Housing Register Assessor

About the role
Join our Housing Register team at Dorset Council and make a meaningful difference in the lives of individuals and families who have a variety of housing needs.

What’s in it for you:

As a Housing Register Assessor, you will be responsible for in-depth assessments for those applying to join the Housing Register whilst working in accordance with the Dorset Council Housing Allocations Policy checking eligibility and qualification. As a service we prioritise applicants at risk of homelessness or with safeguarding issues and refer to the Homeless Team when required.

This will broaden your knowledge of all parts of housing with an opportunity to develop transferable skills if you wish to explore other departments within Housing.

You’ll benefit from a friendly, dynamic, and supportive team environment that values your contributions and fosters a collaborative work atmosphere.

Most importantly, your role will have a direct and positive impact on the lives of individuals and families by ensuring they have access to essential housing services.

What you can expect to be doing:

As a Housing Register Assessor, you will conduct thorough assessments of housing applications from individuals, ensuring all actions comply with the Housing Allocations Policy. You will serve as the primary contact for applicants and their representatives, providing essential information and guidance throughout the application process.

Evaluating each applicant’s housing needs and eligibility for assistance will be a core part of your responsibilities, requiring careful verification of all necessary criteria. You’ll work closely with colleagues in the Homeless department and other relevant teams to ensure a seamless process for applicants, facilitating a collaborative approach to housing assistance.

The role involves confidently handling enquiries, providing clear communication, and offering effective solutions. You will manage and process applications efficiently, including timely responses to emails and phone calls. When additional support is needed, you will direct applicants to appropriate teams or services, ensuring the needs of those contacting the service are met.

About you:

You will be working within a friendly, dynamic, and very supportive team whilst working collaboratively in a confidential environment.

The working environment is busy and dynamic, subject to interruptions to deal with queries via telephone and email, so you will be experienced in balancing multiple priorities.

You will have excellent telephony and written skills to provide as much advice/support to our applicants as possible.

To have knowledge of allocation policy or working within a policy framework would be desirable.

Due to Housing being a busy service, its essential that you will be able to work effectively under minimum supervision.
Further Information
For further information regarding this position please contact Cara Buckley, Interim Housing Register Team Leader via email [email protected] or via telephone 01305 225328.

This post is fixed term for 12 months and will be full time (37 hours per week) which we are happy to discuss if you require alternative working arrangements.

This position offers the flexibility of working in a hybrid way providing support based in the Dorchester Office as well as working from home, whilst maintaining a great team ethic with regular catch up and share knowledge and information, as well as using Microsoft Teams to communicate throughout the day providing a network of support within the Housing Register Assessment Team.

We will be attending hubs in the future in order to assist our applicants who require face to face support which will be in libraries across Dorset.

The Dorset Council Housing Allocations Policy describes how social housing is available through our scheme.

This post requires significant travel. You must have a vehicle (or transport we deem suitable) available for use as needed.

This post requires you to have access to sensitive information. It will be subject to a Basic Criminal Records Check. See our policy on the employment of ex-offenders.

See our policy on safeguarding children and young people.

See our adult safeguarding policy
About Us
We’re passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.

At Dorset Council we:

provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
have ambitious aspirations
are excited about our future
care about Dorset and all the people who live here
know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success
You will:

have access to a range of employee benefits
be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression
We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation.

We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.

We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments.

We also look for applicants who share our commitment to our behaviours. We will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

If appointed, the personal information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found at https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.

This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process.

We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in a context statement if relevant.