Housing Renewals Support Officer

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join Portsmouth City Councils Housing Renewals service, which forms part of the Private Sector Housing Team.

You will work proactively within the Housing Renewals team’s Home Improvement Agency service to support applicants through the adaptation process.

Your role will include:

• Reviewing Occupational Therapist referrals and recommendations for adaptations, typically the removal of a bath and replacement with a level access shower.
• Visiting applicants’ in their home to assist with completing grant application forms to fund the required adaptations, ensuring accuracy and attention to detail.
• Communicating with the grant applicant and the Occupational Therapist (OT) about the process and the required adaptations
• Carrying out basic visual surveys—typically of bathrooms—and recording relevant notes based on the recommendations of the Occupational Therapist.
• Using these notes to prepare a simple plan and specification for the required adaptations using standard templates.
• Contact contractors to obtain quotes for the work.
• Track the progress of the works, communicating with the contractor and the grant applicant where necessary, and check that the adaptations are completed in-line with the specification.
• Complete forms to confirm the adaptations are finalised and meet the specification, and to arrange for the payment of the grant to be processed by others.

This is a chance to join a well-established and supportive team and make a real difference to people’s lives in Portsmouth, Fareham and Gosport —a role that’s both meaningful and rewarding.



Skills:

• Hold a full driving license, as driving is an essential part of the role.

• Have excellent people skills with the ability to talk to an array of people including vulnerable clients, contractors, and other professionals. You must have a calm, professional and empathetic manner to be able to understand the situations of our customers and other stakeholders and be able to communicate clearly and concisely with them.

• Have excellent literacy and numeracy skills and attention to detail.

• Experience of maintaining accurate case records, and ensuring that sensitive data is handled in line with information governance requirements.

• It would be desirable to have knowledge or experience of working with Housing Grants, specifically Disabled Facilities Grants, although this is not essential.

• Have a good working knowledge of Microsoft Packages (to include Word, Outlook, Excel) and databases (we will be using IDOX Uniform). Experience of using basic drawing programmes is also preferable.

• Have strong observational skills with the ability to take clear and accurate notes.

• Be highly self-motivated and able to organise and prioritise your own workload.

• Have a basic knowledge of building construction and home adaptations is desirable.

• The ability to converse at ease with customers and provide advice in accurate spoken and written English is essential for the post

• Experience of reading and understanding policies with the ability to applying those policies to real life situations.