Housing Solutions Officer (Homelessness Prevention)

In the event of exceptionally high levels of response, we reserve the right to close the post before the date stated to prevent the number of applications received being unmanageable. Therefore, you are advised to submit your completed application as soon as possible to have the best chance of being considered. Following the closing date, the Recruiting Manager will shortlist, and you will be notified.

Tamworth Borough Council is proud to be an Equal Opportunities Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

We operate two guaranteed interview schemes which support individuals who meet all the essential criteria to be guaranteed an interview for a vacancy. The Disability Committed Employer scheme supports applicants with a disability and the Veterans Guaranteed interview scheme supports those defined as veterans, military spouses/partners and cadet instructors.

This authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. DBS checks are required for relevant posts.

We are committed to ensuring that people are not disadvantaged in accessing our services. We will make reasonable adjustments for those people that need further assistance, depending on the individual's needs, further guidance can be found in our Reasonable Adjustments guidance Equality and diversity | Tamworth Borough Council.

We require a highly motivated individual to join our team in delivering high-quality services to those at risk of being homeless or those who are homeless.

The successful candidate will apply a proactive, problem-solving approach to the prevention of homelessness. You will be committed to partnership working and finding new solutions to housing problems. You will also have excellent communication and customer service skills.

You will have experience of working in a customer-focused role and should have the ability to interview customers, to assess whether homelessness can be prevented in any way in a sensitive, customer focused way, which meets the needs of vulnerable customers whilst simultaneously managing expectations.

The successful candidate should be competent in carrying a caseload of prevention cases/homeless applications. Candidates will need to be confident in carrying out often complex and extensive enquiries and then making s184 decisions under the Housing Act 1996 Part VII as amended by the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. You will possess the ability to organise your own workload effectively, work within agreed deadlines and prioritise urgent cases. You will be required to make legislative decisions and the homelessness team is a statutory service.

Your skill set will also require being able to use your own initiative in making enquiries and be innovative when carrying out investigations. As part of the need to prevent homelessness, an ability to have good negotiation skills is key to the role.

The successful candidate will be required to work as part of a team to ensure that service cover is maintained during normal office hours and the post holder will be required to provide out-of-hours homelessness cover on a pro-rata, rota basis.

Access to a vehicle and a full driving licence is also essential as you will be required to carry visits which is an essential requirement of this post., Public facing roles are covered by the Fluency Duty as outlined in section 78 of the Immigration Act 2016, to serve the public it is vital that those working in public facing roles can communicate in English with members of the public receiving local authority services.

Set in the beautiful county of Staffordshire, Tamworth is a vibrant town with rich heritage. Located in the centre of Britain, with a growing population of over 77,000 people, Tamworth is a borough with much to be proud of. Our transport links, unique shopping experience, developing town centre, green spaces, leisure offer, including our cultural and wide-ranging outdoor events programme, as well as our heritage buildings, all help make it a great place to live, work, study, and visit.

In addition to all that Tamworth already has to offer, exciting times are ahead as we embark on a period of significant transformation. Multi-million-pound projects, such as the Future High Street Fund development will help to bring about lasting change and improvements in the future. This will assist with our mission to restore Tamworth town centre as the beating heart of the community, a place that people want to visit, rather than a place they have to visit.

Working for Tamworth Borough Council is more than just a job, it's about making life better for the people who live and work in the Borough. We recognise that everybody who works at Tamworth Borough Council is key to successfully delivering its aims and objectives. We can't do this without skilled and ambitious workforce working in a positive environment empowered to do their best.

We have an extensive benefits package including flexible working, a non-contributory health scheme, Local Government pension scheme, generous holiday entitlement, discounted gym membership, and payment of professional fees (where applicable), for further details please refer to the application information document on our website.

Appointment will be subject to satisfactory references, right to work in the UK check, medical clearance and DBS check.