Overview
Housing Register & Support Officer – PO12BG, United Kingdom
Job Category: Housing
Region / Division: UK Region
Location: Civic Offices, Portsmouth
Working Hours: 37
Fixed Term Contract/Secondment until 31.03.27 (with the possibility of being made permanent)
Salary: Band 5 – £26,473 – £28,239 p.a.
Full time: 37 hours per week
What is the role?
Portsmouth City Council’s Housing Needs, Advice & Support Service works directly with customers to help deal with housing issues and prevent homelessness in the city. We are a busy front-line service dealing directly with customers, many of whom are vulnerable and disadvantaged. We give advice and assistance to our customers to resolve their housing need and make assessments of their housing and support needs in accordance with the Housing Act 1996, and Portsmouth City Council’s Allocations Scheme. We are committed to excellent customer service, to listening to and understanding our customers’ circumstances, and working collaboratively with them to identify housing solutions.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting good practice and all employees are required to adhere to internal safeguarding policies. Based in Housing Needs, Advice & Support, you will be part of a team that assesses customer applications to join the Portsmouth Housing Register and allocates social housing vacancies to customers in need on the housing register.
In this role, you will help manage customer demand, prioritising work to ensure enquiries are dealt with in the appropriate timescales. You will handle initial enquiries from customers wanting to join the housing register, analysing these enquiries to understand the main presenting demand and determine whether the customer has provided enough information to support an application. This will often require you to review existing notes and documents held by the department and make further enquiries with the customer.
Please see the full job profile attached at the bottom of this page for full details of what the role will involve!
Who is the person?
- Has an interest and experience of the issues facing vulnerable households with housing needs, and a desire to assist customers to resolve these issues.
- Is able process and gather information to understand what is needed or wanted by a customer.
- Is confident and can clearly and effectively communicate both verbally and in writing, giving advice and explaining housing policy to our customers.
- The ability to converse at ease with customers and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post.
- Is able to show empathy and understanding to customers and deal tactfully and sensitively with their enquiry.
- Has excellent organisational skills, and an ability to prioritise work and organise the daily demand from customers to the service.
- Is flexible and able to respond to changing priorities and levels of customer demand.
- Is emotionally resilient and able to deal with the impact of being exposed to customer’s difficult circumstances, and remain professionally detached and focused even if the message you deliver involves saying no.
- Has an awareness of equalities issues and is committed to equal opportunities.
- Understands safeguarding and can recognise safeguarding concerns and take appropriate action to manage risk.
- Works proactively and can remain motivated, working on their own initiative.
- Has a good level of IT skills and is proficient in Microsoft Office Suite.
When completing the application form, please thoroughly tailor your application to the ‘Who is the Person’ points with the use of examples from your experience. This is really important or you are likely not to be shortlisted. The full job profile is attached at the bottom of this page.
If applying as a secondment, please ensure that you have your line managers permission before applying and please state this in your application.
About Portsmouth City Council
What we can offer you:
Portsmouth City Council is a unique organisation, committed to making a difference, and is guided by core values that set who we are as people, what we stand for, and how we act.
Read more about working at Portsmouth City Council and our benefits on our careers portal homepage: Careers Portal – Find jobs with Portsmouth City Council
Should you require any support in completing the application form please contact recruit@portsmouthcc.gov.uk. or call the recruitment team on 023 92 616800
