Housing Specialist

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust; Worthing; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent healthcare organization in Worthing seeks a Housing Specialist to join their new Housing Team. You will provide essential housing advice and interventions to individuals within adult mental health services, focusing on preventing homelessness and ensuring individuals secure stable housing. This role offers a supportive work environment, encouraging flexible hours, and significant collaboration with local authorities. Ideal candidates will have a solid understanding of housing law and relevant practical experience, and be ready to travel across various sites as needed.

Benefits

Flexible working opportunities

Regular supervision and mentoring

Focus on staff welfare

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in a relevant field or equivalent experience.
• Good knowledge of housing policy and practice related to homelessness duties.
• Experience working in housing advice for people with mental health needs.

Responsibilities

• Deliver specialist housing advice to prevent homelessness.
• Prepare applications for assistance on behalf of the Local Housing Authority.
• Coordinate housing needs with mental health services.

Job description

Housing Specialists will join a newly created Housing Team within Sussex Partnership Trust which looks to embed housing expertise across our adult mental health services. Housing Specialists provide housing advice and interventions to people open to adult mental health services. Each Housing Specialist is assigned a host Local Authority area and accepts housing referrals for service users living in that area.

The role will involve travel across various sites across the Crawley area which will include inpatient and community mental health teams, Council Offices, and people's homes. On occasion this could include travel outside of the district. Housing Specialists are expected to work face to face and virtually with people subject to need, demand, location and communication preference.

Successful applicants will have strong knowledge of housing and homelessness legislation, processes, and practice coupled with experiences of providing housing advice services to vulnerable people. Although not essential as training will be provided, it would be advantageous for applicants to have had some experience working with people who experience severe and enduring mental health problems

Main duties of the job

Housing Specialists will receive referrals for people using adult mental health services who have a variety of housing needs. You will be responsible for delivering specialist housing advice, assistance and interventions for adults using mental health services in a way that prevents or relieves homelessness, or improves poor housing quality. This will be done by completing full housing assessments, creating clear action plans that help address the persons housing needs, and coordinating activity required to secure a positive outcome. You will be expected to manage and prioritise a caseload of people who are in housing need across your designated area alongside contributing to an office hours team duty system in place for referrals across Sussex.

The successful candidate will have formal working arrangement with Crawley Borough Council. A part of this role will be preparing information on behalf of the Local Housing Authority for individuals who may be homeless or threatened with homelessness. Housing Specialists will act in accordance with mental health and homelessness legislation including statutory Codes of Guidance and policies relevant to their Local Housing Authority

About us

We recognise that working in mental health can be stressful at times so we prioritise staff welfare; providing regular supervision, mentoring, and any other support that our staff need to ensure their wellbeing. We also encourage flexible working.

We know that a positive work/life balance brings about huge health-related benefits, which has a positive impact on the care we provide. Please speak to us about flexible working, for example, partial home-working, part-time hours, or flexible start/finish times. If it works for you and works for the role, we'll do our best to make it happen.

Our vision is to provide outstanding care and treatment; the people that we employ are at the heart of making this vision a reality. If you've got the passion, the belief, the drive and the talent to help us achieve our vision then we would like to hear from you.

To protect the health and safety of our staff/workers, patients, and those attending our sites, we encourage our workforce to get fully vaccinated against COVID

Job responsibilities

To deliver specialist housing advice, assistance, and interventions to people who use our services in relation to their housing needs which will prevent or relieve homelessness, secure good quality and longer term settled housing solutions, and reduce financial hardship.

Prepare information and support decision makers on formal applications for assistance, on behalf of the Local Housing Authority they are attached to, from persons who may be homeless or threatened with homelessness, acting in accordance with the homelessness legislation, statutory Code of Guidance and the policies of the relevant Local Housing Authority.

To work between local mental health and housing systems to ensure people who use our services and staff receive high quality and timely specialist housing input and access to wider housing teams and referral pathways.

The position will be primarily based within the Crawley area and the applicant will be expected to travel across multiple sites across the district. On occasion this may involve travel outside the Worthing area in order to meet need.

Person Specification

• Undergraduate degree in relevant field or equivalent experience
• Good knowledge and understanding of relevant areas of housing policy and practice including the law relating to local housing authority homelessness duties and the allocation of social housing
• Experience of working in a professional housing advice capacity with people who have housing and mental health needs
• Evidence of continuous professional development
• Good understanding of the role and responsibilities in relation to the safeguarding of vulnerable adults and children
• Experience of partnership working within and across various statutory and non-statutory teams and agencies

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.