Job info	Job info details
Job title	Housing Officer
Strategic team/Directorate	Place
Service	Housing
Business unit	Housing Management
Responsible to (day to day issues)	Housing Manager
Accountable to (line manager)	Housing Manager
Salary grade	G
JE ref	TDA176

1. Key purpose of job

• To work collaboratively with colleagues in the delivery of a high-quality housing management service that meets the identified needs of customers and the wider community.
• To deliver high quality and professional housing management services including tenancy management, neighbourhood management, anti-social behaviour services, caretaking services, arrears control and lettings.
• To build and sustain resilience among our tenants and communities, thereby safeguarding our tenants, homes and communities.
• Manage a portfolio of properties, schemes and estates to the highest possible standard, in accordance with the policies and practices.
• Working alongside internal and external partnership agencies in representing the service, providing and fully promoting a customer focused service that always seeks to empower customers.
• Provide a range of customer and community engagement activities to ensure that customer voices are being listened to and acted upon and high levels of customer satisfaction.

2. Anticipated outcomes of post

• Deliver a high-quality housing management service that meets the needs and expectations of current and future tenants and the wider community.
• To be reactive to any emergency including ASB incidents which require immediate attention i.e. domestic violence and hate crimes. These need to be dealt with sensitively and to ensure the victim is listened to and supported. Liaising with and working alongside the Police to have home office alarms installed in the property and CCTV if appropriate. Arrange for emergency lock changes to be carried out and any additional security at the property. Where there is immediate risk to source alternative accommodation immediately through the Police or Local Authority. Assist with this process while ensuring the tenant is in charge of decisions being made.
• To be reactive to emergency repair issues and attend site with contractors should the need arise.
• Work with tenants to identify barriers or support needs to them being able to effectively manage their tenancy. Signpost to agencies well placed to provide the support which may enable tenants to sustain their tenancy.
• Work with the Housing Manager to highlight and investigate cases of tenancy fraud, to ensure our properties are being occupied by the tenants. Take action to address any issues promptly.
• Provide housing advice to tenants, including possible welfare benefits entitlement and encourage appropriate claims, in particular Housing Benefit, Pension Credit and Disability Allowances.
• Record and monitor outcomes of site inspections and provide recommendations to, and liaise with, the Housing Manager on steps to resolve any issues surrounding compliance with tenancy terms.

3. List key duties and accountabilities of the post

• As an Employee of Torbay Council all roles are expected to work in a way that ensures vulnerable children and adults are safeguarded and report any safeguarding concerns in accordance with established policies and procedures. The Designated Senior Lead for Safeguarding is the Chief Executive and Director of Children’s Services.
• Provide a high-quality tenancy service providing advice and support to manage tenancies including rent arrears advice, successions, mutual exchanges, joint to sole/sole to joint applications and all related issues. Accurately record and monitor these requests.
• Responsible for managing rent collection and arrears services, ensuring accounts are maintained under the arrears policies and procedures. Ensuring tenants are supported in income maximisation, offer benefits advice. Maintaining accurate records and where applicable prepare court applications and attend court hearings.
• Working with tenants and communities to develop solutions to tenancy and estate matters which build tenants and communities resilience and independence, enabling the tenants to manage their home.
• Working with the Housing Manager to deal quickly and decisively with all forms of tenancy breaches, working with tenants to address the matter, agreeing action plans and where required taking legal action to enforce the tenancy.
• Provide general administrative duties to the Housing Manager as required including arranging team meetings and taking minutes and distributing accordingly.
• Carry out Torbay Council’s procedures relating to nuisance and anti-social behaviour, including attending Court when necessary. This will involve active recording of incidents and following Torbay Council’s procedures.
• Assist in letting homes as required in liaison with work colleagues to minimise void loss.
• Process paperwork and inspect void and imminent void properties as directed. Ensure tenants understand the terms and conditions of their tenancy and that their individual circumstances and vulnerabilities are taken into account. Signpost to agencies well placed to provide the support which may enable tenants to sustain their tenancy. Carrying out follow up tenancy support after signup – new tenant visits and routine property inspection visits.
• Responsible for site inspections at an agreed frequency complying with procedures and ensuring all identified works are reported and undertaken. Record and monitor outcomes of these inspections and taking steps to resolve issues.
• Maintain an up-to-date working knowledge of landlord and tenant, housing and welfare legislation and the welfare benefits system. Maintain up to date, clear records and statistics in relation to all duties including computer records ensuring compliance with Torbay Council’s Management and Data Protection policies.
• Ensure that Torbay Council operates good resident involvement practices in respect of current regulatory requirements. Ensuring that surveys are completed by all residents relating to the Tenant Satisfaction Measures, New Resident Surveys and any others that may be required from time to time.
• Establish, develop and maintain effective working relationships with all work colleagues, contractors and partnering agencies. Be aware of maintenance issues and activities of the Development and Property Services teams in so far as how they affect tenants and liaise and support customer engagement on all relevant matters.
• Provide housing advice to tenants, including possible welfare benefits entitlement and encourage appropriate claims, in particular Universal Credit, Housing Benefit, Pension Credit and Disability Allowances.
• Observe and comply with policies and procedures for Health and Safety at Work, data protection and observe and continually promote equal opportunities and customer care in compliance with organisational aims and objectives.
• Assist the Housing Manager to achieve Board set targets for void times and void costs.
• Contribute to the formulation and review of TorVista’s Housing Management policies and procedures.
• Participate in learning and development activities that develop personal effectiveness and assist in improving performance in the role.
• Undertake other duties as may reasonably be required in line with the level of responsibility of the post and in order to meet the changing needs of the organisation. Occasional after-hours work may be required within the scope of the role, including attendance at meetings.

