- Pay Rate:
£19.73 per hour PAYE
- Hours per Week:
36 Monday – Friday, normal working hours
This opening assignment is for 3 months
- New Addington, London,
CR0 0DN
Temporary Homelessness Prevention Officer – Housing
Reference no: Croydon 7440-1
Pay Rate: £19.73 per hour PAYE
36 Monday – Friday, normal working hours
This opening assignment is for 3 months
City: New Addington, London
Enhanced DBS disclosure is listed as a requirement for this role
The purpose of the role is to deliver high quality, customer focused advice and support to people in Oldham who find themselves homeless or at risk of homelessness. This will include providing housing advice to people in the district and completing investigations into applications from customers who are at risk of homelessness as defined by the statutory duties under Housing Act 1996 Part VII, the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and relevant case law.
To provide support to the Council in delivering its statutory homelessness duties by taking homeless applications in an effective manner and ensuring the council is legally compliant, providing an out of hours service and meeting performance targets and standards.
Key Responsibilities:
- To provide a professional and effective housing options interview and homelessness investigation, taking a full application from customers and ensuring duties are carried out at the relevant stages within homelessness legislation.
- Assess customer’s needs accurately in accordance with the Care Act 2014, the Children Act 1989 and all relevant housing legislation.
- Undertake detailed casework with customers who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. This includes an assessment of legal duties owed, housing and support needs, the production of Personal Housing Plans and consideration of all suitable interventions and potential solutions to prevent homelessness.
- Visit customers who are potentially homeless and their excluders in order to assess and validate their current circumstances, as well as advising on options available to remain in existing accommodation.
- Organise specialist, help and make referrals on behalf of customers to support them with specific problems e.g. substance misuse, mental health, debt management, benefits and council tax.
- Write and issue all required notifications, letters of referral to other authorities where the customer’s local connection lies elsewhere and outcome letters to advise the customer of the outcome of their initial interview. This includes ‘minded to letters’ and the drafting of the statutory s184 notification letters which must be approved by a manager before being sent.
- Respond to incoming enquires by whatever means they are received and to provide timely responses where required.
- Work with colleagues who provide the Temporary Accommodation Services in placing housing in line with policy and existing processes. To update housing records and issue customers with correct notification at the time of placing and where their placement is ended.
- Provide the Council’s Out of Hours Emergency Housing Service and Cold Weather Provision on a rota basis with other colleagues. Provide advice or practical assistance, including placing customers where it is established that they are roofless.
- Ensure that comprehensive, timely and accurate records are kept for all customers. To maintain computer records, reports and other monitoring information as required in connection with the duties undertaken.
NB: Please feel free to apply to us direct via job[email protected] by quoting the job reference and job title exactly.
To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would suggest that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, rather than 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 this role at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than entertaining 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.
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.
Other “Essential Requirements” – Please check to ensure that your CV addresses the following items:
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.
Qualifications:
- Good standard of education, including minimum 5 GCSEs at A*-C grade.
Skills & Experience:
- Minimum of 12 months recent experience in a similar role, or context and ideally within a public sector organisation.
- Must have knowledge/experience of assessing homelessness applications.
- Experience of and able to demonstrate the ability to motivate individuals.
- Extensive experience of liaising with a variety of agencies.
- Experience of using computerised systems for case management purposes, letter writing & record keeping.
- Experience of working with homeless people including those with varying support needs providing advice, assistance and support.
- Ability to communicate, negotiate and persuade effectively with colleagues, managers, external agencies and service users.
- Ability to provide a sensitive and responsive service to single homeless people.
- Strong IT skills including Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite).
Knowledge:
- Knowledge and understanding of the complex issues contributing to homelessness and the impact on the lives.
- Knowledge of the law governing homelessness and an understanding of the current issues in housing.
- Knowledge of the range of available accommodation options and specialist services available to single homeless people.
- Knowledge of the benefits and support available to people being rehoused.
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