SCARF works through partnership to promote energy efficiency, reduce CO2 emissions, reduce fuel poverty and create sustainable employment and training opportunities.
Overview
PROJECT SUMMARY
SCARF works through partnership to promote energy efficiency, reduce CO2 emissions, reduce fuel poverty and create sustainable employment and training opportunities.
SCARF's core objectives are:
- To provide free impartial energy efficiency advice and information services to help householders save energy, save cash, and help save the environment
- To encourage investment in energy efficiency grant take-up and installed energy efficiency measures
- To create sustainable employment and training opportunities
SCARF's core objectives underpin SCARF's Business Strategy and Business Plan.
SCARF receives funding from a number of sources including, local authorities, the Scottish Executive and the Energy Saving Trust. This funding is tied in with Service Level Agreements most of which are to provide energy efficiency advice and information services.
In addition SCARF earns income through providing training and specific projects such as the Scottish Power Energy Efficiency Education project and Energy Audits of Social Work Small Group Homes project.
SCARF has energy efficiency advice projects in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray and Perth and Kinross. The relevant local authority funds these projects. SCARD also has two energy efficiency advice centres (one based at the Aberdeen office and one at the Dundee office), both of which are part funded by the Energy Saving Trust. The centres are part of a UK network.
Energy Advisors provide FREE, impartial and confidential advice and information that will help householders save money, save energy, and reduce CO2 emissions. Advisors an also help householders to obtain grants available from a variety of sources irrespective of income or tenure. We also provide home visits. Similar assistance is available for small businesses. SCARF's two development officers work with communities to develop small scale renewable projects.
SCARF has a wholly owned subsidiary company, SCARF Energy Services, which provides subsidised insulation measures for eligible households and where appropriate undertakes insulation contract work on behalf of local authorities - this work is done on a purely competitive tender basis. SCARF's subsidiary company covenants 100% of its profits to its parent company to further the work of the charity.
SCARF is a company limited by guarantee and registered charity and was established in 1985.
KEY PARTNERS
The original group of community and social workers who came up with the idea of SCARF came from agencies including Voluntary service Aberdeen, Shelter, Age Concern Scotland and Welfare Rights
Most people involved in the current Board are representatives of a specific organisation.
Directors are chosen for their skills and talents that are seen to be of benefit to the organisation, such as financial background, management experience or expertise in the energy or social housing areas. Trades councils are involved because of the number of trades people being trained by SCARF.
SCARF has made efforts to ensure that board members have an expertise, which will be useful to the group.
FUNDERS
SCARF has attracted a vast array of funding over the years.
The first set of funding was from URBAN Aid in 1985. This was both capital and revenue, providing for the initial setup of the group and running costs.
SCARF received funding from a number of sources including, local authorities, the Scottish Executive and the Energy Saving Trust. This funding is tied in with Service Level Agreements most of which are to provide energy efficiency advice and information services. We provide telephone advice and home visits. In addition SCARF earns income through providing training and specific projects such as the Scottish Power Energy Efficiency Education project and Energy Audits of Social Work Small Group Homes project.
SCARF has energy efficiency advice projects in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray and Perth and Kinross. The relevant local authority funds these projects. SCARF also has two energy efficiency advice centres (one based at the Aberdeen office and one at the Dundee office), both of which are part funded by the Energy Saving Trust. The centres are part of a UK network.
The lottery fund granted £260,000 for a rural advice service focusing on improvement to people's living environments. This project ended in December 2001. Local Authority funding was secured to establish two projects, one in Aberdeenshire and the other in Moray, as a direct result of this project.
Other funding has come over the years from the ESF programme. SCARF was the first project in Aberdeen to get ESF funding. The project was designed to take women into industries in which they were under represented. One of the participants on the project is still with SCARF.
Revenue funding has mainly been from the local authorities involved (Aberdeen district and Grampian Region initially, now the Unitary authorities of Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Moray, Perth and Kinross, Angus and Dundee City). The Scottish Energy Saving Trust is another main source of revenue funding, and recently funded a project working with businesses which pay the Climate Change Levy and helping them to access the services available from the Scottish Energy Efficiency Office and central government. The Scottish Executive provides funding for renewable energy advice for communities and householders through the Scottish Community Renewable Initiative.
Scottish Power has funded a primary schools energy efficiency project.
SCARF has a wholly owned subsidiary company, SCARF Energy Services, which provides subsidised insulation measures for eligible households and where appropriate undertakes insulation contract work on behalf of local authorities - this work is done on a purely competitive tender basis. SCARF's subsidiary company covenants 100% of its profits to its parent company to further the work of the charity.
- Scottish Gas has sponsored an annual calendar & calendar drawing competition (drawing submitted by schools).
- Scottish Gas has also supported conferences on fuel poverty for four years until 2002.
- Transco have recently taken over the sponsorship of the annual calendar competition. Scottish Power fund the primary school visits programme.
- SHELL employees have recently designated SCARF as their official charity
- EXXON/ MOBIL has also sponsored community energy awareness projects in the past.
SCARF has a service level agreement with local councils for the provision of advice services.
