Housing Caseworker West

About the role
We are looking for a Housing Caseworker to come and join us.

The team is a busy statutory frontline service which seeks to sympathetically yet robustly assist those households who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. You will have the support of a number of different teams based within the service to help you deliver the best options for our customers.

This post offers the flexibility of working in a hybrid way. There is the option to be have an office base at a number of locations across Dorset as well as working from home. Our Housing Caseworkers are available for in person surgeries held at a number of Customer Access Points in our Libraries and the successful candidate will partake in a duty rota to deliver this.

The post will be offered initially on a fixed term contract until March 2026 but there may be scope to extend this depending on funding opportunities.

The reason why someone becomes homeless is varied and as a Housing Caseworker you will be expected to deal and offer advise over a wide range of issues including but not limited to:assessing any duties owed under the Housing Act 1996
tenants rights and occupation
benefit eligibility and assisting to make claims where required
rent or mortgage arrears
managing debt
assisting people who are at risk of violence or abuse
applying for social housing
obtaining accommodation in the private rented sector.

For those customers who are owed a duty under homeless legislation you will be assessing customers needs and devising Personal Housing Plans outlining the steps that both you and the customer will take to remedy the situation.
Do you develop positive and professional relationships?
We need people who can work in partnership with other agencies to assist and support our clients. The successful applicants will need to maintain and develop professional relationships with colleagues, landlords and a wide range of agencies.

Are you customer focused with good communication skills?
We need applicants who can adapt their communication style to provide specialist advice with a wide range of people and organisations. Our successful candidates will be able to communicate well verbally and in writing.

Are you able to switch from one task to another ?
Housing Officers will deal will diverse cases from one moment to the next. You will need to develop an understanding not just of homelessness legislation but other statutory sources in order to fully advise our applicants.

Further Information
This is a full time role at 37 hours per week.

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

This post involves working with children and/or vulnerable adults and/or having access to significant information about them. It will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service 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.