Rough Sleeper Outreach and Sustainment Officer

Rough Sleeper Outreach and Sustainment Officer

Grade: PO1/PO2 (Career graded)

Salary: £39,855 - £44,331 per annum

Employment: Fixed term Contract and Secondment Opportunity (internally) – 1 year.

DBS: Enhanced required

About us at Hounslow

We’d love you to join us at the London Borough of Hounslow! Our people are deeply committed to providing excellent services to our residents, doing all we can to make lives as good as they can be.

We are an outstanding council, serving an outstanding borough. With brilliant, visionary leadership, a dynamic Cabinet and a can-do culture, we’ve built strong partnerships which have transformed how we serve one of London’s most diverse boroughs. Hounslow is the world in one place and full of potential. We are stepping up for our residents like never before.

About our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

We live by five core values: Lead with Heart, Do New, Pass on the Power, Harness the Mix and Be a Rock. All our work has equality, diversity and inclusion at its very heart, best articulated in “Harness the Mix”. It's about breaking down barriers between our parts and people and unlocking the problem-solving power of our amazing mix of minds. We serve a diverse community; we have a diverse workforce, and we are committed to being an inclusive employer.

We work hard to create representation across our workforce and leadership community, we have a thriving employee network groups and our learning and development programmes help us lead, model, and breathe ways of working that eliminate inequality, inequity, injustice and bias.

As part of this and under our commitments as a Disability Confident Employer, we make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. There’s space for you to tell us what you need within our application form.

Our Benefits

If you join us, you’ll have access to a range of employee benefits. Read more about these here.

About The Role

This is an exciting opportunity to join our Rough Sleeping Team within our Homelessness, Independence and Preventative Services. A team committed to reducing and preventing rough sleeping through a collaborative approach across housing, health, and social care. You will carry out proactive and assertive outreach and inreach work to reduce the incidence of rough sleeping in the borough, with the ultimate aim of ensuring that no one has to sleep rough in Hounslow.

About The Team You’ll Be Working In

This is an exciting and busy role that is at the centre of the Councils response to homelessness. The service is developing and progressing our agenda to reduce the use of temporary accommodation and achieve more upstream prevention outcomes.

1. You will carry out proactive and assertive outreach, completing detailed holistic assessments.
2. You will be responsible for timely and accurate advice and support with the ultimate goal of having no-one sleeping rough in Hounslow. You will carry a caseload of clients with complex needs living on the streets and in a variety of accommodation settings.
3. You will work collaboratively with your colleagues and partner agencies to ensure that rough sleepers get the very best service and opportunities to support them off the streets into accommodation and not return to a street-based lifestyle.
4. Think creatively and take action to support those on the streets into bespoke accommodation options, including reconnection to areas outside Hounslow.
5. Develop, monitor and review personalised plans to achieve successful housing, health and social care preventative outcomes.
6. Proactively engage with and support those at risk of rough sleeping, preventing a return to the streets.

About You

1. You have extensive knowledge and experience of the Housing Act 1996 (as amended) and the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.
2. You have a good knowledge of the issues facing those sleeping rough alongside the challenges of persuading rough sleepers to accept offers of accommodation.
3. You have an excellent understanding of homelessness in the Borough and the council’s statutory duties in relation to homelessness, but you work creatively to implement bespoke solutions to achieve the ultimate goal of having no-one sleeping rough in Hounslow.
4. You have experience of multi-disciplinary working involving complex and diverse client groups and an understanding of complex legislative frameworks including homelessness, social care, mental health, immigration and welfare benefits.
5. You have great communication skills to engage effectively with a broad range of people to influence, negotiate and persuade.
6. You can quickly build trusting relationships with complex individuals in a detached street based and community environment.
7. You will be carrying out shift work including early mornings, late nights, weekends and Bank Holidays, always seeking to provide the highest levels of customer service to make the team the best it can be.
8. You have relevant work-based experience and engage in continuous professional development.
9. You are passionate about supporting vulnerable people to rebuild their lives and move away from street homelessness.
10. You have experience working with people facing multiple disadvantage and understand the importance of flexible, creative, and trauma-informed approaches.
11. You are looking to join a forward-thinking and progressive housing department that values innovation and collaboration.
12. You are confident working in fast-paced environments, juggling competing demands, and staying focused on delivering positive outcomes.

Qualifications:

• You bring relevant work-based experience and are committed to ongoing professional development.
• You are able to travel independently across the Borough and hold a full UK driving licence.

Essential for The Role:

• You will be required to undergo an enhanced DBS check.

If the points above resonate with you, we would like to hear from you.

Read more about the work you’ll be doing in the Role Profile.

When Interviews Will Be Held And Who To Contact

The key information you need about the role should be in the role profile, but if you have any further questions about the role, please contact:

Email: [email protected]

To apply for this role, please click on the 'Apply' button.

Interviews for this job will be held during July 2025.

Closing date is 17th July 2025.