SCARF provides training for other agencies and makes a charge for this, However they also provide training and presentations for community groups at no cost.
THEMATIC CRITERIA
North East; Waste reduction; Energy; Poverty
Plan
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The initial aims funded by URBAN were to alleviate fuel poverty, promote energy efficiency and provide sustainable employment. These remain the central objectives of the organisation.
OUTPUTS
Improvements are very long lasting - education obviously has a lasting effect, while the practical improvements, which have been made to housing, etc are also extremely durable. For example:
Cavity wall insulation comes with a 25 year guarantee.
Advice provided to householders in relation to fuel debt, damp and condensations, etc, also has a lasting effect - this can be passed on from one generation to another.
Training provision has long-term economic benefits within the wider community.
SCARF really didn't anticipate, back in 1985, that they would still be in existence and so big by 2003.
The importance of the employment and training side of operations was unexpected - SCARF are now an NVQ training and assessment centre (the only centre in the North-East offering Energy Efficiency training) - and that simply was not foreseen.
The significant policy impact of not just SCARF but other projects around Scotland and the rest of the UK - fuel poverty was barely recognised as an issue in 1985 and now there are national targets - it is a major issue, and this is due in part to the awareness raising work of SCARF and other members of the Fuel poverty networks.
FUTURE STEPS
SCARF have expanded rapidly over the past few years and are now hoping to consolidate for a while, focusing on the aims of the project, before looking at further expansion.
As there are now targets to end fuel poverty in the UK by the end of 2016, the ultimate goal would be for SCARF not to exist after then.
Another current plan is to develop software to use in energy advice. The software which is developed may then be sold to other, similar projects across the UK, and could potentially be used to provide evidence that energy advice is an effective solution to eradicate fuel poverty.
Progress
In 1985 SCARF began as an URBAN Aid funded project. A group of social & community workers had observed a common problem with fuel among clients, and decided to seek funding for a specialist organisation to help people on low incomes to keep their homes warm and dry without spending more than they could afford on fuel. Often grants were available from DSS benefit single payments for insulation materials costs.
Initially funded to the tune of £45,000 per annum (providing one administrator, one insulation engineer and two energy advice workers), SCARF has grown organically to an organisation with an annual turnover of over £1m and 46 employees. 85% of employees were recruited from the long term unemployed.
The theme of training the long term unemployed was present from the very start, as SCARF used people on the then Community Programme Schemes to train as insulation engineers. At the time these trainees were paid an average of £63 per week.
The first step was to access the initial funding from URBAN Aid. As fuel poverty was not recognised to be an issue at the time a priority was to raise awareness with the local council (at that time Aberdeen District Council while the regional authority was Grampian council), as URBAN funding was reliant on Aberdeen city council matching 25%.
This initial URBAN funding was designated to be spent only in what were then termed 'deprived areas' (now SIP areas). SCARF was successful in gaining funding to work throughout Aberdeen through the Community Programme, then Employment Training. SCARF also successfully applied for EU funding. Gaining the funding to operate outside these areas was a major step.
SCARF now operates not only across Aberdeenshire but also across the whole North East of Scotland, with an additional office in Dundee.
SCARF is also now a service provider on the Warm Deal scheme.
Review
ACHIEVEMENTS
SCARF has achived far more than originally envisaged:
- The recognition of fuel poverty as a specific problem which requires action - work in campaigning about fuel poverty is very important to SCARF
The requirement for councils to address fuel poverty, the new Fuel Poverty strategies in Scotland and the rest of the UK, and the establishment of a Scottish group "Energy Action Scotland" (an offshoot of the National Energy Action group) have been signals of the success of SCARF and other groups working in the field of fuel poverty.
Working directly with people who have experienced or are experiencing fuel poverty has given SCARF the ability to speak about the full range of impacts that fuel poverty can have
- Working with schools and using that opportunity to talk about energy efficiency, as well as giving energy advisors the chance to give careers talks about opportunities in the energy advice / fuel poverty area
- 46 employees
- Approximately 700 people have received training from SCARF over the past 18 years.
- Every recipient of advice or help has benefited (by 2002, more than 60,000 households had received energy advice)
- 38,000 homes were insulated between 1985 and 2002 with SCARF
- 63,000 low energy light bulbs have been installed
- This equates to over 80,000 households helped to lower their fuel costs in 18 years
- In the financial year 2001-02 alone SCARF provided 476 community energy advice sessions, 15,069 households received energy reports (with a potential overall saving of up to £1,145,244 on fuel bills), 23,043 people received advice, 3,444 home visits were carried out, 274 presentations and training sessions reached 5502 people, 28 fact sheets on home energy efficiency were produced and an estimated £6.4 million was invested in energy efficiency through SCARF.
- SCARF is now also an NVQ training and assessment centre offering qualifications in energy efficiency.
