20 Oct
London Borough Of Waltham Forest
Walthamstow
Description
Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest
Directorate: Place
Grade: PO1
Salary: £38,364 - £40,833
Contract Type: Full-time
Working hours per week: 36 hours
Weeks per year: 52 weeks
Application Deadline: 28th October 2024
Proposed Interview Date(s): TBC
** INTERNAL ONLY **
Reference: 1474
About Us:
Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.
We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led,
digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.
London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.
About the role:
To provide specialist support in reducing temporary accommodation use by matching suitable customers to a range of properties in the Private Sector sourced through our range of schemes. To minimise admissions into temporary accommodation through timely offers at the earlier stages of the homelessness journey and maximising exit out of temporary accommodation through effective use of other private sector options.
>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<
Key Responsibilities:
- To identify suitable customers and match them to various properties sourced through schemes including Out of London initiative,
Capital Letters, More Homes, Local Space and other schemes as may be developed from time to time.
- To ensure that customer needs are thoroughly assessed in line with Council’s policy and affordability and all relevant issues fully considered before making an offer, maintaining a record of the assessment for use by various teams.
- Deal with refusals, ensuring that reasons for refusing a property are properly considered and duty discharged in line with statutory provisions and all systems updated.
- Ensure that properties are offered and let within agreed timescales for the scheme, maintaining accurate records to minimise disputes.
- Investigate and resolve all queries relating to nomination and void periods in a timely manner.
- Reconcile invoices relating to schemes, raise payments as requested.
- Deal with queries from customers relating to any of the schemes managed including residual issues relating to the old Private Sector Letting Scheme.
- Ensure that customer records are kept up to date by updating all information obtained through customer contact on all relevant data base, ensuring that needs assessment is a live document.
- Deal with management issues associated with the legacy private rented scheme.
- Administer the self-help scheme, check eligibility and compliance issues and arrange all necessary payments.
- To perform the full range of duties of the Accommodation Placement Officers when required.
Qualifications and Requirements:
- Commitment to high standards of customer care and the ability to deal sensitively with a wide range of customers.
- Ability to communicate effectively to a broad range of stakeholders.
- Ability to write complex correspondence and reports.
- Detailed knowledge of the law relating to the suitability of temporary accommodation, and the ability under pressure to write effective decision letters offering properties or discharging the Council’s duty.
- High level of IT skills working with a data base and software applications to produce letters and reports effectively, run excerption reports and identify input errors.
- Up-to-date working knowledge of homelessness legislation, guidance and caselaw, and knowledge of the broader housing environment including welfare benefits.
- Ability to work constructively with other services and agencies and to negotiate successful outcomes for customers.
- Ability to work in a pressurised working environment and to prioritise work to meet the key priorities.
- High level numerical skills A flexible approach to cover for colleagues and undertakes a piece of work at short notice.
Terms and conditions:
The below terms and conditions apply to this role:
- Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
- Satisfactory declaration of interest;
- This role is subject to safer recruitment practices as it involves work with children and/ or vulnerable adults;
- Satisfactory DBS check;
- This post is politically restricted therefore the post holder is disqualified from undertaking certain political activities under the Local Government Officers (Political Restrictions) Regulations 1990.
As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.
How to Apply:
** INTERNAL ONLY **
Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below.
This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
Equal Opportunity Employer:
Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age,
faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.
To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.
We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.
For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.
Contact Information:
If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Billie-Jo Bibby, Temporary Accommodation Reduction Project Manager at [email protected] or 020 8496 1353.
If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at [email protected].
The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email [email protected] so we can arrange an alternative application method.
Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.
▶️ TA Reduction Officer
🖊️ London Borough Of Waltham Forest
📍 Walthamstow