Housing Allocations Team Leader

What will you be doing?

As the Housing Allocations Team Leader, you will provide strong supervision, line management, support, and guidance to the Housing Allocations Team. You will be responsible for administering the Council’s Housing Register and providing comprehensive housing advice and information to households with housing needs.

Through regular day-to-day supervision, performance monitoring, and advice, you will ensure that the team completes all functions in line with the Council’s Housing Allocations Policy and Part 6 of the Housing Act 1996. This includes assessing who can join the Council’s Housing Register, determining the priority an applicant may be awarded under the scheme, and deciding which applicants are shortlisted and allocated to advertised properties. You will oversee the allocation of accommodation within the Council’s own stock and nominations to partner registered providers.

You will oversee, monitor, and report on cases, supervising your team to ensure robust enquiries determine the eligibility, qualification, and prioritization of Housing Register applications. This must be carried out in accordance with the Housing Allocations Policy, Part 6 Housing Act 1996, and other relevant legislation, policy, and guidance. You will also provide supervision for your team with complex cases where necessary.

Additionally, you will oversee the effective processing of applications where there is a medical need, ensuring robust decisions are made regarding the level of priority awarded to the applicant and the type of property that best suits their needs. Collaboration with the Council’s specialist medical advisor will be essential to ensure that specialist advice and guidance inform decision-making where appropriate.

Building and maintaining effective relationships with the Council’s ALMO and Registered Providers will be a key part of your role. You will ensure that your team carries out its functions in accordance with the Housing Allocations Policy and prescribed nominations agreements.

You will be responsible for completing Housing Register reviews where necessary, ensuring that reviews are conducted within defined timescales with consideration of all relevant facts and legal requirements. When review decisions are challenged through Judicial Review, you will work in conjunction with Legal Services to ensure documentation is prepared in accordance with requirements and guidance.

Supporting the Housing Allocations & Quality Manager and Head of Housing Solutions to deliver service objectives and targets, you will use improvement plans where necessary and report on outcomes.

About you

You don’t need experience across all aspects of the job as that will form part of your development journey, but you will need a strong track record of leading and motivating high performing teams in a customer focused environment, as this is central to the role.

You’ll need to have a solutions driven and adaptable approach to working, thrive in a busy environment with a positive approach to challenges! 

You will have expert knowledge and understanding of housing law, with experience of working in a housing allocations service. You will be able to smoothly manage the Allocations processes whilst being able use your own initiative to 'think outside of the box’.   

Our benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits to our employees, these include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement starting at 28 days annual leave per year, 29 days for senior managers (pro rata, depending on how many hours per week you work), plus bank holidays. An additional 5 days, linked to continuous service, and ability to purchase up to 6 weeks additional leave per year.
• Cycle to Work scheme. 
• Local Government Pension Scheme plus immediate life cover (3 times your annual salary from day one) and ill-health protection.
• Employee discounts with local and national retailers, days out, finance, health and beauty, travel and eating out plus lots more.
• Car Lease scheme
• Payment of professional subscription / membership - If your job description requires that you are registered with or are a member of a professional body, WNC will pay for your professional subscription or membership fees.
• Employee Assistance Programme - We have an employee support programme run by Health Assured, an independent, external organisation. Health Assured is available for you and your immediate family members, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and includes telephone counselling, legal advice, bereavement support and medical information.
• Ongoing training and development opportunities.
• A variety of flexible working options to support your work/life balance, including full or part time, term time, 9-day fortnight, etc. (subject to business needs).
• Our West Ways of Working – We want our workforce to thrive, and we equip our employees with the right technology to support hybrid and collaborative working, on or off site, depending on the role.
• Making a difference - If you want to use your skills and experience with an organisation that are genuinely invested in making a difference, are committed to improving people's lives, and whose success has a direct impact on the wellbeing of your family, friends and people in your local area, then West Northamptonshire Council is the place for you.

About us

At West Northants Council, it’s about our people. People who thrive with ambition, bubble with new ideas, demand better ways of working, caring about every detail, and who never shy away from a challenge. Our culture is a gateway for new experiences. A place to forge new opportunities. To empower you in your career and unite you with like-minded people.

Our vision is ‘to make West Northants a great place to live, work, visit and thrive’. We truly stand by this and work hard every day to make this a reality. Our corporate values, THRIVE, stand for: Trust, High Performance, Respect, Innovate and Empower, they underpin everything we do and how we deliver services. 

Hear more from our Chief Executive, Anna Earnshaw, about what it's like to work at West Northants Council https://youtu.be/lV0EfeUF4aU  

We are committed to ensuring diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion is woven into the fabric of WNC and everything we do, to enable all colleagues to develop and maximize their full potential.  We are a disability confident employer, a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, and a Care Leaver Covenant partner

The following film was created by us to communicate our intentions - watch WNC colleagues explain what DEI means to us.

If you need additional support or reasonable adjustments during the application process, including needing the job description in another format or language, please email careers@westnorthants.gov.uk for support.

West Northants Council, where careers thrive.