Hospital to Home Housing Officer - Dorchester, United Kingdom - Dorset Councils

Dorset Councils

Verified Company

Dorchester, United Kingdom

2 weeks ago

Posted by:

Tom O´Connor

beBee Recruiter

Description

Organisation

Dorset Council
Location
Dorchester
Reference

Occupational group
Housing
Salary details

- £27,852 - £32,020

Job term
Full Time
Appointment type
Fixed Term
Contact
Miriam Smith
Contact

telephone

Closing Date
12 January :00 PM

Hospital to Home Housing Officer:

37 hours per week:

Fixed term until March 2024:

Salary £27,852 - £32,020:

Dorchester, combined with home-working:

What's in it for you:

Do you have a passion and drive for assisting people at a time of potential crisis? Dorset Council in conjunction with NHS and BCP Council are looking to recruit a Housing Officer to join the team.

This post will act a specialist officer for those applicants who are currently in hospital but need help in either securing their current accommodation or require assistance to help identify alternative accommodation on discharged.

The postholder will primarily be based within St Ann's Hospital and Forston Clinic working with all health professionals and will be integral to the discharge planning process.

As a Housing Officer you will undertake necessary prevention work to ensure someone can retain and maintain their accommodation. In the absence of accommodation work will be undertaken exploring housing pathways including via the housing register, private rented or supported housing schemes with the aim to ensure that patients can be discharged safely into appropriate accommodation

What you can expect to be doing:

Work closely with colleagues in the Housing Advice team and respond promptly and efficiently to all homelessness approaches and all referrals received under the 'Duty to Refer' arrangements from hospitals and discharge planners, in order to meet customer's needs and tackle, prevent and reduce homelessness in the Dorset/BCP district areas.

Work collaboratively and proactively with health and social care professionals, social landlords, private landlords, and advice and support providers to facilitate the discharge of patients in a planned way that avoids people having to sleep rough or being placed in temporary accommodation.

Provide applicants with comprehensive advice on their housing options, taking into account their overall financial situation, their needs and aspirations, their eligibility for assistance under the homelessness legislation, their priority on the Housing Register, and whether or not they are able to sustain a tenancy in the private rented sector.

Ensure that applicants are able to access when appropriate funds for goods and services such as white goods, deep clean of accommodation, lock changes if such action enables them to live in suitable accommodation.

About you:

Do you have experience working with people in difficult circumstances?

We need applicants who can be sensitive to difficult situations whilst having the ability to negotiate and investigate individual client circumstances.

There will be occasions when you may need to provide challenging advice to clients in stressful circumstances.

You will also need to be skilled at ensuring that any bias does not affect the service that you offer to clients.

Are you able to learn new skills?

Our successful applicants will need to demonstrate their ability to learn new skills and legislation and work with clients with complex needs and issues.

Applicants will need to be computer literate, and have a flexible, organised approach to their work to cope with a challenging and varied case load.

Do you develop positive and professional relationships?

We need people who can work in partnership with other agencies to assist and support our clients.

The successful applicants will need to maintain and develop professional relationships with colleagues, landlords and a wide range of agencies.

Are you customer focused with good communication skills?

This post requires significant travel. You must have a vehicle (or transport we deem suitable) available for use as needed.

See our policy on safeguarding children and young people.

See our adult safeguarding policy.

Dorset Council:

A great place to work:
We're passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.

At Dorset Council we:
- provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
- have ambitious aspirations
- are excited about our future
- care about Dorset and all the people who live here
- know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success

You will:
- have access to a range of employee benefits
- be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
- have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.

We also look for appli