Director of PolicyEnergy Appointment Brief February 2016
Citizens Advice | February 2016
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About Us For more than 75 years we’ve provided free, independent and impartial advice and information to help people resolve their legal, money and other problems. This year alone we’ve helped 2.1 million people solve 6.6 million problems via our network of local Citizens Advice that delivers services from over 3,300 community locations in England and Wales.
As testament to our commitment towards the people who use our services we’ve determined that we will make five big changes by 2020.
We also campaign for policy changes locally and nationally to meet our overall objective of creating a fairer society. As testament to our commitment towards the people who use our services we’ve determined that we will make five big changes by 2020: • We’ll make it easier to get advice • We’ll be more influential • We’ll work together – the national charity and local Citizens Advice, as one service • We’ll become even more sustainable and effective • We’ll be an even stronger equality champion This role is critical to the success of our ongoing strategy and offers genuine scope to influence how Citizens Advice evolves over the next 5 years. Citizens Advice is changing. But we need your help.
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Citizens Advice | February 2016
What we do...
The Citizens Advice service helps people to resolve their problems. As the UK’s largest advice provider we are equipped to deal with any issue, from anyone, spanning debt and employment to consumer and housing plus everything in between. In the last year alone, the Citizens Advice service helped 2.1 million people with 6.6 million problems. But we’re not just here in times of crisis - we also use clients stories anonymously to campaign for policy changes that benefit the population as a whole.
How we’re structured
How the public knows us
Citizens Advice Bureaux deliver advice services from over 3,300 community locations in England and Wales, run by 338 individual charities. Citizens Advice is the national body for bureaux and is a registered charity in its own right. Together we make up the Citizens Advice service. Of the 28,500 people who work for the service, over 22,000 of them are volunteers and nearly 6,500 are paid staff.
The Citizens Advice service offers information and advice through face-to-face, phone and email services, and online via citizensadvice.org.uk. As well as from their high street premises, Citizens Advice Bureaux make face-to-face advice available from other locations including community centres, doctors’ surgeries, courts and prisons to make sure that people can access advice where they need it most.
Through the training, information systems and operational support it provides, Citizens Advice equips bureaux to deliver the highest quality advice to their local residents. In turn, client evidence submitted by bureaux alerts Citizens Advice to widespread problems that require action at a national level.
The Citizens Advice service is here for everyone. We are relied on by millions of people across England and Wales every year. In turn, we rely on the commitment and energy of tens of thousands of volunteers and staff.
Citizens Advice | February 2016
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About Us Energy Policy Research
Energy Policy Team
Our Citizens Advice energy policy work ensures opportunities to make the retail energy market function better are not missed and that consumers have good reason to become more confident and engaged. We bring the consumer interest directly into energy policy and implementation programmes with governments, regulators and market players.
The Energy team represents energy consumers. We do this by promoting and protecting the interests of domestic and small non-domestic consumers across Great Britain.
Representing the interests of microbusinesses is also a key element of our work. Our objective is to reduce the protection and engagement gap by working with small businesses, regulators and firms to highlight and address issues across markets.
As the statutory consumer body for energy consumers in Great Britain, we commission research, build evidence-based policy positions to embed the needs of energy consumers into decision-making, with specific regard for the needs of vulnerable consumers. The Energy team was part of Consumer Futures, a separate organisation, which transferred to Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland in April 2014 as part of a UK Government drive to improve consumer advice and representation. Our energy work spans several interconnecting areas. For example, up to half a trillion pounds of energy infrastructure investment may be recovered from consumers over the coming decades. We help policy-makers identify the most cost-efficient investments, take full account of the impact on consumers and ensure that costs are recovered in the least regressive fashion. We have a special interest in reducing fuel poverty.
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Citizens Advice | February 2016
About Us Energy retail market
Non-domestic work
Few customers have faith in the energy market. Customer satisfaction levels are low and complaint numbers high. The retail energy market has been through an intense period of self-examination and market participants seem committed to change. We ensure that the opportunities to make the market function better are not missed and that consumers have good reason to become more confident and engaged.
Representing the interests of microbusinesses is a key element of our work. Both domestic consumers and many small businesses suffer from time pressures and knowledge gaps, as well as a lack of information and responsive services. However there is a protection and engagement gap between households and small businesses. Our objective is to progressively reduce that gap by working with small businesses, regulators and firms to highlight and address issues across markets.
Smart meters and future energy markets Unless the interest of consumers drives the £11 billion smart meter programme or other areas of energy policy, consumers will face the costs, but not enjoy the potential benefits. The energy team brings the consumer interest directly into these policy and implementation programmes with governments, regulators and market players. Energy companies’ relationships with their customers may well change as they increasingly supply appliances, home services and Green Deal products. Distributed generation could give customers new opportunities to provide services to suppliers.
Citizens Advice | February 2016
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Role Profile
Director of Policy - Energy Band:
Key accountabilities
Proficient salary:
• Conceive, develop and lead a strategic
Senior Delivery Team £71,800 - £76,150 plus £3,520 London Allowance
Location:
London, EC1A
Reporting to:
Director of Policy and Advocacy
Role purpose: To lead the organisation’s statutory role as the representative of consumers in the energy market, developing an agenda-setting programme of policy research and behind the scenes influencing work.
1. Develop and oversee a highly influential programme of policy research programme of policy research and advocacy that shapes public debate and secures concrete changes to policy and practice in the energy sector.
• Develop and deliver a pipeline of light
touch, tactical policy interventions that take advantage of key opportunities to influence policy and practice.
• Provide constructive critical challenge
to colleagues working to develop the organisation’s wider policy research and advocacy agenda.
