Senior Housing Options Officer (Prevention & Relief)

The Role:

An exciting opportunity has become available within the Housing Options Team. The Housing Service is looking to recruit an enthusiastic and resilient professional to join our Housing Options Team.

The role of a Senior Housing Options Officer (Prevention & Relief) involves you providing customers with housing advice with a strong focus on preventing homelessness and seeing customers through all stages of the process including personalised housing plans and a decision on their homeless application. 

You will also be responsible for supporting the Council to carry our homelessness duties under the Housing Act 1996, as amended. You will be responsible for line management of 6 Housing Options Officer whilst maintaining a small caseload of clients

You will have oversight of use of temporary accommodation, of all homeless cases and assist officers with points of legislation when required. In this fast-paced service area, you will need to be creative, adaptable, and hardworking in order to prevent homelessness and provide excellent case management services to our customers.

Some of the key responsibilities include:

• Providing line management responsibility to housing options officers.

• Conducting case reviews and case audits to ensure homeless cases are compliant with the legislation.

• Completing assessments with customers who are homeless or threatened with homelessness.

• Making decisions in line with homelessness legislation and communicating to applicants in writing.

• Working on a rota basis to cover front line homelessness functions.

About you

We are looking for an exceptional individual to provide support, advice, and interventions to help prevent people from becoming homeless and support them when they do. We would welcome applications from candidates with a variety of experience in housing advice, homelessness, supported housing, allocations and/or private sector housing

The successful candidate will be customer focused, be organised, and have a thorough understanding of homeless legislation. You will also fully understand the difficulties faced by people facing homelessness and have a proactive attitude tor evolving difficult situations. You will be a team player but confident to work independently and have a flexible attitude to working under pressure. We are looking for an individual with a positive outlook and a desire to deliver a quality service to the community we serve.

This is a challenging role, and the successful applicant will need to show a drive and commitment to preventing homelessness and demonstrate:

• excellent communication and negotiation skills enabling you to deal with complex clients, often in emotional and stressful situations,

• that you are self-motivated and proactive,

• that you have previous experience of working with multiple stakeholders from the public and private sector.

A Basic DBS check will be carried out for this post.

What can we offer you?

• A stimulating and supportive work environment

• Flexible working arrangements, including flexi-time

• 26-29 days annual leave rising to 34 days with 5 years' local government service

• Employee well-being programme

How to apply

Please click on the apply link above.

For an informal discussion regarding the role, please contact Christine Nelson -Homeless Services Manager, on 01279 655261.

Closing date: Sunday 02nd February 2025 at 12am.

We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer, valuing diversity and maintaining a firm commitment to providing equal employment opportunities for all employees and applicants. We believe that creating inclusive environments leads to stronger collaboration and better outcomes in our work.