complex case work.
• Experience of grant programme and service contract management including management of
  budgets, KPI delivery, reporting and meeting funder requirements.
• Experience of securing grant and service contract funding including applications, contract
  negotiation and ensuring funding requirements are in place.
• Committed to and rooted in the communities we serve: Weston-super-Mare, Burnham-on-Sea,
  Highbridge, Mark, Winscombe and the surrounding rural areas.
• Understand the local public, community and private sector landscape and be well networked.
• An ability to bring people together, bring out the best in people and make things happen.

Useful:

• Understand the complex world of energy support funding.
• Experience of being a home energy advisor and/or managing home energy advice teams.
• A track record of business development, ideally in a social enterprise, charity or public
  service context.
• Competent with communications and social media.
• Confident in network and relationship building.