Severn Wye Energy Agency

Energy Ambassadors

Background

Energy Ambassadors is running concurrently in 9 European Countries. Originally based on a French concept of training professionals who work with the most vulnerable groups of clients to be able to recognise the symptoms of fuel poverty. These professionals are then able to offer simple energy and money saving advice in addition to effective to signposting to relevant agencies and grant schemes where appropriate.

Aims

The overall aim of the Energy Ambassadors project is to implement sustainable and practical solutions to fight against fuel poverty and to generate energy savings in households through the interventions of social actorsnamely those professionals who work with the public in a health or social capacity.

The project aims by the end of its 30 months to have:

• Trained 215 Social Actors across the Consortium
• Reached 15,600 households across the consortium through the actions of trained social actors
• Saved a minimum of 46.8 MWh in the last 6 months of the project

NI 187 - Reduction of Fuel Poverty - is one of Gloucestershire's priorities within the LAA and Energy Ambassadors aims to work with those households most vulnerable to fuel poverty to provide energy advice and signposting to relevant agencies where appropriate.

Activities

This project is based around the involvement of health and social care professionals to be fully trained in identifying fuel poor households, accurately referring occupants to local and national services for support and providing behavioural advice to enable households to address their energy using behaviour. This group of professionals is so important in addressing fuel poverty because much of their work is with those groups who are considered most vulnerable to fuel poverty. These trained professionals have become Energy Ambassadors. Severn Wye Energy Agency is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Energy Ambassadors Project within Gloucestershire which includes designing and co-ordinating training and providing ongoing support for Energy Ambassadors within their role.

There are currently over 60 professionals who have completed the Energy Ambassador training in Gloucestershire.

Energy Ambassadors can help to find solutions for those who are at risk to save energy and money in order to gain comfort and health in their homes. A system of follow up activity has been developed for the Energy Ambassadors as well as meetings and events to promote and raise awareness of the project.

Alongside administering Energy Ambassadors project, Severn Wye Energy Agency is also involved in delivering on a closely related contract for NHS Gloucestershire.

This project aims to:

Coordinator

Jon Clarke - Senior Project Manager

	Jon
	01452 835070

• Focus on the areas of Gloucestershire with the highest health inequalities
• Work directly with front line health professionals
• Raise awareness and recognition of fuel poverty through ill health indicators
• Provide energy advice and signposting
• Increase uptake of grants available through Gloucestershire Warm & Well programme (see www.swea.co.uk/proj_WarmWell)

This will be delivered through a series of briefing and training sessions in a more flexible format than that of Energy Ambassadors with a focus on local data around cold related health inequalities.

Funding

Energy Ambassadors is funded by Intelligent Energy Europe and our local partner, NHS Gloucestershire. Recognising the links between fuel poverty and associated cold damp living conditions NHS Gloucestershire is part funding Energy Ambassadors as part of their ongoing work to reduce health inequalities. A number of health professionals have passed through the training programme to provide clients with advice about saving energy and how this can have a positive effect on their health.

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