• Locations

  Kingston upon Thames, London

• Salary

  Up to £24 per annum

• Sector

  Homelessness, Housing, Revenues & Benefits

• Type

  Contract / Interim

RB Kingston Upon Thames – Temporary Accommodation Officer

Are you a Temporary Accommodation Officer looking for your next assignment? RB Kingston Upon Thames are looking for Temporary Accommodation Officer

Role purpose

To ensure the effective and efficient management of all Temporary Accommodation accommodation in accordance with relevant legislation, policies and procedures.

To ensure all repairing obligations and health & housing safety rating standards are met within Temporary Accommodation provided within the Council’s own Hostel accommodation and homes leased in the private sector including that managed by external providers.

To manage relationships with homeless households provided temporary accommodation including action to assist in income recovery, investigate anti-social behaviour and where needed recover possession

To build and maintain relationships with providers of Temporary Accommodation.

To identify safeguarding risks, welfare and support needs of residents and the suitability of accommodation provided

To support the Temporary Accommodation Team Manager and the Accommodation Services Lead by contributing to the overall development of the temporary accommodation service.

The role will report to the Temporary Accommodation Team Manager and has no line management responsibility

Internal Relationships

Elected Members & Councillors

Team Colleagues

Head of Service

Colleagues in Childrens & Adults Social Care & Housing

Finance & Benefits Teams

Environmental Health

Building Control

External Relationships

Service users (and their representatives)

Temporary accommodation providers

Housing Association/Registered Provider partners

All relevant partner organisations for whom and with whom the Council does business (strategic partnerships,, local authorities, registered providers, developers, private owners, et al) and other Government/regulatory bodies (Housing Regulator, GLA, et al)

Benchmarking partners

South West London Fraud Team

Key activities

Performance

Works with manager and colleagues to define outcomes, set targets and monitor performance, within a culture of continual improvement

Supports operational plans to ensure that the resources within the teams are used to best effect and impact

Customers and Partners

Builds strong internal and external working partnerships to enable the service to be delivered in an outcome-focused and efficient way

Supports Kingston’s commitment to community cohesion and valuing diversity and social inclusion

Digital/New Ways of Working

Uses new technologies, particularly Google, to adopt modern, agile working practices, improve customer service and eliminate paper-based processes .

Delivery

To deliver a high quality temporary accommodation management service to homeless households and other occupants of temporary accommodation including the Council Hostels, Private Leasing Scheme and other supported accommodation including homes spot purchased with providers used to accommodate homeless households, social service clients and individuals with experience of rough sleeping.

To undertake property viewings and sign-ups and to support residents to retain their homes by actively assisting in application for housing benefit on commencement of lettings.

To ensure rent account set-up and closure applicable to a letting providing information to residents on mechanisms for rent payment.

To advise the Housing Access and Housing Solutions team of nominees acceptance of accommodation or in refusal to help secure reasons for this at viewing to provide the Housing Access team.

To ensure periodic compliance certification, health and housing safety rating checks through a programme of periodic and responsive property visits and provide person centred fire risk assessments to ensure safety of occupants.

To undertake property inspections at pre-void, void, re-let and within a planned programme of visits to identify repair and property improvement needs providing report on property conditions and using photo-book or other tools to identify and monitor repair and improvement needs to completion.

To raise repair requests with accommodation providers and contractors and to monitor their completion to ensure the Local Authority meets its obligations to residents and that providers meet the contractual terms of their lease or other agreement.

To ensure any absence of repair or improvement needed, breach of compliance certification or property hazard identified within the health and housing safety rating system is recorded and escalated to providers of accommodation and team leader and in absence of action within reasonable timescales referred to the Market Supply team billings officer.

To ensure any applicable recharge for repair to occupier or provider in notifying party and referring collection charge to Market Supply team billings officer.

To provide responses to enquiries related to property conditions, improvement and repair requests from accommodation providers, residents, their advocates and elected representatives.

To proactively work to reduce void turnaround, minimising financial loss.

Morgan Hunt is a multi-award-winning recruitment business for interim, contract and temporary recruitment and acts as an Employment Agency in relation to permanent vacancies. Morgan Hunt is an equal opportunities employer. Job suitability is assessed on merit in accordance with the individual’s skills, qualifications and abilities to perform the relevant duties required in a particular role.