Housing And Welfare Assistant Caseworker Jobs in Sutton, Greater London
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.