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This special place in South West London between the capital and the country has been a Royal borough longer than anywhere else - it is where the first kings of England were crowned.

Today it is a vibrant and diverse borough, with a long history and strong cultural and community heritage. Kingston's riverside location, fantastic retail offer, historic market place and church, parks and gardens all make Kingston town centre the vibrant space it is, and each of our district town centres (Surbiton, New Malden, Tolworth and Chessington) have something unique to offer.

Situated in Zone 6, Kingston is among the best-connected town centres in London – with direct train links from Kingston and Surbiton stations to Clapham Junction and London Waterloo, as well as Wimbledon for an interchange with the London Underground and Tramlink.

Kingston’s people are innovative and entrepreneurial, and have a strong sense of community pride. The borough has been home to great industry and creativity for many years, reflected in assets such as the Rose Theatre, the International Youth Arts Festival and Kingston University, which boasts more new graduate business start-ups than any other.

We have seen tremendous generosity and compassion within our communities, particularly in response to COVID-19, which is a demonstration of Kingston’s key strength. The council offers a strong level of support to vulnerable groups and those who need additional support, which has also increased significantly as a result of the pandemic. Like most places, the average age of our population is rising as more people are living longer, so we are working closely with residents to help them maintain their independence and further improve the cost effectiveness of our service to meet the ongoing rise in demand.

Kingston is home to people from diverse and interesting cultures and backgrounds, which helps to create the rich sense of community shared across the borough. In particular, Kingston has a large Sri Lankan Tamil community and is home to more people from Korea than any other part of the UK.

This is a brand new role in the Housing Solutions Service! In this role, we're looking for a visible leader to deliver a first class, modern and flexible prevention focussed service to a wide range of residents. You will be responsible for driving organisational change and improvements to ensure the effective delivery of the service.

You will also work collaboratively with your colleagues and partner agencies to develop and lead initiatives, so that residents get the very best service and homelessness is prevented where possible. As well as this, you will be leading a new service which provides support and 'move on' opportunities for those already in temporary accommodation.

A typical day in this role will entail:

• Shaping the new service and embedding our core values in the work of your team
• Working collaboratively with your colleagues and partner agencies to develop and leading initiatives so that residents get the very best service and opportunities to live independently and safely in their homes, so they are not at risk of homelessness
• Providing comprehensive advice and guidance to your team on difficult and complex cases
• Monitoring and reporting on service performance,
• Driving change and service improvement, implementing new procedures and processes

The postholder will be managing x2 Housing Solutions Officers, x3 Support & Move on Officers and x2 Income Maximisation Officers.

We work in a hybrid model which means there is a need to be present in the office several days each week, shared with the peer manager.

The Community Housing Service helps people secure and keep housing and avert crisis, we provide a range of housing and homelessness prevention support across Kingston. This is an exciting time to join us, we are transforming the service with a focus on a resilient and efficient service that prevents homelessness and puts customers at the heart.

This team consists of two Housing Solutions Managers and 11 staff and are based in our centrally located offices in Kingston. You will be joining a busy and hardworking team during a time of transformational change where every day offers an opportunity to make a positive difference

You’ll be a positive, adaptable and resilient individual with strong interpersonal and decision-making skills, great customer service skills, experience of leading & managing staff and experience of delivering homelessness services with the passion to work to build a strong team. We are seeking a highly motivated and enthusiastic individual who wants to get the very best of outcomes for residents of the Borough.

To be successful in this role, you will need:

• Excellent communication skills, with a proven ability to lead and motivate a team in a very demanding front line service.
• Experience in housing advice and/or homelessness services and/or significant technical experience
• Experience of partnership working and influencing and negotiating to achieve successful outcomes
• Ability to work unsupervised, prioritise workloads and achieve targets and deadlines
• Excellent communication, administration and organisational skills

For more information about the role, please refer to the job description and service structure chart.

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

In addition we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff supported by our IT infrastructure, Google Chromebooks and Google Apps, which have acted as a key enabler for collaborative and streamlined working. The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to be even more flexible in how we work and manage staff workloads, ensuring they have the correct equipment and resources to be able to maximise their talents and looking after their wellbeing.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
• Three volunteering days per year
• Flexible and agile working arrangements
• Comprehensive learning and development programme
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Zip car scheme
• Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
• Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
• Subsidised gym membership

We pride ourselves on being a diverse, tolerant and welcoming Borough and we aim to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve. We are respectful of difference and realise the positive value of diversity in our workforce. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and disabled candidates as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce.

We are proud to be recognised as a Disability Confident employer, and are committed to thinking differently about disability and taking action to improve how we recruit, retain and develop disabled people. We guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.

We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are an accredited London Living Wage Employer and this means that everyone working at the Royal Borough of Kingston, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or third-party contractors and suppliers receive the London Living Wage. The real Living Wage is higher than the government’s minimum, or National Living Wage, and is an independently calculated hourly rate of pay that is based on the actual cost of living.

The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.