Housing Customer Relations Officer - Castle Point District Council

This newly created opportunity will focus on handling incoming complaints and queries from stakeholders. You will be responsible for administering the principles of the Councils complaints process and working with the Housing Development and Finance Manager to review and adapt the procedures to ensure they remain effective for dealing with complaints and enquiries. Hybrid working options are available for this post. Accountabilities

• To support the Housing Service in the ongoing review of complaints and enquiries, ensuring that procedures and protocols are in place for the successful handling of these where these involve other statutory agencies, contracted-out services and external organisations.
• To maintain, review and update where necessary all information for the public and for internal staff on the separate procedures for complaints, including hard copy leaflets, web pages, template letters and surveys.
• To act as the first point of contact for members of the public who wish to make a complaint.
• To manage the caseload, working with colleagues to ensure that responses are provided in line with statutory and corporate timescales
• To provide advice and support to Councillors, Directors, Assistant Directors, senior officers, and service managers on individual complaints and complainants
• To log new stakeholder interactions and to record, monitor and report on progress and compliance with statutory and corporate procedures as required.
• To undertake surveys and support in the provision of regular communication and engagement with stakeholders.
• To identify cases of possible safeguarding concern and where necessary to ensure appropriate referrals or alerts are made.
• To identify cases of potential data protection concerns from data subjects exercising their rights (reporting data breaches, or information requests FOI / SAR etc) and work closely to resolve such matters with the Information Governance Team.
• To undertake all duties and interactions with employees, partner providers and customer fairly, without unlawful discrimination and with due regard to Equality and Diversity in Employment and Service Delivery Policies.
• Responsible for complaints' process reviews, drafting associated reports, communications materials and implementation.
• Responsible for complex and sensitive cases and those cutting across external provider organisations ensuring all relevant parties are appropriately involved.
  
  To be successful in this post you must have excellent communication skills, be able to manage and prioritise a busy workload and possess a positive attitude towards your work. It is also important that you can use your judgement and common sense and be a confident decision maker using information and statistics to arrive at the right decision. With a focus on customer service you will also possess an empathetic style and be able to communicate effectively at all levels.
  
  Why Castle Point? Castle Point Borough Council is a statutory body responsible for employing nearly 350 staff, and delivering over 150 council services, both statutory and for the community's well-being and benefit. Castle Point Borough Council aims to provide high-quality and financially sustainable services while prioritising outstanding customer service, transparency in decision-making, and promoting local democracy. Additionally, the council seeks to transform, modernize, and improve its performance, as well as support and enable the communities within its jurisdiction to be strong, healthy, and thriving.