JOB DESCRIPTION
Post Title: Area Housing Manager - South
Service: Tenancy Services
Grade: PO1b
Location: City Hall Revised: April 2013
Responsible to: Tenancy Services Manager
Responsible for: Staff in the Tenancy Management team, inclusive of Housing
Officers, Housing Assistants and Caretaking Team
Organisational Chart:
Key Functional Links
Internal: Elected members, assistant director, other service managers and assistant
directors, corporate working groups, staff of the directorate and other
employees of the council.
External:Social services, voluntary sector agencies, local and senior police officers,
professional witnesses, crime reduction partnership members, probation
service, court and court officers, tenants and tenant groups, housing
providers, youth offending team, solicitors and other agencies
Main Duties and Responsibilities:Within the corporate management framework:
1.Work under the general direction of the tenancy services manager to provide a consistent, effective and efficient high quality tenancy management service to the tenants and leaseholders living in the council’s housing stock in order to maintain a good landlord/tenant relationship.
2.Manage, develop and direct the team of housing officers and support staff to maximise the council’s rental income management and arrears recovery process and to enforce tenancy conditions fairly and consistently.
3.Manage, develop and direct the housing caretaking teams to deliver the highest-possible standard of estate caretaking services
4.Aim to ensure that effective tenant involvement is promoted, practised and serviced by the team and that effective consultation takes place on all relevant matters according to law, regulation and good practice and as required within the HRA business plan
Corporate Management Framework:
1.To ensure the effective management of all relevant resources (i.e. people, finance and assets:-
- To develop and lead effective team working, which results in self managing teams with a sense of collective responsibility and purpose and which provide mutual support and learning both within and across teams.
- To advise Service Manager about future service needs to ensure that all resources are adequately planned for and managed.
- To contribute to the development of team plans and ensure that staff performance appraisals are carried out.
- Regularly review and monitor any delegated budget responsibilities to ensure that budget allocations are being used effectively and efficiently.
- To act as a role model by continuously developing own skills and knowledge in accordance with the Council’s development framework and any professional requirements.
- To support the delivery of the Council’s ‘Main Aims’ and to promote its ‘Core Values’.
- To continually review operational service delivery to meet changing needs and demands and implement any necessary changes, involving staff individually and in teams and encouraging and developing employees to operate flexibly to meet such changes.
- To actively promote learning, innovation and change in a ‘can-do’ environment, recognising and rewarding contributions and addressing development needs at team and individual level.
- To develop and sustain effective working relationships with all internal and external stakeholders and contacts.
- To work in a collaborative and supportive way with peers to tackle cross cutting issues as directed by the Department Management Team.
- To contribute to the implementation of the Council’s performance management framework.
- To proactively manage absenteeism firmly but fairly to ensure that absence reduction targets are achieved.
- To manage health and safety and to ensure that all employees are aware of and comply with health and safety requirements.
- To ensure appropriate arrangements for the management of risk and the promotion of a ‘no blame’ culture.
- To ensure the effective implementation of corporate policies and procedures for example, HR and financial policies.
- To contribute to effective internal and external communications.
- To promote and monitor customer care standards and ensure that these are communicated and understood at all levels.
- To identify, monitor and review customer needs and demands through regular feedback from customers and frontline staff.
- To liaise with others across the organisation and externally to meet customer needs and demands.
- To support the implementation of the Authority’s ‘Access to Services’ vision.
Service Specific Activities:
Service delivery
1.Provide leadership and motivation to the team in order that it delivers an effective, efficient and customer-centred tenancy management and estate service.
2.Plan, co-ordinate, supervise and manage the team in collaboration with colleague area managers and other team leaders and managers to ensure efficient delivery of the housing management service and to aim to ensure good landlord/tenant relationships.
3.Manage, direct and monitor the activities and performance of the housing officers so that income is maximised and debts recovered in line with current policies and procedures.
4.Support housing officers in their enforcement role of tenancy conditions and their representation of the council in court.
5.Liaise with the council’s legal department and external legal advisers in securing successful outcomes to enforcement action.
6.Support housing officers in providing advice and guidance on safeguarding issues, in line with the common assessment framework requirements.
7.Manage and direct the work of the caretaking team through its team leader to ensure a high quality estate caretaking service and effective monitoring of the garden service and grounds maintenance contract (as it applies to council housing land) and in liaison with the relevant contract managers.
8.Take overall responsibility for the health and safety of members of the caretaking team including their equipment, vehicles and work wear.
9.Ensure that housing officers’ and other staff members’ workloads are prioritised suitably in accordance with the main purposes of their job roles.
10.Carry out regular one-to-one meetings with directly-managed staff, annual appraisals and regular team meetings in order to deliver a consistent service throughout the council’s stock.