4. Budgetary/Financial Responsibilities of the post

• None. 

5. Supervision/Line Management Responsibilities of the post

• None. 

6. Working environment and conditions of the post

• Office location and home-based working.
• Lone working to include tenant home visits, monthly estate visits, ASB interviews and proposed new tenant visits.
• Dealing with members of the public, some of whom can be aggressive & volatile.
• The postholder will be required to enter domestic properties where the occupants are known and have complex needs but their visitors are unknown. This may occur both within office hours or out of core working hours on a regular and ad-hoc basis.
• The postholder will be required to enter domestic properties of known drug users where drug paraphernalia is prevalent.

7. Physical demands of the post

• None. 

8. Specific resources used by the post

• IT equipment.
• Continuous access to transport as the role entails travelling across Torbay.

9. Key contacts and relationships

External

• Regional and national agencies, stakeholders, support workers. These will include the Police, Adult Social Services, Children’s Social Services, Rough Sleeping Teams etc. 

Internal

• Torbay Council staff and Councillors. 

10. Other duties

• To undertake additional duties as required, commensurate with the level of the job.

Other Information

• All staff must commit to the Workplace Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Practice and Policy.
• Torbay Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and applicants must be willing to undergo the checks appropriate to the post applied for.
• The post holder is expected to work in a way that ensures vulnerable children and adults are safeguarded and report any safeguarding concerns in accordance with established policies and procedures. And are aware that the Chief Executive and the Director for Childrens Services are the Safeguarding Leads for the Council. 
• The post is eligible for hybrid working.
• You will be asked to complete a Criminal Records Self Declaration Form. Criminal convictions will only be taken into account when they are relevant to the post. You will only be asked to disclose ‘unspent’ convictions.
• The Council operates a Smoke-Free Policy and the post-holder is prohibited from smoking in any of the Council's buildings (including Council owned and Council leased buildings, but excluding designated areas in residential schemes), enclosed spaces within the curtilage of buildings, and Council vehicles. The Council does not permit smoking breaks within work time, however, in services where the flexi-scheme is in operation, employees may take reasonable break times outside of core hours, in accordance with flexi-time arrangements. Employees should follow the flexi-scheme procedure for agreeing time away from their duties in the normal manner with their immediate colleagues and line manager, with break start and finish times being recorded, as with any other break-time arrangement.
• The post-holder is expected to familiarise themselves with and adhere to all relevant Council Policies and Procedures.
• The post-holder must comply with the Council’s Health and Safety requirements as outlined in the H&S policy appropriate to the role.
• The post-holder must be committed to the Council’s Core Values for employees – “Torbay Council employees are committed to being forward thinking, people orientated and adaptable - always with integrity”. Evidence will be sought during the probation and appraisal processes.
• If this post is customer facing, it will require the ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence and fluency in English.
• If you are required to access a government system such as HMRC, DWP or The Public services network (PSN) as part of your role with the Council you will be required to complete a basic disclose with your line manager before you can access these systems. Your manager will be required to complete a verification form that confirms your identity, nationality and immigration status, employment history and unspent convictions (third party).
• If you are required to use your own vehicle on Council business or drive a council vehicle you will be asked to provide information on any driving endorsements by accessing www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence and providing a code to your Line Manager in order to share your driving licence information with the Council.

