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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.

We are looking to recruit a dynamic, self motivated Manager who can lead a team of 6 temporary accommodation officers and help us to reshape the Temporary Accommodation service.

You will be responsible for

• Delivering a customer focussed, efficient and effective service

• Ensuring robust systems are in place to identify compliance issues to keep our residents safe

• Embed our core values in the work of the team

The role will also manage the emergency out of hours rota and you will be needed to be available to provide cover when required. Enhancements will be paid in accordance with policy.

This is a very varied job, and you’ll be working in our offices in central Kingston as well as visiting our hostels and temporary accommodation. There may be the opportunity to work from home on some days.

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.

The Temporary Accommodation team sits within Accommodation Services in the Community Housing Team and is focused on keeping people safe in suitable homes, and delivering value for money outcomes for the council.

This is an exciting time to be joining the Community Housing Service at RBK We have recently restructured all services with a renewed focus on managing our housing challenges particularly around prevention and temporary accommodation and we are seeking highly motivated and enthusiastic individuals who want to get the very best of outcomes for residents of the Borough. "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"

We are looking for an enthusiastic individual to lead our temporary accommodation service. You will need to have the skills to thrive in a face-paced, varied and reactive environment. Managing a small team within the wider accommodation service, you will support them to meet the wider aims of the service to prevent homelessness and rough sleeping by providing a person-centred approach to our residents living in temporary accommodation.

To be successful in the role you will have

• Excellent communication skills, with a proven ability to lead and motivate a team in a very demanding front line service.

• Experience working in a local authority or housing association setting.

• Proven track record of working within temporary accommodation.

• Understanding of the government's agenda on homelessness and welfare benefits

For more in-depth information about the role, please refer to the service structure and job description attached.

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.