Senior Accommodation Officer

Role Responsibility

An excellent opportunity has arisen for a resolute and passionate individual to join the Accommodation Team within KCC 18+ Care Leavers Service as Senior Accommodation Officer (SAO). This post will be based in Thistley Hill, Dover and will have the primary focus of supporting Host families who offer a home and support for a number of young people transitioning from residential care to semi-independent living in a family environment, potentially including both citizen and former UASC individuals.

About the role:

• Manage a caseload of Kent Supported Homes Hosts to meet service users assessed eligible needs.
• Develop and maintain an extensive knowledge of available resources to support providers in meeting the needs of the service users.
• Support integrated working with Social Workers, Personal Advisers and a range of providers to identify the required outcomes of each placement that the host must meet.
• Deliver training to Hosts where needs be to ensure they have sufficient skills required for effective support.
• Provide challenge to hosts where compliance is not met, and ensure standards are upheld.
• Respond to emergency planning issues and ensure continuity arrangements are effective.
• Work closely with hosts to monitor, review and improve service delivery and ensure quality and outcome improvements are made in line with The Supported Accommodation Regulations 2023.
• Support the Personal Adviser or Social Worker for each service user to ensure the correct Housing Related support is accessed, including financial (e.g. benefits) and other (e.g. independence resources / floating support etc).
• Chair Stability Meetings.
• Travel countywide and out of county, when required.
• Remain flexible to service and service user needs across all areas of service delivery.
• Present as a positive and supportive representative of KCC in internal and external information sessions.
• Record and track outcomes and progress through the Step Across to Kent Supported Homes scheme, ensuring strong data capture and feedback to management as required.
• Working alongside all other Accommodation Team colleagues to ensure strong transitional pathways between forms of accommodation for supported young people.
• Supervision of Accommodation Officers/Assessment Officers within the KSH team.

About you:

• Knowledge of relevant legislation in the care and support of children and young people including the Supported Accommodation Regulations 2023
• Experienced in delivery of sensitive information and challenging problematic behaviours.
• Keen to provide excellent support to those who directly support vulnerable children and young people.
• Take a firm and supportive trauma-informed approach which focus on amplifying the young person’s voice and ensuring that this is heard within the context of their support.
• Robust and comprehensive planning approaches, with regular review and maintaining a focus on positive outcomes for the young person in their move towards independence.
• Innovative thinking and keen ability to adapt to new challenges and use learning to improve systems for support and recording.

To find more information about our service and our Local Offer, you can access Moving On (lea.kent.sch.uk) This Service was rated as “Outstanding” at its last Ofsted inspection and is continually looking at ways to improve further.

This role is subject to holding a Full UK Driving Licence – The Council is committed to making reasonable adjustments so whilst this job requires the jobholder to drive your application will still be considered if you are unable to drive due to a disability.

This post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure Application to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

This post is considered by KCC to be a customer-facing position. The Council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English/Welsh sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification.

Our Offer:

• 29 days annual leave (plus bank holidays increasing after 5 years’ service
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Flexible working that supports your work life balance, working both from home and the office.
• Access to Kent Rewards, offering local and national discounts and other employee benefits.
• On the job training and regular supervision with your line manager.