Homelessness Prevention and Solutions Officer

The role

Job Title: Homelessness Prevention and Solutions Officer

Salary Range: £34,428 - £40,503

7 Permanent and 2 Fixed Term for 2 years

7 full time, one part time (two days - 17 hours)

Location: Housing Customer Services Centre, 90 Putney Bridge Road, SW18 1HR.

Other essential information: The part time post is a permanent post.

Objective of role  

We are an inner London borough providing a very busy statutory homelessness advice service who are looking to recruit 9 Prevention and Solution Officers to work with us.  In this role you will work with all types of people who approach us as homeless or are about to be.  They may have become street homeless, or perhaps an individual has been asked to leave home. Maybe someone is being evicted from their tenancy and cannot remain there any longer. Or you may find that a family must leave their home due to violence. In this role you will work proactively with individuals and families to help support them in their homelessness journey and adhere to legislative guidance as well as policy and procedures set out for you to conduct your role effectively.

Within the Prevention and Solutions Service, you will provide tailored advice and information to customers and provide interim accommodation where required. You will work within a hybrid model keeping a focus on the needs of our customers and supporting your work life balance.   In addition to this, you will also provide an holistic approach and make the relevant referrals for clients who have complex needs that are not always immediately apparent. Your contribution and support will help those clients to stay in their current home or find a new home by delivery of key prevention techniques and options whilst managing expectations. You will enjoy partnership working, collaboration and have a keen motivation to meet objectives and importance of working towards targets.

About the role

In this role, you will need to do the following;

• Prevent and alleviate homelessness by providing housing advice and options to those who present as homeless.
• Conduct and review homelessness needs assessments and complete personalised housing plans to help empower individuals to sustain and secure accommodation.
• work collaboratively with various stakeholders and manage expectations.
• Demonstrate an excellent customer centred approach and participate in Duty rotas.
• Be able to issue out statutory homelessness decision letters aligned with Homelessness legislation in a timely manner.
• Ability to take on a caseload and manage this effectively.
• Utilise IT systems to accurately update and record information.

Essential Qualifications, Skills and Experience

• Be aware of the reasons for why people become homeless and have a good working knowledge of a range of housing prevention techniques and options to try to alleviate homelessness.
• Have an ability to interpret and explain complex legislation and guidance.
• Be able to work in a busy fast paced environment.
• Possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• have strong organisational and record keeping skills.
• have a vast experience of working with complex customers and an understanding of their needs.
• be resilient and possess the ability to work as part of a team as well as individually.

Indicative Recruitment Timeline:

Closing Date:  Sunday 21^st July 2024

Shortlisting Date: Week commencing Monday 22^nd July 2024

Interview Date: Week commencing Monday 29^th July 2024

Useful Information:

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions to the Councils and can improve the way we deliver services. We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer, if you require any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment and selection process, please let us know. We are also committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.  We offer a wide range of benefits designed to attract, develop, and reward our employees such as 40 days annual leave (including Bank Holidays), flexible working and a generous pension plan. For more details, please click here