Housing Support Officer
Closing date: June 17th, 2022
Job Title:
Housing Support Officer
Responsible to:
Service Manager
Responsible for:
N/A
Hours of Work:
38.6 hrs per week
Location:
YMCA Lister & Ullet Road, Liverpool
Salary and benefits:
- £20,766 per annum
- Holiday entitlement is 25 days plus 8 bank holidays
- Company Contributory Pension Scheme
- Medicash
YMCA Together is a registered charity and company Limited by Guarantee. We were founded in 1846 and so we build on a long history of providing a place for people experiencing challenging times in their lives.
YMCA Together is a truly value driven organisation.
Our vision is that everyone should feel safe, understood, empowered and positive for their future. We meet our vision by working within our values of Strength, Humility, Respect, Empathy and Kindness. These SHREK values run through all that we do from recruitment to how we work alongside people in our services to our partnership approach with other providers.
Our clear vision and values come together to help us in our mission to inspire and support people to change their lives by instilling hope, valuing the person and maximising potential.
Job Purpose
To assist in the provision of effective high quality support services to complex, challenging individuals who present with homelessness, mental health, substance misuse and offending behaviour with the aim of promoting independent living.
We operate a ‘flexible hostel approach’ so that behaviours that would normally result in eviction with a return to homelessness and rough sleeping are tackled creatively to address the behaviour without rejecting the individuals. A key outcome of using this approach has been a significant reduction in evictions and abandonments. We ensure that every service we deliver is psychologically informed and underpinned by two approaches, Cognitive Analytical Therapy and Trauma Informed Care.
Duties and Responsibilities
The post holder will provide front desk services for residents, dealing with their daily requests for information and assistance, management of the telephone system, the taking and recording of rents and other payments, the monitoring and signing in of resident’s visitors, contractors and external agencies.
Informal Support and Risk Assessing
- Assist the support workers with the induction and housing management of their case load taking direction as required including setting up Housing Benefit claims
- Update and communicate resident risk assessments in line with LYMCA/City wide policy and procedure
- Encourage residents to take part in activities
- Provide clear, comprehensive and accurate information on handovers to the team making recommendations where appropriate
- Assisting residents in personal and room hygiene including supported room cleans
- Assisting in the cleaning and turnaround of void rooms
- Maintain accurate up to date electronic and written records.
Resident Involvement and Engagement
- Encourage involvement, participation and co-production from residents in the running and development of the service
- Provide a safe, welcoming environment with excellent standards and an ethos of service delivery that encourages residents to engage
Multi Agency Working
- Provide information on harm reduction and health interventions on request
- Promote and encourage the pathway to independence working to a CAT approach.
Reporting/ Monitoring
- Monitor positive feedback from residents and external agencies
- Ensure applicants are processed thoroughly and within the correct time frames.
Health and Safety
- Liaise with Emergency Services; Fire, Police and Medical
- Ensure at all times the safety of yourself and others on the premises in which you work
- Conduct routine Health & Safety inspections throughout the building
- To report incidents, in line with YMCA Liverpool & Sefton’s licence agreement, to tackle any nuisance caused by members’ behaviour or their visitors
- Adhere to member checks, handover and incident process
- Ensure that all communal and work areas are clean and tidy.
Team Work
- Attend to all enquiries and pass messages onto relevant people
- Develop excellent and robust relationships, protocols, contacts and service level agreements with referring agencies, statutory services and wider stakeholder
- Contribute to the formulation of policy and procedures in relation to support services
- Attend and participate in regular team meetings to ensure good communication.
General
- To have a flexible and positive attitude to all team members
- To be committed to learning both as an individual and as part of a team
- Undertake own administrative services and report writing
- Prioritise work load
- To work to agreed individual, team and organisational objectives and to work towards YMCA Liverpool & Sefton performance targets
- Sharing information and expertise with colleagues, covering absence and working together to deliver a high-quality service
- Uphold and develop YMCA Liverpool & Sefton’s Equal Opportunities Policy of anti-discriminatory practices across all services
- Observe and ensure compliance with the Service Code of Conduct including professional boundaries and confidentiality at all times
- Ensure adherence to YMCA ‘visitors’ procedure
- Dealing promptly with all complaints in line with YMCA policies and procedures
- Prepare for and attend supervision and appraisal sessions with your line manager, taking direction as appropriate and contributing to the development of both you and the service.
Relationships
The post holder will be required to have contact with a variety of people during the course of their work. The context of this contact will vary from formal ‘Key working’ to informal networking and relationship building with the Local Authority and other relevant agencies.
Annual appraisal and regular work review with line managers is an operational requirement, as is attendance at weekly support team meetings.
It is recognised that the association is operating in a dynamic environment and as such this job description may be varied in consultation with the post holder to reflect evolving needs of the business and changing nature of the job
PERSON SPECIFICATION – Housing Support Officer
Qualifications – Essential
- Educated to level 2 or equivalent qualification
Qualifications – Desirable
- NVQ in Customer Service
- Qualification in Welfare Rights
- Qualification in IT such as CLAIT, ECDL, ITQ
Experiences – Essential
- A minimum of one year’s experience of working within a hostel setting or similar
- Experience of partnership working
- Working experience of maintaining up to date electronic records and calendars
- Experience of dealing with customer enquiries
Experiences – Desirable
- Experience of working within a psychologically informed environment (PIE)
- Experience of Trauma Informed Care and of working in a therapeutic environment
Knowledge – Essential
- A working knowledge of Health & Safety issues
- Knowledge of safeguarding protocols
- Knowledge and understanding of how to deal with challenging and chaotic individuals
Knowledge – Desirable
- Knowledge of health interventions Knowledge of welfare rights and benefits
Skills – Essential
- Computer literate, competent in working with Microsoft word, outlook , windows
- Excellent communication, engagement and interpersonal skills
- Excellent administration skills
- Ability and willingness to work unsupervised
- Ability to encourage involvement and participation from residents
Skills – Desirable
- Analytical and reporting skills
Behaviour/ Attributes – Essential
- Committed to improving the lives of homeless vulnerable people with complex needs
- Committed to own personal development and CPD planning
- Creative and dynamic approach with the ability to “think outside of the box” when providing solutions
- Energetic, highly motivated with a reputation of being held in high regard by peers
- Excellent interpersonal/ communication skills
- Excellent negotiation/ mediation skills
- Committed to own career development
- Committed to promoting the Company’s Equality and Diversity values
- Ability to work within and have commitment to YMCA ethos, philosophy and SHREK values, Strength, Humility, Respect, Empathy and Kindness
- Energetic, dynamic and self-motivated
If you would like to apply for this role please click here APPLY NOW
To download a copy of our application form, please click HERE
If you would like to apply not directly through the website, please email your completed application form to recruitment@ymcatogether.org.uk