Description East Suffolk Council, Lowestoft NR33 0EQ or Melton IP12 1RT £30,559 - £37,035 (Band 5 – 6) 37 hours per week (Full-time) Permanent X1 12 month Fixed Term Contract X1 East Suffolk Council is an exciting place to work, delivering essential local services and making a real difference to a quarter of a million people across East Suffolk. We currently have an opportunity to join East Suffolk Council's Housing Needs Team as a Housing Advice and Prevention Officer. Your role: The post holder will provide a comprehensive housing options service to customers with varying levels of housing need to enable suitable positive outcomes in line with Part VI (Housing Register and Allocations), Part VII (Housing Advice and Homelessness) and the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. To promote a customer centred approach and work with vulnerable customers, their advocates, family, and support networks to ensure that homelessness prevention is maximised and effective first point of contact housing advice is given. What you will need: The successful candidate will have previous experience of using inter-personal and negotiating skills to achieve positive outcomes along with experience of working in a similar role or a relevant qualification in the sector as desirable. The candidate will have previous housing experience and can demonstrate working to the required level of responsibility. Why work for us? East Suffolk Council is a great place to work and there are lots of benefits our employees can access. To find out more about why we are so proud of East Suffolk Council, take a look at our video and hear why our employees think it is such a great place to work (YouTube). Here are some of the main benefits: Generous leave entitlement (equivalent to 25 days a year, increasing to 31 days after 5 years’ service, plus bank holidays) Local government pension scheme Flexible working arrangements Learning and development tailored to your role A wide variety of staff support networks including access to health and wellbeing initiatives and programmes Discounts on mobile phones, computers, holiday and travel, fashion and clothing, health and beauty and many other products and services. Find more information about what we offer in our benefits brochure (pdf). The majority of our teams are working in an agile way, with a mixture of home and office working, depending on individual preferences and service requirements. If you wish to discuss how that might impact your working arrangements if you were the successful candidate, please contact the recruiting manager listed at the bottom of this advert. For more information For an informal discussion regarding this post, please contact Kimberley High on Kimberley.Higheastsuffolk.gov.uk Closing date: 21 November 2024. Interview date: week comencing 2 December 2024. How to apply Step 1 - Read the advert and the Job Description and Person Specification. Step 2 - Complete the Supporting Statement template (docx). Your statement needs to indicate how you meet each of the criteria contained within the Person Specification. Please use the template provided (other formats will not be accepted). Step 3 - Complete the online application and upload your statement. Please note, CVs are not accepted. For more information, check out the How to Apply section of our Career Site (URL).