Housing Officer

Location Merseyside
Discipline: Communities
Job type: Permanent
Salary: £30,157-36,583
Contact email: hrsupportteam@livvhousinggroup.com
Job ref: 002742
Published: about 1 month ago
Expiry date: 04 Dec 2024 23:59

Department: Communities

Reports To: Manager - Housing

Directly Responsible For: N/A

Hours: 37

 

Overall team / department

The purpose of the department is to build strong customer relationships, sustain tenancies, maximising income, and ensuring the creation and management of safe and sustainable neighbourhoods. The team comprises of:

The Housing Team is responsible for building strong relationships with their customers to enable them to sustain their tenancy. They maintain contact with the customer throughout their tenancy, identifying where customers need additional support to maintain their tenancies in line with our requirements.

The Community Safety Team provides a responsive and proactive service to customers to tackle all forms of anti-social behaviour (ASB), and domestic abuse. The team also offers signposting to support services for mental health and wellbeing for a defined period. These teams work closely with the Advisors - Housing on a case management basis to enable them to sustain their tenancy and remain safe in their home and their community.

The Income Team, which is responsible for effective arrears management and a financial wellbeing service for customers. The team proactively manages all housing debt types, implementing payment agreements when appropriate and pursuing debt recovery to maximise income for the business.

Key role priorities

*        Support customers from the start of their tenancy and throughout it, to maintain their tenancies and access services to meet their needs.

*        To provide relationship management and support, acting as advocate for customers and referring to specialist services /other functions where required.

*        Being visible in communities and respond to any customer enquiries.

Key working relationships

*        Is required to work closely with all colleagues across the Group as appropriate to deliver a customer-focused service.

*        Advisor - Housing will liaise with communities and customers directly, visiting customers’ homes and being visible in their geography.

*        Advisor - Housing will work with external partners and key stakeholders to achieve the service's objectives.

Main duties & responsibilities

*        Provide a relationship service to all customers within their designated geographical area across all tenures, working in partnership to bring the best resolution for the customer.

*        Lead the empty homes process and onboard new customers, ensuring they have access to any support and “know how” to manage their tenancy.

*        Lead the delivery of support plans for customers across all tenures, particularly Inspired Living, and Extra Care.

*        Provide accurate and timely information to the Team Leader – Empty Homes for any purpose such as meetings, committee papers and performance reporting.

*        Support customers to live happily in their homes, maintain their tenancies and access services to meet their needs.

*        Deliver customer focused service to manage a range of complex issues – including succession process; promote and manage mutual exchanges, and tenancy breach cases (including compliance).

*        Be visible in communities to respond to any customer enquiries and identify opportunities to engage customers.

*        Complete visits for all new customers in line with SLA to check they have settled into their home and to ensure we're still meeting their needs.

*        Complete visits for all existing customers at least once each year to ensure customers are maintaining the property in line with the tenancy agreement, identify any support needs and make necessary arrangements.

*        Promote partnership working by creating links with local key stakeholders.

*        Promote customer engagement activities.

*        Work in partnership with the Advisor – Community Safety to resolve ASB cases.

*        Attend case conferences as and when required.

*        Identify gaps in service provision to support with the development of community investment projects.

*        Identify opportunities for customer engagement and work with customer engagement team to deliver the required outcomes.

*        Manage process for customers leaving our homes.

*        Pro-actively support the delivery of all compliance activity.

*        Support tenancy breach cases including home condition/hoarding/compliance.

*        Ensure systems are updated with accurate and up to date information so that other teams are aware of the status of customer requests.

*        Identify opportunities to improve the processes and share these with Manager - Housing.

*        Complete any other tasks commensurate with the level and nature of the post as delegated by the role’s line manager.

Key measures of success

*        Process compliance.

*        Customer Satisfaction target achieved.

*        Empty Homes performance – relet days target met.

*        KMBC Contract delivery (Independent Living) - 100% support plans completed.

Livving our values

Livv’s a place with opportunities to grow. We believe in empowering you to make a positive impact in your own unique way. Our values embody what matters to us and show what it means to be Livv, together:

Making a difference daily

We invest in our people, our customers and in the creation of a fairer society.

Positively open

We’re always open to feedback as we strive to deliver a first-class customer experience.

Forging the right way

We’re creating an inspiring road which others will want to follow.

Together as one

Our teams work on another level of cohesiveness to enable us to deliver better outcomes.

Each one of us

- listens to our customers and makes their needs a priority

- is committed to equality, diversity, and inclusivity

- takes a flexible approach and works where we’re needed

- follows health and safety guidelines to keep ourselves, colleagues, and customers safe

- helps reduce risks by proactively communicating any potential issues to our line managers

- protects sensitive information by safeguarding customer, colleague, and third-party data

- is guided by our policies, procedures, and social aims

- is dedicated to continual learning and taking ownership of our personal and professional development.

 

Person Specification

E - Essential criteria / D - Desirable criteria

Education & Qualifications

3 GCSEs (Level 4 or above) or equivalent relevant customer service experience (E)

Housing or other relevant qualification (D)

Experience

Customer facing experience, ideally in a housing or other not for profit/ service providing organization (E)

Previous experience in an Advisor - Housing role (D)

Involvement with community/customers in a support capacity (D)

Experience of working in the field of sheltered and supported housing/ independent living (D)

Experience of making referrals and working with external agencies to meet the needs of a customer(D)

Experience of carrying out needs assessment and producing plans accordingly (D)

Skills, knowledge & ability

Strong Communication, teamwork, interpersonal and organizing skills (E)

Ability to adapt to different situations (E)

Able to initiate and maintain enabling relationships, including with vulnerable customers with a range of complex needs (E)

IT skills, including use of Microsoft Office packages (E)

Housing Management legislation and policies (D)

Safeguarding knowledge/ experience (D)

Personal characteristics

Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines (E)

Confident and resilient (E)

Other

Role involves visibility within communities and neighbourhoods and to customers’ homes (E)

Flexible approach to hours worked (including Saturday mornings) (E)

Must be able to travel independently (E)

Must have met requirements of DBS Check (E)

 

Give Get Go 

As part of our commitment to the Give Get Go Programme, we will ensure that applicants who meet all essential criteria, as defined in the person specification, will be guaranteed the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities at interview. Individual’s names will be confirmed with the Give Get Go Programme.

Should you wish your application to be considered under this scheme, please  email us  confirming this, along with your full name and the role you have applied for when you submit your application. Please ensure that you do this before the closing date for the vacancy. 

Equality and Inclusion 

Please visit  here to read more about Livv inclusive and our approach to equality and inclusion.

Disability Confident 

The Equality Act protects disabled people from discrimination, and we welcome applications from disabled people. The Equality Act defines a disabled person as someone who has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and adverse long-term effect, usually at least 12 months, on their ability to carry out day to day activities.

We will try to provide access, equipment, or other practical support to ensure that disabled applicants are not disadvantaged by their disabilities.

Data Protection 

We fully recognise your rights under current Data Protection Laws and are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. We collect and process personal data relating to applicants to manage the recruitment process effectively, including for statistical purposes.

For full details please see our Job Applicant Privacy Policy

If you require any additional support when completing your application, please  contact us