Organisation: Wessmaps Housing Trust
Salary: £28,000 per annum
Hours: 37.5 hours per week (Monday to Friday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm)
Location: Solent Business Centre with daily travel across Southampton and surrounding areas
Reports to: Housing & Support Manager
On-Call Rota: Approximately 1 week in 10, paid at an additional £70 per week
Contract Type: Permanent
About the Role
Are you a compassionate, self-motivated professional dedicated to helping vulnerable individuals thrive? Wessmaps Housing Trust is seeking a Housing & Welfare Officer to deliver high-quality, person-centred housing support and tenancy management. Managing an assigned caseload of tenants across the Southampton community, you will conduct monthly Tenancy Clinics in tenants' homes, support them with benefit claims, coordinate property maintenance, and empower them to sustain independent tenancies.
Key Responsibilities
- Tenant Support: Conduct home visits, conduct welfare checks, monitor external care provisions, and assist with appointments and relocation packing on a case-by-case basis.
- Property & Tenancy Administration: Identify property maintenance issues, coordinate repairs with contractors, ensure health and safety certification compliance, and process local authority paperwork.
- Safeguarding & Compliance: Maintain accurate digital files via our CRM system, adhere to Lone Working check-in systems via Outlook, and escalate safeguarding alerts in line with the Care Act 2014.
- Emergency Cover: Participate in the out-of-hours emergency telephone response rota on a 1:10 week basis.
Applicant Requirements (Person Specification)
Candidates will be assessed strictly against the following criteria during shortlisting and interview stages:
Experience and Qualifications
- Essential: A full, valid UK Driving Licence and daily access to a personal vehicle insured for business use.
- Essential: A professional background in social care, supported housing, community support, OR verifiable personal lived experience supporting vulnerable individuals.
- Desirable: Direct experience working within housing management, tenancy enforcement, or community-based property coordination.
- Desirable: Practical experience assisting individuals with Universal Credit, Housing Benefit, and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims.
Skills and Knowledge
- Essential: Strong active listening and verbal communication skills to build trust with individuals who have learning disabilities.
- Essential: Excellent organisational and time-management skills to maintain an independent community-based visiting schedule.
- Essential: Proficient digital IT skills, including daily professional use of Microsoft Outlook calendars and cloud-based file management (OneDrive/CRM platforms).
- Essential: Strong perceptiveness and attention to detail to notice underlying tenant well-being changes or latent property defects.
Personal Attributes
- Essential: A patient, empathetic, and friendly demeanour when interacting with tenants, families, and partner care agencies.
- Essential: High level of self-motivation and comfort when working independently as a lone worker in community environments.
- Essential: A flexible, solution-focused approach to adapting to changing daily tenant crisis needs.
Geographical Requirements
- Essential: Must reside within the Southampton local authority boundary or within a short, practical driving distance of the city centre.
Safe & Fair Recruitment Commitments
Wessmaps Housing Trust is an equal opportunities employer. To ensure a fair process, we utilise a blind shortlisting protocol where personal identifiers are removed from applications before review by a minimum of two panel members. All hiring decisions are documented strictly against the person specification criteria above.
Because this frontline role involves regular, unsupervised activity inside the homes of vulnerable adults, it is subject to strict safer recruitment principles. Any job offer will be entirely conditional upon:
- Verification of your legal Right to Work in the UK.
- A satisfactory Enhanced DBS check (candidates cannot commence lone community work until this clearance is received).
- A minimum of two satisfactory professional references (including your current or most recent employer) verifying your suitability to work with vulnerable adults.
Reasonable Adjustments
We welcome applications from all sectors of the community and are committed to making reasonable adjustments at every stage of our recruitment journey. If you require this advertisement, the job description, or the application form in an alternative format (such as large print), or if you require adjustments for an interview (such as an accessible room or extra preparation time), please contact our HR team at [email protected] so we can implement the support you need.
Job Types: Full-time, Permanent
Pay: From £28,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Company events
- On-site parking
Application question(s):
- Use of a Car/ Vehicle to conduct the role
- Are you able to comply with Full enhanced DBS Check if Successful?
Education:
- GCSE or equivalent (preferred)
Language:
Licence/Certification:
- UK Full Driving License (required)
Work Location: In person