- They are also a City and Guilds centre - a senior member of staff is an examiner
- The organisation has now expanded into renewable energy advice
- Fact sheets have been produced in plain English to answer some of the most commonly asked queries
- An extremely low staff turnover has made SCARF more efficient over its life span
- SCARF believes in providing quality services and is ISO 9000 approved
- In March 2003 SCARF attained the Investors in People Award
MEASURING ACHIEVEMENTS
As part of a network - the Energy Saving Trust evaluate SCARF regularly and so records are kept of how well people are served - telephone inquiries answered and dealt with, reports sent out - within a specified number of days
SCARF monitors themselves as well, to ensure the number of visits/ advice sessions/ advice instances remains high.
They also focus on getting external approval, and are now both an Investor in People and an ISO9000 organisation, and as such are monitored externally
All insulation fitting is monitored both internally and externally
PROCESS (local involvement)
The organisation is continually reaching new clients by running workshops, school events, and occasional events such as the September 2002 Fuel Poverty Conference in Aberdeen, promoting the Fuel Poverty Strategy and the range of grants which are available etc. The council, voluntary sector bodies, private, public and health groups all attended. Scottish Gas funded the conference. SCARF is working with Perth & Kinross Council on their Fuel Poverty Strategy and as part of the process held a Fuel Poverty & Health conference in Perth to bring together front line workers and decision makers to address the issues of fuel poverty in Perth & Kinross. A workshop session in Dundee was facilitated by SCARF as part of Dundee City Council's Fuel Poverty Strategy. Similar events are planned for Moray and Aberdeenshire during 2003-04.
A Corporate Strategy and a detailed Business Plan for a three- year rolling period is in place. These documents contain short, medium and long-term business objectives.
The business objectives are shares with staff and are then translates into team / objectives and action plans.
The Chief Executive Officer regularly reviews progress against the Business Objectives and activity reports are provided to the Board of Directors every two months. Statistical information is maintained on all projects.
EXTERNAL INVOLVEMENT
Local people per se are not involved in the management of the group, but thousands annually are recipients of the services
Funding agencies involved with SCARF include Local Authorities, the Energy Saving Trust, National Lottery Charities Board and sponsorship,
Referral networks established with the voluntary sector - these were and are essential to ensure householders get a service that meets their individual needs.
Local authorities (Aberdeen District & Grampian region to begin with, now Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire, along with councils on the expanded areas of operation such as Moray, Angus, Dundee City and very recently Perth & Kinross) are also critical partners.
Other agencies which refer clients to SCARF include local authorities, health staff and voluntary networks throughout the North East of Scotland. Elected members (local, Scottish and Westminster) also refer people to SCARF for help with paying for fuel - fuel bills, or damp cold housing.
The relationship between SCARF and partners has developed over the years:
Local authorities - initially SCARF was a referral point for clients with fuel difficulties. This developed into a two- way process, with SCARF sometimes referring people back to other parts of the council. The number of councils SCARF works directly with has also increased from one to five to cover most of the north east of Scotland.
In March 2002 SCARF's relationship with local authorities took another step as they competed and were awarded a tender by the Energy Saving Trust to participate in their Local Authority Support Programme, to support local authorities to reach their Home Energy Conservation Act targets of reducing CO2 emissions by up to 30% over 10 years.
Scottish Executive - SCARF has recently taken on this funding to provide energy advice to small businesses and renewable energy advice at community and household level through the Scottish Community Renewable Initiative
UK & Scottish Fuel Poverty Strategies
The organisation has taken a significant role in the development of Scottish and UK based fuel poverty action groups. Since the publication of the strategies they are assisting local authorities develop and implement local strategies and solutions to eradicate fuel poverty.
LESSONS
SCARF has been far more successful than they through they would be initially. However, at the very start they didn't know what to expect.
The organisation would not have survived and achieved as much as they have without the support of an expert management committee - the help in accessing long term funding and how to expand operations - and the long term vision of the committee (now Board of Directors). This in addition to the commitment of its staff is the key to SCARF's success.
SCARF wouldn't base individual members of staff outwith the main office again. This was done for one specific project which had three outreach workers based in other organisations' premises, and caused difficulties for the staff in terms of line management support, direction, and feeling a part of the SCARF team.
- Have a clear vision of what you want to achieve
- Plan for the future
- Be flexible in your approach
- Be willing to change and adapt
- Ensure the management group has expertise which can help in accessing funding and has other useful knowledge is essential
- SCARF has found membership of a network of fuel advice centres to be crucial to their success - the existence of a sounding board and shared experience is invaluable.
- Need to be honest in getting funding - people always ask for more than they need which is not a good idea
- Sponsorships - organisations need to bear in mind that the sponsoring organisation will have an agenda in giving money and are more likely to continue sponsorship if they achieve their aims
- Seek advice when it is needed
- Don't take on a consultant to draw up your business plan - you need to take ownership of it
- If you do use consultants, make sure you give a very clear brief and outline of what is needed, expected, and your timescale
- Marketing yourself is important
- Be aware of how people on short- term contracts due to short- term funding feel as this is a very insecure position to be in.
- Be careful not to get complacent.
- Ensure cross party political support if getting MSPs/ MPs to attend photo calls etc.
- Don't spend money on fancy desks etc - focus money on the services and providing your staff with the tools they need to provide the service.
- Build replacement costs for any purchases into funding applications - remember computers don't last forever!
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