Neighbourhood Partnership Specialist

What You Can Expect From Us

• Competitive salary of £37,250
• 32 days annual leave plus bank holidays – total 40 days paid holiday per annum (8 weeks).
• Salary Finance – access to short and long‑term loans and a savings facility.
• Option to increase annual leave with service or via the holiday purchase scheme.
• Immediate entry to Pension scheme (matched contributions up to 10%).
• Flexible working environment and family‑friendly policies.
• Simply Health cash plan with dental, optical, physiotherapy, 24HR private GP access and more.
• Paid leave for sickness, maternity, paternity and adoption.
• £150 annual learning allowance under the ‘Learning for Life’ scheme.
• Wide range of discounts and cash‑back offers (retail, automotive, holidays, cycle‑to‑work).
• Career development support with training and qualifications.

About The Role

We are seeking a Neighbourhood Partnership Specialist to join our Neighbourhoods team in the Cheshire/Halton area on a permanent basis. The role delivers face‑to‑face customer services and housing support, providing support to customers, delivering social impact and tenancy management services. It requires ensuring high‑quality customer service, collaboration with colleagues and partners, and championing the Onward values to enable people and communities to be their best.

A valid full UK Driving Licence is required for this role.

Key Responsibilities

• Social Impact – Identify and contribute to social impact opportunities within the neighbourhood and across the region; support delivery of Neighbourhood Improvements; develop connections with partners, organisations and community groups.
• Tenancy Management – Provide a comprehensive tenancy management service; let homes to minimise rent loss; conduct estate inspections; identify improvements; manage service charges effectively.
• Tenancy Sustainment – Manage tenancies at risk of failure; support customers to adhere to tenancy terms; provide referrals; work closely with statutory services; provide low‑level support.
• Customer Service and Voice – Deliver high‑quality customer service; develop positive relationships; listen, hear and act on customer voice.
• Neighbourhood Plus – Collaborate with colleagues from other teams and departments to deliver neighbourhood initiatives linked to the Onward Difference.
• Partnership Working – Contribute to excellent external partnership work; act as ambassador and advocate for customers.
• Professional Curiosity – Be professionally curious; safeguard, manage vulnerable situations; make reasonable adjustments; log customer contacts.

Skills And Experience

• Knowledge and awareness of related housing regulations/law.
• Experience delivering face‑to‑face customer service.
• Experience developing partnership working with support agencies, local authorities and community groups.
• Ability to engage and work with complex and challenging caseloads or individuals.
• Good understanding of the social, economic and political context of the neighbourhoods.
• Competent IT skills, including intermediate proficiency in Microsoft Office.
• Ability to support external funding bids as required.
• Experience delivering on‑site projects and improvements.

Qualifications

Essential

• Educated to GCSE standard or equivalent qualifications/experience.

Desirable

• Relevant professional qualification, e.g., CIH.

About Onward

Onward Homes is one of the largest registered providers of social housing in the Northwest, with 35,000 properties across the region.

We believe that everyone deserves a place to call their own, which is why we’re committed to building 500 new homes each year. We do more than just provide a roof over our customers’ heads; we’re here to make a real difference.

In addition to creating positive spaces for our customers, we continuously strive to create a positive and progressive workspace to enable our colleagues to achieve their full potential.

We embrace diversity and strive to build diverse teams to create an inclusive culture that enables Onward to thrive and be representative of the communities that we serve. We want to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to be part of our recruitment processes and will therefore make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to assist you with our recruitment process via the email address below.

If candidates have any concerns or questions in relation to the role at any stage of the recruitment and selection process they can contact the HR team at HumanResourcesTeam@onward.co.uk and a member of the HR Team will be in touch.