• Ensure the organisation’s energy policy
research and advocacy makes the most of the unique insights provided by data and case notes from local Citizens Advice, the Consumer Service and the Extra Help Unit.
• Ensure the team’s policy outputs reflect
the realities of the European legislative context and of UK devolution, seeking input from colleagues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• Ensure the team’s work reflects and
supports the Citizens Advice Equality and Diversity strategy.
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Citizens Advice | February 2016
Role Profile
Director of Policy - Energy 2. Oversee a highly influential programme of behind the scenes influencing work
• Oversee a highly influential programme
of behind the scenes influencing work, ensuring that decisions over the regulation of energy markets are made in the interests of consumers.
• Develop and oversee a robust
programme of publications to hold the energy industry itself to account, including the publication of robust performance statistics that help consumers make informed choices and incentivise companies to compete on service standards.
• Oversee the effective and proportionate
use of the organisation’s statutory information-gathering powers, overseeing the governance of these powers and agreeing an agenda for their use.
• Develop and oversee effective processes to identify consumer detriment in the energy market and to evidence this detriment to support appropriate enforcement action and consumer redress.
3. Lead a highly motivated team and support professional development
• Lead an outstanding team of policy and
influencing experts, co-ordinate and manage the team’s overall work program to ensure outputs are delivered on time and are well-written, politically astute, and analytically robust.
• Motivate a large team and foster an
inventive, responsible and generous team culture in which equality and diversity are well managed and staff can develop personally and professionally.
• Decide on appropriate processes to
manage the team’s time and resources, giving managers autonomy to plan and allocate work efficiently, and setting high expectations for the calibre of work.
• Recruit outstanding new staff as
appropriate and induct new recruits to ensure they deliver to the best of their abilities.
4. Play a leading role in the organisation’s wider leadership team
• Play a key role in the organisation’s Senior Delivery Team, helping to develop the organisation’s wider corporate priorities, leading cross-cutting strands of work across directorates, and providing constructive critical challenge to projects across Citizens Advice.
• Support the development and delivery of the organisation’s wider strategy to advise, educate and empower energy consumers.
• Work with the Executive Team to lead
the delivery of high priority corporate objectives, working closely with senior leaders across the organisation
• Play an ongoing role as part of the
organisation’s project management processes, scrutinising and supporting the delivery of cross-cutting projects
• Contribute flexibly to corporate priorities, including occasional travel and out of hours availability.
• Undertake any other duties as may be
reasonably required within the scope of the role.
Citizens Advice | February 2016
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Role Profile
Director of Policy - Energy 5. Influence senior decision-makers directly and front policy work on broadcast media
6. Manage the team’s budget and oversee governance processes to maximise accountability and value for money
• Represent Citizens Advice to external
• Manage the financial performance of the
• Provide strategic input into the
• Lead the team’s annual work planning
bodies, for example by appearing before parliamentary select committees or speaking at public events. organisation’s campaigning activities on issues related to the energy market.
• Maintain awareness of external
developments in energy policy and maintain an influential position in relevant professional networks.
• Develop and maintain effective
relationships with policymakers, regulators and firms at the highest level in order to influence policy and practice.
• Form effective alliances and work with
other organisations where these alliances would support the interests of Citizens Advice’s clients or energy consumers.
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Citizens Advice | February 2016
team, delivering projects within budget and complying with budgeting and reporting requirements. and reporting processes, applying industry-leading standards of accountability and transparency.
• Oversee the commissioning of external research and ensure contracts are managed in line with the organisation’s approach to procurement.
• Support financial efficiency and value for money throughout the team’s work.
Person Specification Director of Policy - Energy
Person Specification 1. An outstanding track record of producing policy research that shapes public debate and secures concrete changes to policy or practice. 2. An outstanding track record of direct stakeholder influencing work, supported by working relationships at the most senior level. 3. Demonstrable knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and their use in influential policy research. 4. Experience of risk management, for example through robust quality assurance processes, risk ratings and risk mitigation strategies. 5. Ability to assimilate complex information rapidly. 6. Significant experience of financial management and budgetary control and experience managing consultants and contracts. 7. Astute political judgment and a well-developed understanding of how to frame policy research to secure maximum impact. 8. A clear, succinct and accessible written style and the ability to write quickly to a high standard. 9. Strong oral communication skills and the ability to communicate complex ideas in an accessible way, including through broadcast media. 10. Ability to lead a team and foster a positive working environment, managing policy projects to tight deadlines and within budget. 11. A commitment to equality and diversity and an understanding of how these principles are applied to practical effect in the workplace.
How to Apply To apply in confidence please forward a comprehensive CV together with a supporting statement (maximum 2x A4 pages) Please provide evidence of your suitability against the criteria in the person specification in your statement.
Timetable
You should give the names, positions, organisations and telephone contact numbers of two referees, relevant to this role. References will only be taken once your express permission has been granted.
Panel Interviews: 30th - 31st March
We would be grateful if you could let us know if you will require any special provision as a result of any disability should you be called for interview. Finally please ensure that you have included mobile, work and home telephone numbers, as well as any dates when you will not be available or might have difficulty with the indicative timetable. Applications should be submitted via the Prospectus website: http://prospect-us.co.uk/jobs/details/ HQ00163461
Published closing date: 25th February Preliminary interviews with Prospectus: 8th - 17th March
These dates may be subject to change and candidates will be advised in advance should this happen.
Recruitment Process If you have any questions on any aspect of the appointment process, need additional information or wish to have an informal discussion, please contact: Sara Livesey or Tokunbo Makinde on 020 691 1920 or via email at sara.livesey@prospect-us.co.uk or tokunbo.makinde@prospect-us.co.uk
citizensadvice.org.uk @Citizens Advice Charity number 279057 Helping people find a way forward
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