Housing Triage Officer in Worthing

Join Our Dedicated Housing Needs Team and Make a Real Difference in Your Community! At Adur & Worthing Councils, we are driven by the belief that everyone deserves a safe, secure, and affordable home. While experience is valued, we also welcome applications from individuals with relevant and transferable knowledge and skills, as we are committed to providing excellent support and training.

We're transforming our housing services with a focus on proactive prevention, early support, and empowering individuals to lead positive, healthy, and independent lives. This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a team that truly helps people before they reach crisis, enables people to live independent lives and improves access to housing for those who need it most.

Our brilliant, hardworking, and dedicated Housing Needs Team is looking for a highly motivated individual with a desire to make a tangible difference in the local community. We need someone who can work in a challenging yet incredibly rewarding environment, where you can make a real difference to people’s lives.

This role will be responsible for triaging approaches to the service - in person at the Town Hall, via our online application and the service email inbox and will involve case work to give advice and prevent homelessness. Most importantly, we are looking for someone who is deeply empathetic and can communicate with clarity while maintaining good boundaries in a role where you'll be making significant decisions in people's lives.

You will be motivated, passionate, and resilient, with the ability to work well under pressure. Success in this role also requires the ability to navigate policy and process effectively, alongside being creative and adaptive in your approach to helping people. You will be working with a diverse range of residents with varying needs. This requires you to be adept and skilled in your interactions, as some individuals may present with challenging behaviours due to their life experiences and potential trauma.

This vital work requires excellent collaboration with partner agencies. You will need to be able to develop good working relationships, build trust, and negotiate effectively on behalf of our residents. Most of all - you will be supported to do this work!

The successful candidate will be subject to an Enhanced DBS check clearance. At Adur & Worthing, we are committed to supporting care leavers, in accordance with the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 and the Children and Social Work Act 2017. To that end, we operate a guaranteed interview scheme for anyone meeting the essential criteria of the role they are applying for. In order to be considered for this, you will need to be a care leaver under the age of 25 at the time of application. Please confirm that you are a care leaver in the "Showing how you meet the person specification and job description" section of the application form.

As a Disability Confident employer, we will ensure that a fair and proportionate number of applicants declaring a disability, that meet the essential criteria for this position, will be offered an interview. Staff are our most important asset and we therefore have a benefit package which reflects our continuing commitment to our employees. This includes:

• Generous leave entitlement; a minimum of 26 days + Bank Holiday entitlement
• Occupational Health
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
• Employee resource groups/networks
• Buddy Support Programme
• Flexible working options

We are committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive community - a place where we can all be ourselves and succeed on merit. Staff work in a supportive and safe environment, recognising their responsibility to value and respect each other’s contributions. Standards of conduct must be of the highest level to ensure that no-one is harassed, bullied or victimised. We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, staff engagement forums and are keen to hear from applicants from a variety of different backgrounds.