Homelessness Prevention Officer

Communities

Housing Options

Homelessness Prevention Officer

Ref: 001611

Contract

1x Permanent / 1x Fixed term maternity cover

Salary

£34,434 - £38,220 per annum (Grade 6)

Hours

36.66 per week

Location

Civic Centre, West Street, Oldham OL1 1UT

Closing Date

Sunday 26 July 2026

Interview Date

TBC.

Role Overview

To deliver high quality, customer focused advice and support to people in Oldham who find themselves homeless or at risk of homelessness. This will include providing housing advice to people in the district and completing investigations into applications from customers who are at risk of homelessness as defined by the statutory duties under Housing Act 1996 Part VII, the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and relevant case law.

To provide support to the Council in delivering its statutory homelessness duties by taking homeless applications in an effective manner, ensuring the council is legally compliant, and meeting performance targets and standards.

Key Responsibilities

• To provide a professional and effective housing options interview and homelessness investigation, taking a full application from customers and ensuring duties are carried out at the relevant stages within homelessness legislation.
• To assess customer’s needs accurately in accordance with the Care Act 2014, the Children Act 1989 and all relevant housing legislation.
• To undertake detailed casework with customers who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. This includes an assessment of legal duties owed, housing and support needs, the production of Personal Housing Plans and consideration of all suitable interventions and potential solutions to prevent homelessness.
• To visit customers who are potentially homeless and their excluders in order to assess and validate their current circumstances, as well as advising on options available to remain in existing accommodation.
• To organise specialist help and make referrals on behalf of customers to support them with specific problems e.g. substance misuse, mental health, debt management, benefits and council tax.
• To write and issue all required notifications, letters of referral to other authorities where the customer’s local connection lies elsewhere and outcome letters to advise the customer of the outcome of their initial interview. This includes ‘minded to letters’ and the drafting of the statutory s184 notification letters which must be approved by a manager before being sent.
• To respond to incoming enquiries by whatever means they are received and to provide timely responses where required.
• To work with colleagues who provide the Temporary Accommodation Services in placing housing in line with policy and existing processes. To update housing records and issue customers with correct notification at the time of placing and where their placement is ended.
• To provide the Council’s Out of Hours Emergency Housing Service and Cold Weather Provision on a rota basis with other colleagues. To provide advice or practical assistance, including placing customers where it is established that they are roofless.
• To ensure that comprehensive, timely and accurate records are kept for all customers. To maintain computer records, reports and other monitoring information as required in connection with the duties undertaken.
• To comply with all relevant legislation, Government Guidance, Codes of Guidance, policies and procedures, professional and performance standards and good housing and homelessness practice.
• To represent the Service and the Council at meetings in relation to the role and where required to do so.

Key Requirements

To succeed in this role, you will be able to:

• Demonstrable experience of working in the homelessness/temporary accommodation/housing advice field.
• Communicate effectively and be confident to challenge when advising and supporting senior officers.
• Excellent organisational skills to agree, develop and manage the provision of appropriate business intelligence; ensuring managers have access to appropriate and timely information about their service and Oldham.

Benefits

• 25 days annual leave which increases after 5 and 10-years’ service
• The option to purchase additional annual leave.
• An attractive LGPS benefit pension scheme with the option to make shared cost additional voluntary contributions.
• Discounted gym membership with Oldham Active.
• Staff discount scheme for shopping, entertainment, eating-out, eating-in, travel, motoring and more.
• Salary sacrifice scheme for home and electronics and Cycle to Work.
• Wellbeing support, including a Mental Health First Aider network and an Employment Assistance Programme that provides 24 hours access to advice and support.
• Staff recognition and celebration events.
• Peer support groups

Inclusive Recruitment

We work closely with employees to help them work at their best, including making adjustments such as flexible working, describing available working patterns, providing equipment or making changes to the workplace.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and therefore expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you have lived or worked abroad for 3 months or more in the last 5 years or 12 months or more (whether continuously or in total) in the last 10 years whilst aged 18 or over, please refer to the link below for details for how to obtain your Certificates of Good Character. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants

Unfortunately, at this time we are not able to offer sponsorship.

If you have completed the GM Elevate (Leadership Development) Programme please indicate this within the ‘About You’ or ‘Supporting Statement’ section of your application.

If you’re an applicant with disabilities and have previously been in or currently in care, a carer, someone who has served in the Armed Forces, or you’ve participated in the GM Elevate Programme, and you meet the essential criteria of the role, you are guaranteed to reach the first stage of assessment under our Guaranteed Assessment Scheme.

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Important Information

Please note that should a vacancy that has been released for internal or external recruitment be deemed suitable for a current employee at risk of redundancy, it can be pulled back at any point, up to the post being formally offered to a candidate who is not at risk of redundancy.