Homelessness Prevention Officer

Homelessness Prevention Officer

Job introduction

Homeless Prevention Officers are at the forefront in helping people to sustain their current accommodation or to find an alterative home for themselves and members of their households. We are looking for applicants who are able to work with a range of people including applicants, landlords or family members to find a solution to the housing problem in a sustainable way.

Interviews W/C 22nd May

For an informal discussion, please contact James Crane - Service Improvement Manager on 01273 293316.

About the role

With the fifth anniversary of the Homelessness Reduction Act, we are looking for a Homelessness Prevention Officer to join a busy front line service looking to sustain people's current accommodation or to find an alternative home in a managed way.

We are looking for people who are good at working with a range of people who are facing homelessness. You will need to have interview skills, sometimes dealing with very distressed applicants who are in danger of losing their homes. You will require good communication skills and be able to produce Personal Housing Plans that are understood by the applicants and give them a clear pathway out of homelessness.

In addition you will require good administrative skills to carry out a housing and support needs assessment and to input the information into the applicant electronic file.

This is a customer facing role that requires face to face contact in the office with applicant with flexibility for some working from home once the successful applicant has demonstrated that they are able to carry out all of the required functions of the role.

Please read our Apply for a job at the council (brighton-hove.gov.uk) pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.

As part of your application, you will need to complete your education and work history and upload a supporting statement. Your supporting statement is the most important part of your application as it will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our guidance here (Supporting statement guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

Additional information

Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

Work Permits: We may be able to obtain a Work Permit for this post but this is subject to meeting the requirements of the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) Points-based Immigration System. Please see Gov.uk for more information on the Skilled Worker Visa.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining.

Working arrangements are subject to Government guidance at the time. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.

For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us (brighton-hove.gov.uk)

Company information

Encouraging a diverse workforce

Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.

Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Please note that this post is subject to a Basic Disclosure Criminal Records Check.