HMO and Policy Lead

Posting date:	23 January 2026
Salary:	£48,226 to £51,356 per year
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	30 January 2026
Location:	Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 1RG
Remote working:	Hybrid - work remotely up to 1 day per week
Company:	West Sussex County Council
Job type:	Contract
Job reference:	CPP01271_1769151605

Summary

About the Team

The Refugee, Resettlement and Migration Service (RRMS) provides the leadership, management and operational delivery of the County Councils contribution to established global refugee, resettlement programmes funded by the UK Government. Playing a lead role and facilitating involvement from partners across West Sussex, this activity includes supporting individuals and families from specific cohorts (e.g. Afghans, Ukrainians), wider schemes (e.g. UK Resettlement) on a temporary/transitional basis and over multiple years.

You will lead the team through periods of change as the Refugee Resettlement and Migration Service embeds within the Communities Directorate, pivoting to deliver new and emerging workstreams to meet needs as required, developing or redesigning processes that align with current government guidance and implementing ways of working, including digital approaches, that deliver required outcomes.

This team works closely with a wide range of County Council colleagues across several disciplines and in conjunction with statutory partners and community-based organisations to deliver wrap around support and provision.

The Opportunity

Salary: £48,226 - £51,356 per annum

Working Pattern: Full time, 37 hours Monday - Friday

Contract type: FTC - 24 months

Location: County Hall, Chichester or Centenary House, Crawley and working from home (Hybrid)

Shortlisting date: 9th February 2026*

Interview date: 16th February 2026*

You will need to be able to travel independently around the county, including to areas that may not be easily accessible by public transport. Pool cars and pool bikes are available.

Working in collaboration with a range of internal colleagues and external partners, you will identify development opportunities, propose evidence-based recommendations and assist in the implementation of changes in policy, practice, contract commissioning and operational delivery to improve outcomes for individuals, families and children, meet national scheme requirements and achieve operational efficiencies across the policy portfolio.

With an understanding of new legislation and guidance, emerging social norms and organisational, individual and community impacts relating to the delivery of an effective response for refugees, you will foster and maintain relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, businesses and communities.

Strong relationships will be essential in managing teams focused on specific resettlement/scheme responses, as you will provide an essential policy briefing function, galvanise good practice, identify opportunities for shared learning, create responses to meet gaps in specialist provision (e.g. language, employment and health care), and work with and through others to achieve results. Developing and deploying new services, processes and procedures, you will move at pace to deliver multiple outcomes within short timeframes, often working to influence partners, peers and those in more senior leadership roles.

Working collaboratively with colleagues from all local authorities and a diverse range of external partners from across West Sussex and those with wider geographical coverage (such as Sussex Police, neighbouring Local Authorities, Home Office, DWP, Housing Providers, No Recourse to Public Funds Network, the South East Strategic Partnership for Migration).

What are we looking for?

• Degree level qualification in a relevant field or equivalent qualification.
• Post graduate/professional qualification relevant either to management or to the professional service specialism, (e.g. social policy issues regarding arrival in the UK of refugees and other migrants, immigration law, social work, or human rights), or an equivalent level of significant experience demonstrating applied application of the above levels of knowledge in a relevant setting.
• You will demonstrate strong policy knowledge, have a proven track record of achievement, and have significant expertise in collaborative/partnership working to deliver positive outcomes within a refugee resettlement/migration support environment.
• Hold great people skills demonstrating a problem solving abilities with excellent communication and negotiation skills.
• Able to create succinct, compelling, evidence-based narratives to accompany your development ideas, policies and practices.
• Show strong business acumen and able to agility to switch between agendas responding to the business demands, ask searching questions, and absorb complex and new information.
• Confident working within a rapidly changing environment, you will be able to join the dots in operational activity to create improved policy and procedural frameworks which support multi-agency outcomes.

For more information on the Key Skills as well as the Qualifications and/or experience required, please refer to the Job Description attached.

Day to Day role

• As a specialist in your field, you will be a strong team player, providing leadership and subject matter expertise to shape the direction, standard and expectations for delivery.
• You will be accountable for the preparation and delivery of training content and resources to aid the professional development of a wider team.
• Supportive to the wider team engaged in the delivery of responses to refugees to work collaboratively across the county, recommending direction, shaping an innovative, evidence-led and customer focused service which enables a wide range of successful cross cutting outcomes.
• Experienced in maintaining strong relationships with housing partners and oversee legislation relating to property compliance. Showing effective relationship building, engagement and partnership skills are pivotal to ensure the timely delivery of large scale/highly complex initiatives within available resources, completing all necessary governance and scrutiny process.
• Delivering statutory duties and ensuring organisational/legal compliance with relevant information sharing, procurement and contract management processes.
• Working within a multi-disciplinary environment, you will be responsible for making effective and efficient use of available resources and influencing activities within the Service and Directorate business plan.

Working for us

As well as adding real value to our service users and our communities, as an employer we recognise our employees are central in being able to achieve this. To recognise this we want to help support your development and provide a great place to work ensuring you can fulfil your full potential, have access to a range of benefits including:

• an excellent local government pension scheme
• generous holiday entitlement of (plus opportunity to buy additional leave)
• a range of flexible working options,
• maternity, paternity, dependency and adoption leave
• volunteering opportunities
• training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring
• health and wellbeing benefits

For a full list this can be found at our Rewards and Benefits page.

To Apply

Please follow the links below to upload your CV and Cover Letter. In your cover letter please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV.

Please save the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to a DBS check, 3 years referencing and a health check.

Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.

We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page