Housing Options Officer - Housing Support
What's involved with this role:
Temporary Housing Options Officer - Housing Support
Reference no: Bournemouth 5257183Pay Rate: £16.63 per hour PAYE
Hours per week: 37 Monday – Friday, normal working hours
Role Length: This opening assignment is for 3 months
City: Bournemouth, Dorset
This is a fully remote position; however, the candidate must attend the office on day one for induction.
To critically analyse, assess and implement the Council’s housing duty to all those presenting as homeless or threatened with homelessness, in accordance with statute and guidance; 1996 Housing Act (as amended 2002 Homelessness Act) Council policy and working procedures.
As a member of a large team, provide a frontline excellent customer service through comprehensive homelessness prevention advice and housing options advice. Carry out wide ranging complex and sensitive interviews with vulnerable households, applying technical knowledge so as to identify the most appropriate response to the housing needs of the individual households.To record accurate reports of casework for use at court.
Key Responsibilities:
Provide specialist advice on a range of complex housing options and homeless prevention initiatives, e.g. staying safely at home, signposting to money advice services, private rented accommodation, low-cost home-ownership, Housing Association and Council accommodation, including making statutory decisions, pursuant to the Council’s statutory duty under Parts VI and VII of the 1996 Housing Act and the Homelessness Act 2002.
Work in a multi-disciplinary team and have in-depth knowledge, recognise the needs and be able to respond accordingly and in line with the council’s statutory responsibilities to those with complex problems; including child protection, domestic abuse, adult safeguarding, mental health, substance misuse, learning difficulties, disabilities and other medical / social issues.
Carry out detailed legal assessments of applications for the housing register and make legal decisions on all aspects of the application including verification, eligibility, housing need, support and recommendations for the loan or spend of the council’s housing budget.Determine the social care and wellbeing support needs of households in housing need and refer to specialist providers where appropriate.
Participate in Housing Advice Rota, providing excellent customer service in respect of a range of complex and contentious housing enquiries, liaising with other service units and agencies where necessary.Lead case conferences for households with complex problems and liaise with other statutory and voluntary agencies as appropriate.
Act as housing lead in responses to serious domestic abuse (MARAC), child protection, adult safeguarding etc. where clients have identified housing needs.
Develop strong relationships with the private sector, supported housing providers and social housing landlords with a view to increasing the supply of accommodation available to the Council in the discharge of its homeless duties. To promote multi-agency initiatives in the prevention of homelessness
Maintain continuous professional development and up to date knowledge of related legislation, such as landlord and tenant, family, welfare benefits, child and adult safeguarding, immigration and persons from abroad to determine their respective eligibility for housing and housing related support and understanding the implications of not doing so.
Prevent homelessness wherever possible by negotiation and visiting personal callers in their homes, their families, landlords, solicitors, financial institutions and other housing providers.Assess and determine applications for rent deposit, arrears and homelessness prevention loans and grants for clients who have found alternative housing or need financial assistance to enable them to sustain their current home.
Manage a portfolio of cases in which the Council has accepted an interim duty under the Housing Act 1996, Homelessness Act 2002 and Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and to be responsible for conducting detailed and extensive enquiries and assessments, with due regard to the sensitivity and complexity of issues under consideration.
This will include conducting detailed interviews with both the applicant and relevant third parties.
Report issues relating to child protection, adult safeguarding and domestic abuse to the appropriate agency and maintain an active involvement in ensuring their housing needs are met.Ensure that individual applicants are kept fully appraised of progress with enquiries into their application, of the duties upon them in making their application and of information required of them to assist the Council in resolving their application, whilst keeping detailed case records.
To take particular care in fulfilling this function where the applicant is disadvantaged through medical or mental health problems, illiteracy, being reliant on interpreting/translation services or for other reasons.
Arrange and assess the suitability of accommodation that may be offered to applicants under Part VII and/or Part VI Housing Act 1996, Homelessness Act 2002 and Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.Provide affidavit evidence in cases of County Court Appeal and/or Judicial Review, to attend Court as an expert witness, presenting cases where the Council is seeking possession of accommodation provided under Housing Act 1996, Homelessness Act 2002, Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and/or where the Council is bringing a prosecution for fraud.
Qualifications:
Level 4 diploma or the equivalent experience.CIH Level 4 Certificate in Housing or equivalent – desirable.
Experience:
Significant experience of providing excellent customer service and specialist, professional advice to people with housing problems.Part 7 housing options experience and assessing homeless applications under homelessness reduction act essential.
Experience of working for a range of different vulnerable clients (e.g. victims of domestic abuse, mental health, offenders, substance misuse, young people, learning or other disabilities).
Experience of managing a caseload and developing housing options plans.
Experience of team working and multi-agency working
Experience of assessing and determining a wide range of housing and social care, welfare and support needs and entitlements – desirable.Experience of advising those in debt or with rent / mortgage arrears and signposting to appropriate services – desirable.
Knowledge:
Working knowledge of Housing / Homelessness legislation, case law & associated code of guidance.
Understanding of a range of housing options and homelessness Prevention techniquesTo understand the needs of homeless households and the causes of homelessness.
Skills & Abilities:
Ability to understand and impart information and legislation though face to face interviews and in writingEffective interpersonal and negotiation skills.
Ability to deliver training / workshops to other professionals and clients - desirable
Be able to deal with conflict and challenging behaviour and have strategies to deal with this
Balance of empathy, tact and diplomacy in accordance with the needs of the individual
To be able to problem solve and make decisions using professional judgement
Creative approach to resolve complex problems
Able to organise a diverse workload without close supervision and manage competing demands
Ability to interpret financial information, draw up financial statements and conduct financial health checks - desirable
Ability to recognize issues relating to adult safeguarding, child protection and domestic abuse Ability to effectively use casework management systemsComputer literate & experience of Outlook, Word & Excel.
Please quote the Job Title & Vacancy Reference No. in your application, or we will be unable to match your CV to the role being applied for.
Unless the DBS requirement stated above is for a Basic Disclosure, your DBS must be either through us or be accompanied by a subscription to the DBS updating service.
Clients are generally looking for candidates who are local to, or who can commute easily to the place of work. It will help your application if your CV states, in broad terms, where you reside – there is no need for a full address.
Please feel free to apply to us direct via jobs@tclrec.com by quoting the job reference and exact job title.
To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would ask that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, not as a PDF.
If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension, you will be working at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than umbrella pay terms.We do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity.
Due to the number of CVs being sent to us under current market conditions, unfortunately we cannot respond to all applications. If you have not heard from us within 3 working days, please assume that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion.We will, however, be very happy to receive future applications from you for other roles.
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Job Ref: Bournemouth 5257183
Anticipated Length of Assignment: Unless otherwise stated (we do carry the occasional permanent vacancy) all of our roles are technically temporary, though opening assignments can be and often are, extended by clients on a longer term basis and can sometimes become permanent.
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