Restructure and redundancies for THAW Orkney

THAW Orkney, the charity that assists fuel poverty households in the county, is redesigning its activities to maximise the input it has on its growing number of clients.

The streamlining process will see the charity introduce a range of changes. These include leaving its premises on West Tankerness Lane, introducing a revised operational model (including staff working from home), a more defined support role with greater focus on streamlined energy support, and an improved triage system that will signpost clients to the most appropriate source of support. 

This will see revised roles for staff, with ties to specific funding streams eliminated wherever possible. The charity says this will allow staff to work far more flexibly across the entire range of clients.

THAW also intends to strengthen its partnership links with Orkney Islands Council, NHS Orkney, Local Development Trusts, Orkney CAB, the Foodbank and Orkney Charitable Trust to give a more rounded approach to providing what clients need and want.

THAW board member Gerry O’Brien, said: “We have listened to the feedback from our funders with regard to how we currently operate and anticipate that the restructure will allow us to attract additional funding into Orkney so that we are able to respond to the rising demand we have locally for support particularly with the increased price cap coming in October and the limited range of options available to householders across Orkney.

“The move to link up more closely with the Orkney CAB and others should speed up the triage process clients go through and allow more immediate access to benefit and debt advice. In supporting  agile working  we are responding to the nature of the employment market post pandemic by allowing our staff to work from home with support. It is the way they prefer to work and there are significant cost savings.”

The restructuring has meant that THAW has had to issue redundancy notices to certain staff. However, this is a process that the charity says it must go through to allow it to refocus staff time on the entire client base, rather than having staff tied to specific funding streams. 

THAW says that it is very confident that no staff member will actually have to leave unless they choose to do so. As it is working with a number of funders, THAW anticipates that over the late summer and into Autumn it will be in a position to recruit additional staff to provide essential energy support services across Orkney.

Clients are encouraged continue to liaise directly with their support worker and contact THAW in the usual way. The only noticeable difference to clients will be that there will no longer be premises in Kirkwall and that there will be reduced hours for interfacing with the public, which will be published on the charity’s website and via its telephone system. The telephone number remains unchanged: 01856 878388.