Housing Advice and Prevention Officer – AR

East Suffolk Council
Location: East Suffolk / Remote
Contract: Temporary, until the end of January 2027
Hours: 37 hours per week
Rate: £22.20 PAYE per hour
IR35: Inside IR35
Start Date: ASAP
DBS: Basic DBS required
Interview: Microsoft Teams

About the Role

East Suffolk Council is looking for an experienced Housing Advice and Prevention Officer to join its Housing Needs team.

This is a front-line housing role focused on providing housing advice, assessing homelessness applications and helping to prevent and relieve homelessness. You will work with customers with a range of housing needs, including vulnerable individuals and families, ensuring they receive appropriate advice and support in line with current housing legislation.

Key Responsibilities

• Assess applications under Part VI of the Housing Act 1996, including housing register applications and reviews of housing priority.
• Assess homelessness applications under Part VII of the Housing Act 1996 and determine the Council’s statutory duties.
• Undertake homelessness investigations and provide clear, accurate statutory decisions.
• Carry out active homelessness prevention and relief casework.
• Manage a varied and sometimes complex caseload from initial application through to resolution.
• Interview customers who are homeless or threatened with homelessness and assess their housing circumstances.
• Provide advice on housing options and appropriate accommodation.
• Support customers through the housing register, bidding and offer process.
• Consider financial assistance and make recommendations to support homelessness prevention.
• Work with private landlords and other housing providers where appropriate.
• Maintain accurate case records and ensure decisions and actions are fully documented.
• Work closely with statutory and voluntary agencies to support customers with complex needs.
• Deal appropriately with cases involving safeguarding, domestic abuse, ASB, vulnerable adults, care leavers, veterans and other specialist client groups.
• Use Civica and relevant housing systems to maintain accurate case information.
• Participate in telephone duty, home visits and, where required, out-of-hours services.

Essential Experience

The successful candidate will have:

• Previous experience working within a local authority Housing Needs, Housing Options or Homelessness team.
• Strong experience assessing homelessness applications.
• Experience writing/making statutory homelessness decisions.
• Good knowledge of Part VI and Part VII of the Housing Act 1996.
• Experience working with the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.
• Experience of homelessness prevention and relief work.
• Experience managing a housing/homelessness caseload.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• The ability to explain housing legislation clearly to customers.
• Experience working with vulnerable customers and partner agencies.

Desirable

• Civica housing system experience.
• Relevant housing qualification, such as CIH Level 3 or equivalent.
• Experience with temporary accommodation and private rented sector access schemes.
• Experience dealing with complex cases involving safeguarding, domestic abuse or supported accommodation.
• Previous multi-agency working within a local authority environment.

What We Are Looking For

We are looking for someone who is confident making housing decisions, can manage a busy caseload independently and has a strong understanding of homelessness legislation.

You will need to remain calm when dealing with challenging situations, communicate sensitively with vulnerable customers and ensure all decisions are accurate, evidence-based and properly recorded.

Additional Requirements

• Current valid driving licence and access to a car.
• Ability to participate in an out-of-hours standby rota where required.
• Commitment to equality, diversity and excellent customer service.
• Ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a wider Housing Needs team.

Working Arrangements

The role can be predominantly remote, with equipment available to be provided. There may be occasional face-to-face team meetings, depending on service requirements.

If you have strong local authority homelessness and housing options experience, particularly Part VI/Part VII and statutory homelessness decision-making experience, this could be a strong fit.