Homeless Housing Coordinator

Purpose of the Role:

The Families & Singles Service was established to help applicants who are threatened with homelessness or homeless to sustain their present accommodation or move into suitable private rented accommodation. The Families & Singles Service will also work collaboratively with partners to improve resilience and housing sustainment, under Enfields Early Help strategy.

The Homeless Families & Singles team will provide expert advice, work closely and collaboratively with partners to prevent, or delay homelessness wherever possible, to stop people ending up in our temporary accommodation or on the streets.

The Homeless Housing Coordinator will sit within either Families or Singles Team, working closely within the courts, solicitors, and Enfields legal department to prevent homelessness.

You must have expert knowledge of welfare, homelessness reduction act, housing and homelessness policy and case law, legislation and practice, Courts, possession orders & evictions as well as specialist knowledge on homelessness decision making. You should also have knowledge of safeguarding vulnerable adults and children.

The main responsibilities of the Homeless Housing Coordinator will include:

• To provide excellent customer service to homeless applicants and key partners.

• To provide specialist homelessness casework to households, ensuring that all aspects of casework are carried out in accordance with legislation, strategies, policies and initiatives set out at the national, regional and local level through effective and regular case work supervision, advice, guidance and support.

• Skilled use of all available homelessness prevention tools and collaborate with internal and external partners to improve outcomes for threatened with homeless/homeless applicants.

• Contribute to embedding safeguarding best practice across the wider Housing Advisory Service.

• Contribute to the overall service goal to reduce the number of households living in temporary accommodation by assisting them in challenging landlords & court possession orders.

• Contribute to the development of the Homeless Families & Singles Team and wider Housing Advisory Service

These may be varied from time to time to meet the changing business needs and priorities of us.

Accountabilities

1. To ensure our duties under the Homelessness Reduction Act are met, delivering a proactive person centred, outcome focused and end to end case management approach.
2. To undertake comprehensive assessments that lead to focused and co-produced Personal Housing Plans (PHP) for each applicant.
3. To assess applicants under the prevention and relief duties, issue S.184 final decision letters, ensuring effective communication and management of expectations with customers.
4. As appropriate, undertake the assessment and completion of high-quality risk management plans for applicants utilising information from a range of stakeholders and the applicant themselves.
5. To minimise risk by identifying, reporting and following up any safeguarding concerns.
6. Possess and maintain an ongoing in-depth knowledge of relevant welfare and housing legislation and the Councils statutory housing duties, policies and procedures.
7. Provide advice and guidance to applicants by responding effectively and efficiently to enquiries maintaining the highest standards of professionalism and customer care.
8. Create and maintain accurate, GDPR compliant client records and notes of all casework activities and decisions through both manual and IT recording systems.
9. Coordinate the provision of services and support for applicants in line with the PHP, liaising with other teams and both internal and external services.
10. Attend various multi-agency meetings as required such as discharge planning meetings and MAPPA (multi-agency public protection arrangement) meetings.
11. To work closely with the council solicitors in determining course of action in defence of processes , procedures and specifically in relation to decisions subject to challenge.
12. To have detailed knowledge and experience of attending court and presenting cases in defence or challenge of decisions reached by the council

Equality and Diversity:

The Council has a strong commitment to achieving equality in its service to the community and the employment of people and expects all employees to understand, comply with and promote its policies in their own work.

Health and Safety:

The post holder shall ensure that the duties of the post are undertaken with due regard to the Councils Health and Safety Policy and to their personal responsibilities under the provisions of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and all other relevant subordinate legislation.

For a more detailed definition of these responsibilities, refer to the current versions of the Corporate Health & Safety Policy, Group Safety Policy and employee information leaflet entitled "Health & Safety Policy; Guidance on Staff Health & Safety Responsibilities".

Corporate Health and Safety Responsibilities

All employees have personal responsibilities to take reasonable care for the health and safety of themselves and others. This means:

1. Understanding the hazards in the work they undertake;

2. Following safety rules and procedures;

3. Using work equipment, personal protective equipment, substances, and safety devices correctly; and

4. Working in accordance with the training provided and only undertaking tasks where appropriate training has been received.

Employees shall co-operate with the Council by allowing it to comply with its duties towards them. This requires employees to:

• take part in safety training and risk assessments and suggest ways of reducing risks; and
• take part in emergency evacuation exercises.

Employees shall report all accidents, near miss incidents and work-related ill health conditions to their manager/supervisor/team leader.

Employees shall read the Corporate Health & Safety Organisation Part B Policy to ascertain and understand their responsibilities as an employee, line manager, Assistant Director or Director of the Council.

Information Security:

To protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of Council information, including information provided by customers, partner organisations, and other third parties, where applicable, employees will comply with the Councils Information Security Policy.

Job Specifics Experience, Skills, Knowledge & Abilities

Essential experience, skills and knowledge:

1. Significant experience of providing specialist homelessness casework to homeless applicants that may have complex needs
2. Significant experience of working collaboratively to improve outcomes for homeless that may have complex needs
3. Ability and experience to consistently deliver high levels of customer service to homeless applicants that may have complex needs
4. Ability and experience of ensuring all aspects of casework is carried out in accordance with legislation, strategies policies and initiatives set out at the national, regional and local level
5. Detailed knowledge and experience of attending court and presenting cases in defence or challenge of decisions reached by the council
6. Ability and experience of consistently achieving performance objectives in the provision of specialist homelessness casework
7. Ability to contribute to the identification, dissemination and embedding of existing and emerging best practice within the team, and across the wider Housing Advisory Service
8. Ability to effectively communicate with a range of stakeholders, including applicants, members, partners, and so on
9. Significant knowledge of welfare, homelessness and housing policy, strategies, legislation, and case law, and its implementation within a statutory homelessness service
10. Significant knowledge of safeguarding best practice, including policy, strategies, legislation, and case law, and its implementation within a statutory homelessness service

Competencies:

Candidates: Please ensure you address these competencies in your responses to the essential (and desirable if applicable) criteria above.

1. Customer focus

2. Deliver service performance

3. Focus on continuous improvement

4. Political awareness and context

Qualifications & Professional registration criteria

Candidates: Please ensure you address these qualifications in your responses to the essential (and desirable if applicable) criteria, you will be expected to meet these requirements of the role and they will be explored with you at interview.

High level of education or equivalent demonstratable experience

Evidence of Continuous Professional Development