Temporary Accommodation Officer

Place and Economic Growth

Strategic Housing 

Ref: G5/OL-92357

Contract: Permanent

Salary: £29,269 - £32,076 per annum (Grade 5)

Hours: 36.66 per week

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

Closing Date: Monday 6th May 2024

Shortlisting & Interview Dates: TBC.

Job Description & Person Specification.doc

Role Overview:

To provide a customer centred service dedicated to supporting residents of the Council’s temporary accommodation. Working holistically, you will prioritise regular engagement with your clients to ensure successful move as outlined in agreed plans and processes.

By placing the customer at the centre of your work you will be expected to provide sound housing, debt and financial advice, to encourage successful and swift move on from temporary accommodation. This may include but not limited to, income collection, referrals to welfare service, advocacy and applications to debt and relief funds.

Key Requirements:

To provide housing and tenancy management services to homeless and vulnerable people ensuring high standards of service delivery focused to their needs and to ensure they can successfully sustain and manage their tenancies. 

To undertake housing, support and risk assessments of customers and to produce the appropriate support plans in conjunction with other agencies to meet a customer’s individual needs and which encourage and enable customers to recognise, accept and successfully develop skills for independent living. Keep appropriate customer and other records and produce reports as required.

To carry out personal financial health checks of customers to establish if they can sustain their temporary or permanent tenancies and provide debt and money management advice to customers to help support them with basic budgeting skills and identify areas for support or areas of financial risk for the individual and the business. To ensure the Council’s income collection procedures are followed to recover rents and charges from temporary accommodation customers.

To regularly undertake customer reviews using a range of contact methods in accordance with the Council’s health and safety processes and procedures.

To identify customers entitlement to housing and welfare benefits, tax credits and charitable grants in liaison with other Council colleagues and external agencies and to provide assistance to customers in making such applications.

To advise and assist customers in securing any suitable move on accommodation and access to other services that meets their needs. Including advice on tenancy matters and to obtain assistance for these such as is available to the customer due to their vulnerability

To submit relevant referrals on behalf of customers to statutory bodies and welfare services to support successful transition out of Temporary Accommodation

Advocate on behalf of customers, with their informed consent, with external agencies (including agencies and organisations dealing with tax, benefits and other financial matters) and at relevant meetings. This includes arranging meetings of relevant colleagues from partner agencies where this is appropriate and participating in multi-agency meetings as appropriate.

To follow the Council’s Temporary Accommodation Voids Process and liaise with relevant internal officers and contractors as appropriate.

To support and organise events either in collaboration with other agencies or teams to support the aims and work of the service. Contributing as appropriate to promotional and informational or advice materials whether printed or available electronically (including internet and intranet).

To help develop and deliver training to customers, colleagues and stakeholders, including supporting the development of peers by passing on skills and knowledge.

To issue agreements to new customers entering Temporary Accommodation and ensure compliance and where necessary take necessary enforcement action in line with processes and procedures.

Keep up to date with issues relevant to housing & support, welfare benefits, money and debt advice and other relevant legislation.

You will be expected to participate in the on-call and standby arrangements put in place by the Council as part of your normal duties, attendance at evening meetings and weekend working as and when required.

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

For details of how we use your data please see our Privacy Notice

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