Housing Advice and Options Manager

North Northamptonshire Council; Kettering; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee Assistance Programme

Employee Benefits Scheme

Wellbeing support

Travel rates at HMRC rates

Active Employee Network Groups

Job summary

North Northamptonshire Council is seeking an experienced Housing Advice and Options Manager to lead homelessness prevention and improve housing services across the area.

You will manage a team, develop and implement new practices, ensure legal compliance, and drive performance against the Homelessness Strategy while building strong partnerships with internal and external partners to deliver positive outcomes for residents.

Qualifications

• Educated to degree standard and/or with a relevant housing qualification or equivalent capability.
• Detailed up-to-date knowledge of homelessness legislation and ability to apply it in practice.
• Experience managing successful housing services and driving improvement.
• Experience managing budgets, forecasting expenditure and achieving value for money.
• Excellent verbal and written communication to deliver clear messages to diverse audiences.
• Business acumen with ability to analyse data, contracts and reports.
• Evidence of successful team leadership and staff development.
• Awareness of equal opportunities and welfare needs.
• Full driving licence and access to a vehicle.

Responsibilities

• Lead the strategic leadership, management and delivery of the Housing Advice and Options service.
• Develop and implement new practices to strengthen early intervention and homelessness prevention.
• Ensure high-quality, legally compliant outcomes for people who are homeless or at risk.
• Manage a team, oversee budgets, and drive service development.
• Drive forward the Council's Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy.
• Build strong partnerships with internal teams and external agencies.
• Use data and insight to improve service delivery and outcomes.

Skills

Communication skills

Leadership

Budget management

Data analysis

Driving licence

Homelessness legislation

Education

Degree or housing qualification

Relevant housing qualification

Job description

Lead change. Prevent homelessness. Improve lives., We are seeking a experienced Housing Advice and Options Manager to help drive improvements across housing services. The role will focus on strengthening homelessness prevention, reducing the use of temporary accommodation, and leading the development and performance of the service. You will manage and support a team, ensuring effective, customer-focused delivery and positive outcomes for residents. This is an opportunity for a confident leader with strong housing and homelessness experience who is passionate about service improvement and tackling homelessness.What will you be doing? You will have overall responsibility for the strategic leadership, management and delivery of the Housing Advice and Options service. You will lead the development and implementation of new practices and initiatives that strengthen early intervention and homelessness prevention, embedding innovation and best practice across the service. You will ensure the delivery of high-quality, legally compliant outcomes for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, providing clear strategic oversight, exploring all appropriate housing options, and ensuring decisions are made in line with legislation and statutory guidance. Duties will include:

• Leading the delivery of a responsive and effective housing advice and options service.
• Ensuring the Council meets its statutory duties under homelessness legislation.
• Managing a team of officers and overseeing performance, budgets, and service development.
• Driving forward the Council's Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy.
• Building strong partnerships with internal teams and external agencies.
• Using data and insight to improve service delivery and outcomes., Our values define who we are and how we operate, by forming the foundation for how we interact with our customers, colleagues and provide our services. They are also at the forefront of our decision making and delivery and are:

Customer-focused Respectful Efficient Supportive Trustworthy Our key commitments help ensure that the priorities we make, now and in the future, maintain the necessary breadth of focus in those areas that we believe matter most.

Qualifications

• Educated to degree standard and /or with a relevant housing qualification or demonstrate equivalent capability
• Detailed, up to date knowledge of homelessness legislation, including a practical understanding of the routes to a legal challenge
• Experience of managing successful and effective housing services in a relevant context
• Experience of managing budgets, including forecasting expenditure and obtaining value for money through procurement
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills to ensure that consistent and clear messages are delivered to a variety of audiences
• Business acumen and commercial awareness, with the ability to analyse data/spreadsheets/reports and contracts to identify salient issues
• Evidence of successful team leadership and motivating, mentoring and coaching staff
• Ability to demonstrate awareness/understanding of equal opportunities and other people's behaviour, physical, social and welfare needs
• Full driving license and access to a vehicle
• We provide a range of great benefits such as an Employee Assistance Programme, an Employee Benefits Scheme, wellbeing support, travel rates at HMRC rates, as well as supporting a range of active Employee Network Groups.

Why choose us?

Here at North Northamptonshire Council, we're transforming for the better, using all our creativity and imagination to create the best life for our local people. You'll find that we have a wide range of careers that may be more surprising than you think! Why choose us? We offer a vibrant working environment with:

• a competitive salary
• a pension scheme, where we pay a significant contribution on top of your contribution. It provides life cover and ill-health protection.
• lots of opportunities to develop your skills, knowledge and potential in a large unitary council
• generous leave entitlement (28 days, rising to 33 days) and bank holidays, plus the option to buy up to an extra 10 days
• hybrid and flexible working arrangements, where practicable for service needs to help you with a healthy work-life balance.