Main duties • Deliver superior quality Homelessness and Housing Solutions and Advice Services that are customer centric and have high regard for equality, diversity, understanding and respect for people and their individual circumstances. • Act as the central hub for all approaches and enquiries to the homelessness, housing solutions and void and allocation service, committing to resolve all approaches and enquiries at first point of contact and where they cannot be resolved, ensuring timely co-ordination of onward referral to the right team or person. • Operate a telephone duty system that ensures that all inbound telephone calls to the service are handled professionally and within any set service levels in operation at the time. • Operate a professional customer facing triage service at public offices on a duty rota system, offering primary homelessness and housing solutions advice in accordance with Part VI & VII of the Homelessness Act, The Housing Acts, Homelessness Reduction Act and the Homelessness Code of Guidance, that enables customers to make informed decisions about their housing options and that enables you to make a decision to refer the case to a specialist officer through relevant systems and processes in operation at the time. • In cases of emergency homelessness, undertake to find and secure temporary accommodation on behalf of specialist case officers • Promote self-service at every opportunity and encourage and provide professional and courteous assistance to customers in accessing all aspects of the service that have become digitalised, either in person in public offices, in writing or over the telephone. • In accordance with the Allocations Policy, give appropriate advice to applicants wishing to join the housing register, so that expectations are clearly managed, and they can make informed decisions about their options before joining the register. • Where the approach results in an application to join the register, in every case ensure that appropriate support and assistance is provided to the applicant to make the application digitally and advice on how to operate the Redditch Home Choice System. • Operate, administer, and maintain the Redditch Home Choice system for both new and transfer applicants through to full registration in the appropriate priority band. • Assess and administer all incoming correspondence in accordance with policy and process in operation at the time. • Be responsible for the corporate ordering system for purchases. • Assist and support all officers and managers in the service in undertaking their day-today duties • Assist and support the preparation of performance management reports and statistical data for analysis and reporting. • Aid and support to managers in the development and implementation of service improvements, campaigns, and initiatives • Be aware of the requirement for prudent control of expenditure, particularly for the provision of temporary accommodation and use of grant funding, always acting with a high degree of integrity and transparency and in accordance with financial regulation and policy.
Maximise opportunities to nurture and develop relationships with Private Sector (PRS) Landlords in the discharge of duties, ensuring that any such initiatives or schemes to prevent homelessness in, or access to the PRS are maximised. • Ensure you maintain and share up-to-date knowledge of housing legislation including the Housing Act, Homelessness Reduction Act, Codes of Guidance, case law, safeguarding and other best practice. • Be responsible and accountable for the performance of yourself, your team, and the service, regularly reporting and feeding back on performance and being outspoken on perceived risks or threats to the service or on any emerging opportunities to improve what we do. • Operate in accordance with all Council policies, guidance, and codes. • Be responsible for risk management, ensuring both yourself and your colleagues are safe. • Nurture and maintain partnership work and collaborations with all internal and external teams, agencies, and partners relevant to successful delivery of your service. • Be responsible and accountable for effective and accurate operation of relevant IT systems in relation to delivery of your area of the service. • Be constructive and positive in your approach to work and supportive of your colleagues. • To think critically and challenge cultures, ideas, and ways of working to achieve a culture of continuous improvement and efficient and dynamic service delivery • To carry out all duties with the highest degree of integrity, ensuring that requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998 are complied with