11.Provide suitable performance reports to the tenancy services manager and other service managers or directors as required.
12.Work collaboratively with other area housing managers to ensure consistency of service and enforcement of tenancy conditions.
13.Ensure that housing officers fulfil their role of promoting, developing and servicing resident involvement structures within their areas of operation and work collaboratively with the resident involvement manager and other resident involvement staff towards the fulfilment of that role.
14.Liaise effectively with the public protection team in the tackling of community-based anti-social behaviour and the neighbourhood teams in dealing with community-based matters.
15.Ensure that effective estate management procedures are implemented, monitored and reviewed so that all tenancy management functions are applied rigorously and consistently.
16.In liaison with the maintenance and investment teams aim to ensure an effective service delivery of day-to-day repairs falling within the scope of the tenancy management team.
17.Support tenants forums by attending forum meetings as necessary.
18.Develop service standards for the tenancy management service.
19.Resolve complaints that have not been resolved at first point of contact by housing officers or the caretaking team.
20.Introduce, promote and review tenant information on tenancy management issues.
21.In liaison with voids team staff work collaboratively to minimise void turnaround times and repairs costs.
22.In liaison and collaboration with other departments promote the effective publicity and marketing of elements of the service through the media and elsewhere, ensuring the enhancement of the city’s housing service’s reputation.
23.Analyse relevant new housing and other related legislation and good practice and consult and seek appropriate advice as required, recommending changes to policies and procedures, aiming to ensure that the housing service achieves its property related objectives and statutory obligations..
24.Manage consultation with tenants, reporting on the outcomes to the relevant service managers and housing services team.
25.Assist with any policy and procedure reviews affecting tenants, ensuring that appropriate consultation mechanisms are adhered to as required through national and local housing standards and local offers and legislation.
26.Contribute towards the effective management of any out-of-hours service operated by the council in relation to the housing service.
27.Carry out any other duties commensurate with the grade and experience that
may be assigned by management
This is a description of the job, as it is constitutes at the date below. It is the practice of this Authority periodically to examine the job description and to update it to ensure that it relates to the job as then being performed or to incorporate whatever changes are being proposed. This procedure is jointly conducted in consultation with the post holder who is expected to participate fully in such discussions. It is the Authority’s aim to reach agreement to reasonable changes, but if agreement is not possible, the Council reserves the right to insist on changes to the job description after consultation with the post holder.
Signed by:______Date: ______
Name: ______
Post Holder
Signed by:______Date: ______
Line Manager
Name: ______
Line Manager
PERSON SPECIFICATION
ROLE:Area Housing Manager
(Essential criteria - all these requirements must be met/demonstrated by candidates)
Service Specific Requirements1. Supervision & Management of People
Essential / Assessed by AIT / Desirable / Assessed by AIT
Experience of effective people and performance management / A /I
2. Creativity & Innovation
Essential / Assessed by AIT / Desirable / Assessed by AIT
Ability to determine priorities, delegate and manage effectively to deadlines
Ability and experience of writing reports, policies and procedures.
Ability to think and act creatively and innovatively
Ability to use Microsoft Office to ECDL standard or equivalent experience to generate complex management information e.g., reports, statistics, graphs, presentations. / T
T
T
T
3. Contacts & Relationships
Essential / Assessed by AIT / Desirable / Assessed by AIT
Ability to handle conflict and adopt a firm but fair approach
Ability to work and communicate with all customers and clients
Experience of effective negotiation.
Experience of effective liaison with other local authorities, government and other housing agencies / I
I
A / I
A / I
4. Decisions: Discretion & Consequences
Essential / Assessed by AIT / Desirable / Assessed by AIT
Ability to make decisions using own initiative / I
5. Resources
Essential / Assessed by AIT / Desirable / Assessed by AIT
Not Applicable
6. Work Environment: Work Demands, Physical Demands, Working Conditions & Work Context.
Essential / Assessed by AIT / Desirable / Assessed by AIT
Prepared to work flexibly including working outside normal office hours e.g. attending evening meetings
Ability to transport yourself withinand beyond the city boundary as required. / I
I
7. Knowledge & Skills
Essential / Assessed by AIT / Desirable / Assessed by AIT
Minimum of five GCSEs or equivalent, including Maths and English to minimum grade ‘C’ and / or equivalent experience
Housing-related degree or minimum two years experience in social housing tenancy management at a senior level / A
A / Membership of the
Chartered Institute of Housing / A
8.Equalities
Essential / Assessed by AIT / Desirable / Assessed by AIT
Ability to work in a non-discriminatory manner, in accordance with the Council’s Equality and Diversity Policy / I
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