Senior Housing Solutions and Independence Officer

About us at Hounslow

We’d love you to join us at the London Borough of Hounslow! Our people are deeply committed to providing excellent services to our residents, doing all we can to make lives as good as they can be.

We are an outstanding council, serving an outstanding borough. With brilliant, visionary leadership, a dynamic Cabinet and a can-do culture, we’ve built strong partnerships which have transformed how we serve one of London’s most diverse boroughs. Hounslow is the world in one place and full of potential. We are stepping up for our residents like never before. 

About our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

We live by five core values: Lead with Heart, Do New, Pass on the Power, Harness the Mix and Be a Rock. All our work has equality, diversity and inclusion at its very heart, best articulated in “Harness the Mix”. It's about breaking down barriers between our parts and people and unlocking the problem-solving power of our amazing mix of minds. We serve a diverse community, we have a diverse workforce and we are committed to being an inclusive employer.

We work hard to create representation across our workforce and leadership community, we have thriving employee network groups and our learning and development programmes help us lead, model and breathe ways of working that eliminate inequality, inequity, injustice and bias. 

As part of this and under our commitments as a Disability Confident Employer, we make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. There’s space for you to tell us what you need within our application form. 

About The Role

We are looking for a motivated, creative and committed individual to join the team our Housing Advice Team. You should have a keen interest in helping families and individuals at risk of homelessness to find solutions and with a focus on remaining in their current home. You must have experience of having worked within a statutory homelessness prevention service. 

The successful candidate will have detailed knowledge and experience of working with the Housing Act 1996 and Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) and a proven track record of preventing homelessness, providing detailed housing advice to residents with housing issues and be able to empathise with the with clients facing the homelessness and understand the Council’s legal duties to those clients. 

In addition to the above, you must be able to demonstrate your experience of managing complex cases, providing support to more junior staff, working within a busy environment and work to tight deadlines.

Your ability to communicate clearly and effectively to a wide variety of people and to be able to communicate clear concise advice both in written and verbally is crucial.

About The Team You’ll Be Working In

This is an exciting and busy role that is at the centre of the Councils response to homelessness. The service is aims to developing and progressing our agenda to reduce assess, identify housing needs and look for solutions to prevent homelessness.

•      You will prevent homelessness by providing housing advice and assistance to people facing homelessness and carrying out homelessness prevention work.

•      You will provide customers with housing prevention advice supporting them to sustain their current accommodation or support them to secure alternative accommodation through the provision of personal housing plans.

•      You will be able to issue good quality notification letters such as 184 decisions in line with the council’s duty Housing Act 1997 and the HRA 2017 and in a timely manner.

•      You will work jointly with other services and partners to prevent homelessness and lead, attend and manage multi professional meetings when appropriate.

•      You will enable the delivery of a more efficient and effective homeless prevention and assessment service and assist in the development of policies and procedures.

About You

•      You will have knowledge of the legislative frameworks and statutory requirements relating to the Housing Solutions Service and knowledge of relevant legislation especially the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, Part VII of the Housing Act 1996 and the Homelessness code of Guidance.

•      You will have a good understanding of the Safeguarding in relation our vulnerable residents and the how to with external and internal partners to support them.

•      You will demonstrate an understanding of current issues affecting social housing and private housing provision, and of range of housing options and homelessness prevention approaches.

•      You will have experience of managing a varied caseload effectively ensuring that your cases are up to date.

•      You will have written and verbal communication skills, with ability to provide negotiation and the ability to work collaboratively with other services and partners.

If the points below resonate with you, we’d love you to put in an application:

•      Are you passionate about customer services?

•      Are you an experienced homelessness professional?

•      Are you looking to working in a forward thinking and progressive housing department?

Qualifications:

•      You have relevant work-based experience and engage in continuous professional development.

•      You can travel independently around the Borough to carry out home visits and meet other professionals in community settings.

Essential for The Role:

•      Basic DBS check is required.

To read more about what we are doing and what a great time it is to join us, and be part of a bold plan to provide good quality homes, please visit https://hounslowhousingjobs.pennacloud.com

Closing date: 10 March 2025.