Head of Housing Needs, Advice & Support

Please click here  for the full job pack! This contains all details of the role and the person we are looking for!

Salary: Band 15 - £72,164 - £80,655 p.a.

37 hours per week

Permanent

Portsmouth is a modern city transforming to meet the needs of the 21st Century and an exciting place to live and work with the local authority is at its heart. Being one of the most densely populated parts of the country outside of London, housing is a prominent issue for the 200,000+ residents who live here.

The Housing, Neighbourhoods and Building Services Directorate is delivering a range of front-line services, including waste management, building maintenance and housing services. The Housing Needs, Advice and Support service (previously called Housing Options) is the gateway to all social housing within the city and the Portsmouth City Council-owned properties in the Havant area.

The service deals with a range of housing issues, giving advice to customers, working to prevent or relieve homelessness, making assessments in accordance with the homelessness legislation and assessing housing and support needs in line with the city council's Allocation Scheme.

This is an exciting time for the team which is growing and working hard to deliver an excellent service. The team are currently reviewing the performance of the service and will soon begin work to create the new combined Homelessness and Rough Sleeping strategy which will be the blueprint for the next five years. Our service is designed and managed with our customers at the heart of our thinking, we strive to prevent homelessness and when we cannot prevent homelessness to provide the right accommodation with appropriate support for customers.

This post will lead a dedicated team and will be the lead officer for not only homelessness services but also for our commissioned housing and rough sleeping pathways. Housing Needs, Advice and Support sits within the Housing Need and Supply service, ensuring a direct link between housing need and the delivery of housing solutions, this role will be pivotal in understanding need and working to ensure the city has the right housing and support models for our residents.

Candidates will have an excellent understanding of Part VI and Part VII of the Housing Act 1996 and will likely have had experience working under the legislative scheme introduced by the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. An understanding of the opportunities and challenges provided by the homeless legislation will aid the successful candidate to make improvements to internal policies and processes, with the aim of preventing homelessness more often and helping more people find the housing they need.

Our service benefits from a dedicated and committed team and we consider it essential that the candidate be able to demonstrate that they can support and continue to develop the empowering and positive culture which is in place.

You may be a manager of a housing needs team looking for a career move to work in a unitary authority and are ready to step up and work in a 'city' council. You may have worked in a housing needs service and work in a senior position but looking to connect the management experience with your front-line experience.

Working for a unitary local authority, the successful candidate will enjoy the benefits of being part of a collaborative and effective senior management team with access to a wide peer group across the full range of city council services including public health, adult social care and children's social care. This provides a fantastic opportunity for joint working.

The Housing Need and Supply team provide housing pathways for both Adult and Children's Social Care and this provides a unique opportunity to contribute to the development of these schemes ensuring that the city can provide accommodation for all its residents. Strong candidates are likely to have experience of working closely with a wide range of external partners and councillors.

You will also represent the service in peer relationships within Hampshire and with key government departments including DLUCH.

This is an excellent opportunity to lead a committed and hard-working team to deliver first class services for the people of Portsmouth. We pride ourselves on our commitment to our customers and on our ability to get things done. This role is pivotal in achieving good quality and continually improving services. If you feel that you have the skills, knowledge and experience for the role and would enjoy working in this exciting service then I look forward to hearing from you.

Please click here  for the full job pack! This contains all details of the role and the person we are looking for!

When completing the application form, please thoroughly tailor your application to the 'Who is the Person' points of the job profile within the job pack, 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 also include:

• Employment history including:
  • Employer
  • Employment dates
  • Reason for leaving
  • A brief explanation of any gaps in your employment history
• References, including current or most recent employer. Let us know when we can contact your references - for example if you want us to wait until after your interview.

Closing Date: 22nd December 2023

Assessment & interview process: 8th & 10th January 2023

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
• Relocation scheme may be available for the right candidate
• Up to 31 days annual leave per year + bank holidays
• Flexible / hybrid working
• 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  to see all of the benefits of working with us!