- Do you enjoy working directly with members of the public / residents?
- Do you have experience of engaging with a wide variety of individuals, communities and partner agencies?
- Are you passionate about issues related to homelessness and vulnerable people in Brighton & Hove?
If so, we want to hear from you!
The Community Cohesion Team is looking for two exceptional candidates to coordinate the multi-agency response to unauthorised tented encampments and occupied vehicles in Brighton & Hove on behalf of the Local Authority, ensuring an appropriate balance between the council’s welfare led approach to rough sleeping and van dwelling, and wider community concerns. Working with key partner agencies, they ensure the city’s approach to unauthorised encampments is fair, consistent and in line with local and national priorities, expectations, duties and legislation.
This role is permanent.
There is full information about the role below and attached but, if you would like an informal discussion, please contact Siobhan Bostock on 07880 043356 or email [email protected]
About the role
You will be liaising with colleagues from a variety of services in relation to tented encampments and occupied vehicles on Council-owned and managed land, and the highway, ensuring there is a clear plan around each of these that balances consideration of vulnerability, risk, safeguarding, and potential community impact for each site.
Your work will include outreach work, partnership collaboration, and problem-solving in response to the complex issue of unauthorised encampments, including ensuring those occupying them have access to appropriate support, and the consideration and pursuit of formal enforcement action where necessary.
You will use your excellent communication and written skills to build and maintain strong and effective links with key stakeholders, responding to direct contact from members of the public, keeping clear and accurate records and preparing papers for court when needed.
The ability to work in a changeable environment, balancing at times competing expectations and demands on your time, is paramount, as is experience of dynamic risk assessment to manage challenging situations, at all times embracing Brighton & Hove City Council’s commitment to anti-racist practice and equalities.
You will be supported by the Community Safety Manager and the wider Community Cohesion Team to develop and refine key processes in the city that deliver the best possible service for the diverse range of individuals living in unauthorised encampments, and those who might be impacted by those encampments, making best use of all available resources, services and legislation.
Encouraging a diverse workforce
Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.
Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).
Why work for us?
As a council, we want to:
- be connected
- be confident
- be innovative and creative
- be diverse and inclusive
- be healthy and psychologically safe
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.
How to apply
Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.
As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.
AI advice for candidates
We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.
We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.
All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.
Additional information
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.
Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.
We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.
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