Vacancies
Our Power, a community energy company in Norwich, is looking for two people to join our Board of Directors, to fill skills gaps we have identified. These are voluntary roles.
Download the role descriptions for your records or find them below.
Safeguarding lead
We are looking for someone with significant experience in safeguarding adults to join our board as Safeguarding Lead. Our team provides energy advice home visits, which involves unsupervised contact with people who may be vulnerable. We would like to strengthen our safeguarding expertise at board level to ensure our policies and procedures are adequate, and to enable us to respond effectively if issues arise.
You should have significant experience in safeguarding, either in a professional capacity or from another voluntary role.
Board members are collectively responsible for setting the organisation’s strategic direction and ensuring it meets its statutory obligations as a community interest company. As a Director of the company, you will be bound by the duties set out in the Companies Act 2006. You will be expected to attend quarterly board meetings. These last around two hours and are typically held online, though some may be held in person in Norwich.
In addition to your general responsibilities as a member of the Board, you will:
- Work with the Executive Director to review strategic plans and address any safeguarding considerations.
- Ensure the organisation’s safeguarding policies and procedures are reviewed annually and in line with any changes to legislation.
- Support the Executive Director to ensure staff have appropriate training and awareness of safeguarding.
- Support the Executive Director to raise safeguarding concerns where necessary
- Work with the Executive Director to respond to any safeguarding allegations against staff or volunteers.
- Be a point of contact for staff or volunteers if someone needs advice or wishes to raise a complaint about safeguarding.
- Keep your own knowledge of safeguarding up to date.
The time commitment associated with this role is approximately 6 hours a month. However, significant additional work may occasionally be required at short notice if an urgent safeguarding issue arises.
Treasurer
We are looking for a Treasurer to join our Board of Directors. The overall role of the Treasurer is to maintain an overview of the organisation’s finances, ensure its financial viability, and ensure that proper financial records and procedures are maintained.
You should have knowledge of accounting and finance, either from a specialist finance background or from managing a business’s finances. We employ an external accountant to manage our statutory accounts, payroll, PAYE and corporation tax. We do our own bookkeeping, for which we use QuickBooks. We will be registering for VAT within the next few months.
Board members are collectively responsible for setting the organisation’s strategic direction and ensuring it meets its statutory obligations as a community interest company. As a Director of the company, you will be bound by the duties set out in the Companies Act 2006. You will be expected to attend quarterly board meetings. These last around two hours and are typically held online, though some may be held in person in Norwich.
In addition to your general responsibilities as a member of the Board, you will:
- Work with the Executive Director to prepare the annual budget.
- Support the Executive Director with cash flow forecasting and preparing quarterly management accounts for the Board.
- Ensure that the organisation’s reserves policy is appropriate and is reviewed annually.
- Ensure adequate financial controls are in place.
- Maintain oversight of restricted funds and ensure expenditure from these funds is being recorded correctly.
- Work with the Executive Director to review strategic plans and advise on financial implications.
- Liaise with Our Power’s accountant to ensure the annual accounts are submitted correctly.
The time commitment associated with this role is approximately 6 hours a month.
To apply, please send a CV and cover letter outlining why you are interested and how your skills align with the role to livvy@ourpower.org.uk no later than 9am on Monday 20th April.
About us
Norwich Climate, trading as Our Power, is a community interest company (CIC) helping people in the Norwich area take more control of their energy. Our vision is for a more people-powered, affordable and resilient energy system, where communities across the Norwich area play an active part through community ownership, collective action and mutual support.
We provide advice and support to households to help them reduce energy use and move away from fossil fuels; and we work with local people to explore possibilities for a different kind of energy system – whether that’s community-owned renewables, heat networks or shared projects to save energy.
Our funding comes from a mixture of grants and contracts, and we currently employ three staff members, including an Executive Director.
We are working to scale up our community-based activities, and we have ambitious plans to expand into renewable energy generation and/or heat decarbonisation projects over the next few years.
To apply, please send a CV and cover letter outlining why you are interested and how your skills align with the role to livvy@ourpower.org.uk no later than 9am on Monday 20th April.