Homelessness Prevention Officer

Place and Economic Growth

Strategic Housing

Ref: G6/OL-89447

Contract: Permanent

Salary: £32,076 - £35,745 per annum (Grade 6)

Hours: 36.66 per week

Based: The Office is based at Civic Centre, West Street, Oldham, OL1 1UT

Closing Date: Sunday 25th February 2024

Shortlisting & Interview Dates: TBC.

Job Description & Person Specification.doc

Role Overview:

This role will 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.

The successful postholder will 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 Requirements:

• 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.
• To 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.
• To 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.

Oldham Council 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.

If you would like support with this application, an interview or interested in looking at any courses that could help with this position please get in touch with Get Oldham Working - Get Oldham Working registration form - Oldham Council

NB. - Any candidate that meets the criteria of our Guaranteed Assessment Scheme and meets the essential criteria of the role, will be guaranteed the first stage of assessment (whether that is an interview or another assessment, as appropriate).

Our Guaranteed Assessment Scheme supports candidates with disabilities, carers, those who are aged 24 or under and have previously been in or currently in care, and those whose last long term substantive employer was the Armed Forces.

Diversity and Inclusion:

At Oldham Council, we are committed to creating a fair and inclusive workplace that is as diverse as the communities we serve. We aim to develop a culture of respect, where differences are recognised regardless of background. We aim to be an employer of choice by engaging in fair and open recruitment processes and Applications are encouraged from all communities across the borough to create a workforce that represents the diversity of our population.

About Us:

Oldham is committed to developing a Co-operative future; one where citizens, partners and staff work together to improve the borough. Anyone joining the council is coming into an ambitious organisation with big plans. We are working hard to build a brighter future for our borough and we need people from a wide range of backgrounds to continue delivering the best for our communities.

The Council has a clear set of Values and Behaviours, our Values outline how we do business and we share these borough wide with our residents, partners and businesses. Internally we have translated these values into five cooperative behaviours which outline the priority areas of focus for all staff at all levels. You can view the Values and Behaviours on our Greater. Jobs pages Working for Oldham

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Please note that should a vacancy that has been released for internal or external recruitment be deemed suitable for an at risk employee, it can be pulled back at any point up to the post being formally offered to an external candidate or an internal candidate that is not at risk of redundancy.

Right to Work in the UK from 1st July 2021.doc

£32,076

permanent

full time