Homelessness Officer

Description:

Role: Homelessness Officer

Location: WF1 1DF (OFFICE BASED)

Rate: £18.03 PER HOUR (APPROX £34,700.00 per annum) Umbrella

Role Purpose-

To undertake homeless assessment casework and associated functions to enable the Council to meet its statutory responsibilities

Key Responsibilities-

To work as part of a duty team to ensure that all homeless people and potentially homeless people have had their circumstances fully assessed.

To explain to service users the process of making a homeless application, the reasons why detailed enquiries will be undertaken and possible outcomes and implications of such an assessment. To inform service users on how an outcome affects the way we can help them. This will involve managing difficult and challenging situations in a professional and safe way.

To inform and explain to service users where appropriate to do so, any rights of occupancy that they have and how their decisions relating to occupying/giving up such accommodation may affect their current and future homeless applications.

To interview homeless applicants and gather relevant information regarding their homelessness and to obtain permission from the applicant to make enquiries with third parties where it is necessary to do so.

To make relevant third party enquiries and obtain information to help establish eligibility, homelessness, priority need, intentionality and local connection. This could involve a variety of enquiries to private individuals, landlords, lenders, statutory and voluntary organisations.

To complete assessment forms accurately and legibly and update case notes to a standard which are capable of being be used in homeless decision making and potentially court challenge.

To provide service users with a full appraisal of their situation and to encourage them to consider all options available to them to obtain new accommodation or prevent losing their existing accommodation.

To prevent or delay homelessness by negotiating with existing and potential housing providers to allow the applicant to return to or move to accommodation.

To manage a case load of homeless applications, ensuring that appropriate work is undertaken, recorded and passed to a manager for a case review or to undertake a decision within the timescales set.

To set up cases on the in-house case management system and update the systems in an accurate and timely manner.

To respond to applicants queries and keep service users up to date regarding the progress of their application.

 To advise and explain to the applicant the outcome of decisions made and how this affects how we can help them. This may involve managing difficult and challenging situations in a professional and safe way.

To signpost service users to other statutory, non-statutory and voluntary agencies that could offer assistance.

To recognise and highlight any concerns about service users to your manager or appropriate person in respect of safeguarding, fraud and risk and where risk identified undertake risk assessments of service users, managing risk in accordance with policies and procedures and sharing information relating to risk with colleagues as appropriate.

Responsible for undertaking dynamic risk assessments of service users, managing risk safely in accordance with risk management plans, policies and procedures and sharing information relating to risk with colleagues as appropriate.

Promote a housing options approach, working with service users to educate them about all options and the pros and cons of each, empowering them to make their own informed decisions about their future housing.

To signpost service users to other statutory, non-statutory and voluntary agencies that could offer assistance.
We offer:

24 hour one on one specialist consultant based within your geographical area
4Recruitment Services Employee Benefits Programme
Our own dedicated payroll support ensuring you get the full benefits of your payment
Recruitment is done in line with safe recruitment practices. 4Recruitment Services is an equal opportunities employer.

To discuss this vacancy or other vacancies in your area please contact Casey Adams on (phone number removed) or via email (url removed)