Job Description
The Service & Team:
Cornwall Council's Housing Options Service currently provides homelessness and housing register services to 1000s of households every year in the county who are facing homelessness or who are already homeless. To meet this demand, we provide a variety of exciting and challenging roles from early "upstream" prevention support for people experiencing issues that may lead to homelessness, to helping families move from emergency accommodation into a settled home and everything in between. We also provide tailored, specialist homelessness assistance for targeted vulnerable cohorts.
The Role
Working across Cornwall Council's Resettlement Service and Housing Options Service, we are seeking a compassionate Specialist Resettlement Homelessness Prevention Officer to support refugees and newly granted asylum seekers across Cornwall. This role is vital in ensuring that vulnerable individuals and families at risk of homelessness have access to safe, secure, and sustainable housing as they rebuild their lives in our communities.
You will assess individuals' needs and provide flexible, tailored support. This will involve building therapeutic relationships with individuals based on trust, collaboration and equality. You will work with a range of statutory, community and independent sector partners taking a collaborative multi-disciplinary approach to prevent homelessness.
Through openness, cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity, the team works to increase understanding and integration of refugees and asylum seekers in local communities, to create sustained change in promoting inclusion and reducing intolerance and hate crime.
This is a public/customer-facing role, where the statutory English language requirement for public sector workers applies.
This position will be subject to an enhanced criminal record disclosure check.
Key Responsibilities
* Make robust statutory decisions and maintain case records to an exceptional standard as part of managing a busy caseload of homelessness applications from refugee households from first
* Point of approach to case conclusion.
* Provide tailored housing advice and support to refugees at risk of homelessness.
* Work closely with local services and partner agencies, housing providers, and refugee support organisations.
* Develop and implement personalised housing plans.
* Advocate for clients' rights and entitlements within the housing system.
* Monitor and report on outcomes to improve service delivery.
* Collaborate with the Cornwall Resettlement Service to ensure a coordinated approach to refugee homelessness prevention support.
* Conduct outreach and home visits where appropriate to assess housing needs and risks.
Working Pattern
This post is fixed-term for 1 year from point of recruitment working 37 hours per week through typical office hours, Monday to Friday in accordance with the Council's flexitime scheme. Flexible working options can be considered in this role, such as compressed hours, term-time only, hybrid work arrangements, and other alternatives subject to the needs and demands of the service.
What You'll Need To Succeed
* Experience working with vulnerable groups, particularly refugees or asylum seekers.
* Strong knowledge of housing legislation and homelessness prevention strategies.
* Excellent communication, advocacy, and case management skills.
* Ability to work collaboratively with multi-agency partners.
* Cultural sensitivity and a trauma-informed approach.
* Understanding of the challenges faced by resettled individuals and families in Cornwall.
* Ability to work under pressure, managing and prioritising workload using own initiative
* Be a flexible team player with a willingness to help out when service demands change
Candidates will need to be IT literate across the spectrum of MS Office applications ideally also have a thorough knowledge of the Jigsaw homelessness system. You should also be able to demonstrate an excellent knowledge of Pt VII Housing Act 1996 (as amended), the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, and in particular a good working knowledge of homelessness eligibility criteria for refugees and Homes For Ukraines Scheme customers. You will need to be organised, as well as be a calm, confident and influential communicator. You will also need to be as comfortable working on your own initiative as you are as part of a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency team.
Please read the role profile for the full details of this role attached below in this advert
Why Join Cornwall Council?
* Be part of a dedicated and compassionate team within both the Cornwall Resettlement Service and Housing Options Service.
* Make a tangible impact on the lives of refugees and asylum seekers.
* Access to training, development, and well being support.
* Opportunities to shape and improve refugee housing pathways in Cornwall.
* Work in a supportive environment that values diversity and inclusion
* The opportunity to work from home when appropriate as an alternative to regular office attendance. Site visits and attendance at offices as and when required are part of this role.
What You'll Get In Return
Our staff have the opportunity to work from home when appropriate as an alternative to regular office attendance. This role is both equally challenging and rewarding, but your resilience is acknowledged by working alongside passionate, supportive colleagues committed to make a difference to our communities and our must vulnerable residents.
Cornwall Council's ambition is to be an employer of choice, a high performing Council and a learning organisation. We commit to providing a reward and benefits package to attract, motivate and reward our employees. We offer a range of flexible working options to our staff. This helps provide our employees with a greater work/life balance. Whilst still ensuring that service needs are met.
Our Core Employee Rewards And Benefits Include
* a competitive salary.
* a defined benefit pension scheme, based on your career average earnings. This includes the option for extra voluntary contributions
* a generous annual leave entitlement with the potential to purchase additional leave.
* A national award-winning employee health and wellbeing programme
* Employee benefits scheme giving employees access to a wide range of discounts to local and national goods and services.
Additional Information
Cornwall Council is unable to offer visa sponsorship or transfer existing sponsorship for this role.
The full role profile is attached here .
We recommend saving a copy of this to refer to if you are invited to an interview.
For more information or an informal chat about the role please contact Tony Lumsden, Housing Options Prevention & Casework Specialist Homelessness Pathways Manager -
Application Process
Please attach a supporting statement to your application, you can add your Education & Qualifications details manually using the application form timeline or you can upload your CV. Remember to demonstrate why you are suitable against each of the points marked as 'Application' on the Role Profile using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work / personal experience, which clearly illustrates what you did and the effect it had. Guidance on how to complete your application can be found here – The application process.
Please note that applications cannot be edited after they have been submitted, please contact if you have any queries or require assistance with your application.
Existing employees must apply using their Cornwall Council email address through the Opportunity Marketplace on Oracle.
About Us
Cornwall Council deliver services to more than half a million local people and over five million visitors a year. Working here - Cornwall Council
We are happy to talk about flexible working options such as part-time or compressed hours. More examples of our flexible working opportunities can be found here - flexible working options .
Fairness and inclusion are at the heart of our vision for Cornwall. In order to best serve our communities, we are striving to achieve a diverse workforce that is inclusive of all backgrounds, cultures and identities; e.g., race, disability, sex, gender, age, religion and sexual orientation. We are an equal opportunities and Disability Confident employer, and we will assess applicants on their merits.
Cornwall Council is committed to safeguarding and following safer recruitment principles to help make sure our staff and volunteers are suitable to work with children, young people and adults at risk. It's a vital part of creating a safe and positive environment and making a commitment to keeping all service users safe from harm.