Housing Triage Officer
| Posting date: | 16 May 2024 |
|---|---|
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 15 June 2024 |
| Location: | Portsmouth, PO1 2AL |
| Company: | Portsmouth City Council |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 3579 |
Summary
Salary: Band 5 - £24,362 - £26,073 p.a.
37 hours per week
Permanent
Housing Needs Advice & Support are recruiting for the new roles of Housing Triage Officer. These officers will be the first point of contact for customers needing help and advice with housing. This is an exciting and varied role dealing with a wide range of enquiries, giving advice and referring customers for further assessment where needed.
Portsmouth City Council:
At Portsmouth City Council we're all about developing our staff, because we want to build a bigger and better city but we need the best employees to do so.
With a little over 207,000 residents and 7,000 businesses throughout this city, this unitary authority's main goal is to ensure the best care and development of all those within the city. From customer service to Multi-million pound projects, our residents are at the heart of everything we do.
Your New Role:
Portsmouth City Council's Housing Needs Advice & Support team works directly with customers to deal with housing issues and prevent homelessness in the city. We are a busy front-line service dealing with customers who may be vulnerable and facing homelessness. We give advice, work to prevent homelessness, assist people to resolve their housing need and make assessments of housing and support needs in accordance with the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, the Housing Act 1996 and Portsmouth City Council's Allocations Policy. We are committed to excellent customer service, and to listening to and understanding our customers' circumstances, and working collaboratively with them to identify housing solutions. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting good practise and all employees are required to adhere to internal safeguarding policies.
You will be part of a team which deals with the initial contact from customers face to face and by telephone and email. You will need to listen carefully to understand the circumstances of each customer, showing understanding and empathy to each person. You will make an initial assessment of each customer's circumstances, gathering information and asking questions to clarify the circumstances. You will give advice on a range of housing issues including the Portsmouth Housing Register, homelessness and private renting. You will deal with enquiries yourself, explaining the criteria for accessing social housing and where appropriate will signpost to other relevant services. Where further assessment is required, you will understand the main presenting demand and identify the correct team to continue the assessment with the customer. Using our IT systems, you will make clear records of each contact. You will help manage customer demand, prioritising work to ensure that enquiries are dealt with in appropriate timescales. You will undertake other administrative duties as required.
You will need excellent listening skills, patience and empathy as well as resilience and an ability to think on your feet and manage multiple priorities. This is an excellent opportunity if you are looking for a career in housing as you will gain a wide range of experience and knowledge and an opportunity to enhance your skills working with customers.
Who is the person?
We are looking for somebody who:
- Has an interest and experience of the issues facing vulnerable and homeless people and households with housing needs, and a desire to work to assist customers to resolve these issues.
- Has excellent listening skills and is able process and gather information to understand what is needed or wanted by a customer.
- Is confident and can clearly and effectively communicate both verbally and in writing, giving advice and explaining housing policy to our customers.
- Has excellent organisational skills, and an ability to prioritise work and organise the daily demand from customers to the service.
- Is flexible and able to respond to changing priorities and levels of customer demand.
- Is an excellent team player.
- Is able to show empathy and understanding to customers contacting the service and deal tactfully and sensitively with their enquiry.
- Is adaptable, able think on their feet to find solutions to deal with the presenting issues.
- Is emotionally resilient and able to deal with the impact of being exposed to customer's difficult circumstances, and remain professionally detached and focused even if the message you deliver involves saying no.
- Has an awareness of equalities issues and is committed to equal opportunities.
- Has an understanding of safeguarding and ability to recognise safeguarding concerns and take appropriate action to manage risk.
- Works proactively and is able to remain motivated, working on their own initiative.
- Has IT skills suited to working in a busy office.
- The ability to converse at ease with customers and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post.
Closing date: 28th June 2024
Those shortlisted will be invited to a half-day assessment centre on 10th July 2024. Interviews will be on 11th & 12th July 2024.
When completing the application form, please thoroughly tailor your application to the 'Who is the Person' points with the use of examples from your experience and attach this as a cover letter in the Supporting Documents section. This is really important or you are likely not to be shortlisted. Please click HERE for the full job profile!
We are a disability confident employer - committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive and accessible and welcome applications from all areas of society.
We really appreciate our employees and fully realise they are essential to our success and look to offer an inclusive, supportive working environment where employees can reach their potentials with a healthy work life balance, offering the following rewards:
- A generous pension scheme
- Up to 31 days annual leave per year pro rata + bank holidays
- We offer flexible working options including hybrid working with a minimum of two days office based per week pro rata, giving you the flexibility to work up to three days at home every week. Hybrid working is dependant on the role and service needs, exact details will be discussed with you at interview.
- A range of retail discounts via our reward portal offering discounts at retailers including IKEA, Currys, Tesco
- Free Access to Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and wellbeing support
- Access to a wide range of training and development opportunities including apprenticeships
- Potential to purchase additional annual leave
- Business travel support and initiatives, including bike loans
Please click here for all the benefits of working with us!
Should you require any support in completing the application form please contact recruit@portsmouthcc.gov.uk