Person Specification

Note for Candidate

All Candidates

The supporting statement on your application form will be used to assess ability to meet the essential requirements of the role, so you should explain how you meet each of the numbered essential requirements within your supporting statement. In a competitive situation, the desirable criteria may be taken into consideration, so you are encouraged to show how you also meet each of the desirable criteria.

Candidates who consider that they have a disability

Reasonable adjustments will be made to the job, job requirements or recruitment process for candidates with a disability.

If you consider yourself to have a disability you should indicate this on your application form, providing any information you would like us to take into account with regard to your disability in order to offer a fair selection interview.

Where ever possible and reasonable we will make adjustments and offer alternatives to help you through the application and selection process.

If you have indicated that you have a disability on your application form you will be guaranteed an interview if you clearly demonstrate in your supporting evidence how you broadly meet the essential requirements of the role.

Job info	Job info details
Job Title	Housing Officer
Strategic team/Directorate	Place
Service	Housing
Business unit	Housing Management

Skills and effectiveness

Essential skills and effectiveness

• Excellent communication skills.
• Ability to prioritise workload and work under pressure.
• Good negotiation and presentation skills.
• Ability to work with challenging people and situations. 
• Able to listen actively and non-judgementally. 
• Judgement and decision-making skills.
• Flexible and able to work on own and as part of a team.
• Develop effective working relationships.
• Able to manage challenging situations and a busy workload.
• Self-motivated and able to work without close supervision.
• Planning and organising workload.
• Effective problem solver.
• Ability to extract and interrogate data.
• This role requires the ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence and fluency in English.

Desirable skills and effectiveness

• Good working knowledge of Housing Benefit and Universal Credit.
• Experience of mediation and negotiation skills.
• Knowledge of Choice Based Lettings. 
• Experience with preparing court applications, witness statements and attending Court. 

Knowledge

Essential knowledge

• Knowledge of Estate Management. 
• Service user involvement and consultation. 
• Knowledge of relevant regulations and good practice. 
• Good knowledge of Microsoft office packages. 
• Knowledge of landlord, tenant and Housing Legislation and welfare benefits system.
• Knowledge of safeguarding policies and processes (particularly regarding vulnerable adults).
• Basic health and safety awareness.

Desirable knowledge

• Housing good practice.
• Community work and initiatives.
• Current social housing agenda.
• Good up to date knowledge of social housing and law.
• Community work and initiatives. 

Experience and achievements

Essential experience and achievements

• Proven experience of working to deadline and prioritising workloads.
• Proven experience of working in a similar role.
• Proven experience of analysing and diagnosing problems and implementing solutions. 
• Experience of working with tenants, tenant organisations and external agencies. 
• Experience of implementing policies and procedure. 
• Strong record keeping. 
• Experience of providing advice and support on a range of tenancy issues. 
• Experience of undertaking site visits and inspections. 

Desirable experience and achievements

• Proven experience of working in a social housing environment. 
• Working for a social housing provider. 
• Strong record keeping. 
• Working to performance targets. 
• Experience of using housing management software. 
• Experience of the effective investigation and preparation of cases for prosecution in relation to Housing. 

Qualifications/professional memberships

Essential qualifications/professional memberships

• Literacy and numeracy equivalent to passes in GCSE English and Maths.
• Full current driving license.
• CIH Housing Certificate or equivalent standard qualification (or working towards). 

Desirable qualifications/professional memberships

• Housing qualification (or willing to work towards). 
• NVQ level 3 in relevant area. 

Other requirements

Other requirements of the job role

• Demonstrates a commitment to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people.
• Ability to travel efficiently around the Bay/South West/UK in order to carry out duties.
• Ability to accommodate unsociable hours.
• Ability to accommodate on-call working.
• Ability to accommodate occasional home-working.
• Understanding of confidentiality and demonstrable ability to work with confidential information.
• Take an active interest in setting and promoting high standards of customer care.
• Punctual and reliable.
• Commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
• Continual Personal Development.
• Willingness to safely lone work outside of the office environment and in tenant’s homes.
• Successful applicants would be expected to complete a Criminal Records Self Declaration Form. Criminal convictions will only be taken into account when they are relevant to the post. You will only be asked to disclose ‘unspent’ convictions.
• A criminal record check (disclosure) from the DBS is required for this post and will be undertaken before appointment is confirmed.
• A full driving licence is required for this role. If you are required to use your own vehicle on TDA business or drive a TDA vehicle you will be asked to provide information on any driving endorsement.