Employer: Medway Council
Close date: Saturday 11/05/2024
You will have responsibility for delivering an effective, legally compliant and outcome focussed service to Medway’s residents that have a need for intervention or support from the Council in respect of their housing circumstances.
You will oversee the delivery and continued improvement of:
- Homelessness prevention, leading and guiding a team committed to maximising homelessness prevention and relief.
- Temporary Accommodation and the Housing Register, addressing the strategic challenges relating to accommodation provisions and operating a legally compliant allocations scheme.
- Private Sector Housing, shaping the Councils approach to improving the standards of accommodation in the private sector and operation a robust statutory licensing mechanism for HMO’s and park homes.
- Development and ongoing delivery of the Council’s Housing Strategy and Homelessness Prevention and Rough Sleeping activity.
- Commissioning a range of support services that enable residents to live independently
- Leading the Council’s delivery of its Rough Sleeping initiative and wider partnership working.
You will lead on the strategic development and implementation of the Strategic Housing Service.
Be accountable for the delivery of programmes, plans, priorities, and outcomes in a specialist area(s). Monitor and evaluate the progress of delivery plans and their impact on agreed outcomes and indicators. Lead, manage and support project/programme boards, where appropriate. Advise senior management in respect of operational planning, policy matters and service delivery issues.
Accountable for the management of the associated budgets and finances that support the service area.
Ensure the council performs its statutory duties and functions in relation to the specific service area. Advise senior officers on their obligations and duties arising from the statutory/regulatory framework covering their specialist subject, where appropriate.
Develop local, regional and national links to influence and improve the strategic development and delivery of the service area, adopting best practice through benchmarking and networking with other local authorities.
Create, monitor and review frameworks of performance measures and quality standards to be applied in the delivery of services in their area of expertise.
Where appropriate, drive and operate partnership and co-operative working with other agencies/bodies to ensure the effective commissioning and/or delivery of services in their specialist areas.
Initiate and maintain local accountability for outcomes of programmes and plans through the engagement and liaison with a range of internal and external partners and stakeholders, seeking ways to remove obstacles for delivery.
As champion for safeguarding, you will ensure that a culture of protecting vulnerable residents from harm is embedded across your team ensuring appropriate escalation and engagement from other services where needed.
In return we offer you:
- Generous annual leave entitlement
- Generous local government pension scheme package
- Access to wider training and development qualifications
- Flexible working scheme
- Travel plan discounts
- Car Benefit Scheme from Tusker
- Access to CAREFIRST advice & counselling service
- Employee discount scheme for national and local retailers
- The Government has introduced new ways of supporting parents with childcare costs. Further details are available here: – https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/
We’re committed to making Medway carbon neutral by 2050. We have developed an action plan to ensure we play our part in addressing the climate emergency. Our declaration fits into our Council Plan priority of making Medway a place to be proud of. The main outcome being a ‘clean and green environment’. All Medway Council staff can access an additional day’s paid leave to undertake a volunteering activity which supports climate change.
Our organisation:
Medway is a unitary authority in the South East of England, made up of the towns of Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham and Rainham and more rural areas, including the Hoo Peninsula.
Situated in Kent in the South-East of England, the area has plenty of green spaces, excellent facilities and easy access to the national motorway and rail networks, facilitating superb transport links to London.
We provide all local Government services for a quarter of a million people, looking after education, environment, social care, housing, planning, business and much more – everything from frontline services such as rubbish collection and events like the Dickens Festival to work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure services in Medway run smoothly and cost effectively.
Working at Medway Council means that you get to be part of this journey working alongside talented, professional colleagues to drive forward change to transform the lives of our residents and the communities they live in.
If you would like to have an informal discussion with the recruiting manager please call Mark Breathwick on 01634 333540.