Housing Inclusion Worker in Southampton

£Permanent, Full Time

Hours: Monday to Friday. Generally no weekends or evenings, though there may be times client support needs or appointments mean these hours will be required.

Must be a driver with own car for use in role as travel is an essential part - we cannot offer interviews to non-drivers. Mileage will be paid for client and support related travel.

Experience working with challenging behaviour, mental health support, substance misuse or trauma beneficial. Awareness of Housing First principles would be desirable.

Our company supports individuals aged 16 and over, who have high support needs and a history of entrenched or repeat homelessness, to have a home of their own where they can regain stability, safety, and support. We work in partnership with the council and various housing associations to deliver intensive person-centred support and accommodation choices.

Our priority is to find safe, permanent housing that’s suitable for the client. Once housing is found our dedicated team provides intensive one to one support to enable clients to maintain their accommodation and achieve their goals.

Responsibilities include:

• Assessing the needs of each client, helping to develop their personalised support plan and safety plan to achieve their goals.
• Providing assertive outreach for those that are rough sleeping to build a trusting relationship, which will require a flexible approach to engagement techniques.
• Providing practical support when a client moves into a property such as setting up utilities, sourcing furniture, developing their domestic skills and accessing services in the community.
• Mediating and negotiating with housing providers to secure accommodation and prevent homelessness when applicable.
• Engaging with local authorities, health providers and other agencies, creating and maintaining working relationships to maximise the opportunities available to clients.
• Liaising with colleges, training agencies, employers to help clients gain access to education, find work or maintain their benefit entitlement.
• Leading on client activities to help them gain practical life skills.
• Supporting clients by providing advice on housing, welfare benefits, rent deposits and household goods via a variety of schemes.
• Carrying out housing management duties such as collecting service charges at various locations.
• Adhering to safeguarding responsibilities, following our safeguarding policy and procedure.
• Helping maintain health and safety, ensuring clients, visitors and buildings are safe in accordance with Health and Safety regulations, policy and procedures.
• Providing basic first aid assistance until help arrives (full training is provided).
• Working flexibly across several sites and in the community.

Requirements:

• Clear verbal and written English.
• Good keyboard skills for data inputting.
• Good working knowledge of Microsoft Outlook, Excel and Word.
• Dealing promptly with and effectively reacting to challenging situations.
• Having an interest and genuine concern for homelessness and related issues.
• Understanding of the complex support needs of people experiencing homelessness or those with complex needs.
• Knowledge of voluntary and statutory agencies, housing regulations and the benefits system.
• Understanding of risk assessment and person-centred, outcomes-based delivery.

We reserve the right to close our adverts early if a successful candidate is found, so please submit your application as soon as possible.

We carry out pre-employment checks such as DBS checks, Overseas police checks (where appropriate), reference checks, and CV gap querying for all new staff members.