Housing Rights Manager
London NW1 1NA
Salary of £36,836 FTE (pro-rata £29,469 per annum, 0.8 FTE, expected to be worked over 4 days.)
28 hours a week, 0.8 FTE. 24 month contract subject to successful probation period, with possibility of extension subject to funding.
About CARIS Families
CARIS Families is a small, frontline charity that supports families who are homeless and living in overcrowded multi-occupant hostels in the London Boroughs of Hackney and Camden. Life in temporary accommodation hostels entrenches children and their parents in poverty and disadvantage. Families suffer from acute overcrowding, inadequate basic facilities and a permanent sense of unsafety. The nature of hostel life isolates people from their support networks, decimates their physical and mental health and becomes an adverse life experience in itself for families already suffering the trauma of having become homeless.
CARIS Families exists to provide early intervention to mitigate the worst effects of hostel life and homelessness for children and parents in our four target hostels. We do this by providing hands-on play, learning and social activities to help children meet their potential, improve families’ wellbeing and build their support network. We provide a holistic family support service that case-works with each family individually to reduce financial and other pressures on them as they wait for a permanent home. We also use our data and learned experiences about temporary accommodation to join campaigns for reform to temporary accommodation policy and practice, both locally and nationally.
We have just received funding to employ a dedicated Housing Rights Manager for the next two years. This is an exciting addition to our team, as it will be our first staff member dedicated to helping our homeless families with their housing case. The housing system is notoriously opaque: families tell us it can be a hopeless minefield to navigate independently and that they often can’t access meaningful help with it, resulting in years-long hostel stays. Our Housing Rights Manager will step into the gap and work with families on an individual basis to gain the information and support they need to progress their housing case and expedite their move-on into a suitable home.
About the role
Our Housing Rights Manager will be a key member of our Family Support Service. They will manage a weekly drop-in clinic from within the hostels where they will assess new housing cases and develop a support plan with families. They will manage a full housing caseload of housing support work, collaborating with relevant local groups, local authority partners and law centres to progress families’ housing cases. They will learn from the barriers families tell us they face, develop CARIS Families’ housing advice service in response and use these learnings to contribute to campaigns for reform to temporary accommodation practices and policies locally and nationally.
In their first year, the Housing Rights Manager will work in partnership with housing solicitors at Shelter to write a Housing Information and Rights handbook tailored to the processes of our target boroughs. The handbook will aim to demystify the temporary accommodation system in our two boroughs, explain residents’ legal rights and help them understand their options. It will form a key part of the support we can offer and allow us to reach many more families in hostels than our small staff team can individually case-work with.
This is an exciting opportunity to join a committed staff team of just 5, working in a person-centred and community-minded way to make a real difference to families on the frontline of inner-London’s housing crisis.
The Benefits
- Salary of £36,836 FTE (pro-rata £29,469 per annum, 0.8 FTE, expected to be worked over 4 days.)
- Flexible working can be negotiated around core frontline delivery hours
- 25 days’ annual leave, plus Christmas week closure and bank holidays (pro rata)
- 6% employer pension contribution
- Ongoing learning and development opportunities
- Being part of a dedicated, supportive and inclusive team
We particularly welcome and encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic individuals, and those who have lived experience of the impact of homelessness and/or temporary accommodation policy and practice.
Interested?
Please read the Job Description/Person Specification attached below in 'Application resources' before clicking the apply button and attaching your CV and covering letter, it will be sent directly to us.
Any applications submitted without a supporting statement will not be considered.
Please note that this post is subject to an enhanced vetting and barring check.
No agencies please.
You are required to submit a CV, covering your work experience and any gaps in employment, and a Supporting Statement. Your supporting statement should include your reasons for applying for the role, and responses to show how you meet each of the Job Description and Person Specification points outlined in the Job Description. Please provide specific examples to show your experience and/or suitability for each point and ensure you demonstrate how you prioritise diversity, and have an inclusive and open mindset, throughout your responses.
Any applications submitted without a supporting statement will not be considered.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
Job title: Employment Adviser
Location: Hybrid, contracted to work at our Birmingham office at least 2 days a week
Salary: £24,000 - £26,500
Hours: 37.5 hours per week, with occasional evening/weekend work (TOIL provided)
Contract: Permanent
Language Requirements: Fluency in English and at least one target language is desirable e.g. Arabic, Cantonese, Amharic, Dari, Farsi, Kurdish, Pashto, or Tigrinya.
Purpose of the role:
We are looking for candidates with experience of supporting individuals with barriers to work into paid employment. Within this role you will carry a significant responsibility, managing a caseload of clients from a refugee background and supporting them in securing meaningful employment, training, and education opportunities.
You will provide one-to-one personalised support, delivering quality Information Advice and Guidance (IAG), alongside ongoing support to ensure your clients have all the skills they need to get into work. This involves working with clients to produce individual action plans with clear goals and actions to overcome identified needs and barriers and provide a clear pathway towards the labour market.
You will work with clients online and by phone, as well as in person to monitor their progress towards their goals. Complementary support will be delivered through our volunteers who are trained in delivering employment advice, and you will book weekly appointments for clients, allocating time slots according to availability and the volunteer’s specialty.
You will also work with specialist referral partners to support clients to overcome complex barriers to employment. We offer a strong team environment, where your ideas and drive will be welcomed and where you as an individual can make a real difference to people’s lives.
To view the full job description and person specification, as well as details on our accessible recruitment process, please view the attached recruitment pack.
Other considerations
- As part of our safeguarding commitment to our clients, we carry out pre-employment checks to ensure that successful applicants are suitable to work with adults at risk. These include basic DBS checks, obtaining references and verifying a candidate’s identity and right to work in the UK.
- Breaking Barriers is committed to protecting an adult’s right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect and for their views, wishes and beliefs to be fully considered when deciding action.
- We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity status, race, religion or belief.
- Some travel between our different areas of operation (London, Birmingham and Manchester) will be required.
- Occasional evening or weekend work may be required. Time off in lieu would be provided in this case.
How to apply
If you are looking for a role where you can make a real difference, we want to hear from you. To apply, please submit a CV and statement (up to approximately 500 words/1 A4 page) outlining:
- Why you are interested in the role
- What skills you would bring to be successful in this role
- Any experience you would like to highlight
- Any reasonable adjustments you require for the interview process
- Disclosure of disabilities if you wish to do so (as a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, we guarantee an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the role)
Please note that applications without a covering letter will not be considered.
Closing date for applications is 11:59pm on Saturday 6th April. Interviews will be held on a rolling basis so please apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
We belong to the Experts by Experience Employment Initiative, which advocates and supports organisations to employ more people from a refugee background. With this in mind, we particularly welcome applicants with experience of seeking asylum and/or a refugee background. If you are an expert by experience (a refugee or a migrant with direct, first-hand experience of issues and challenges of the UK asylum or immigration system), you can ask for an independent and confidential support for your job application from the Experts by Experience Employment Network. Please reach out to HR Manager Dani Meier for further details (we are unable to include email addresses in this advert, but you can find contact details on the final page of the attached recruitment pack).