Working for Ealing Council’s Housing and Environment Directorate offers a unique opportunity to make a significant impact on our communities. The council owns and manages around 18,000 properties, oversees a capital programme of £40m, and administers a £150m programme to acquire affordable housing for customers affected by homelessness and a £15m repairs budget. The council is dedicated to providing safe, secure, and sustainable housing, aligning with the council’s strategic priorities. You’ll be part of a team that focuses on supporting people to live well in the community and improving the quality of housing.

Ealing Council’s housing strategies, such as the Homelessness Reduction Strategy and the Rough Sleeping Strategy, demonstrate a strong commitment to addressing housing challenges and ensuring that all residents have access to decent and affordable housing. By joining the Directorate, you’ll contribute to these impactful initiatives and help shape a better future for Ealing’s residents

Recruitment practices to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and/or vulnerable adults apply to this post in addition to the requirement to obtain a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Purpose of role

• The Head of Housing Allocations and Accommodation will lead and manage the teams responsible for housing allocations and accommodation, ensuring the council undertakes its statutory duties and responsibilities with respect to these.
• To develop, implement, and review service delivery to optimise housing allocations and accommodation, ensuring compliance with housing legislation, (including the Housing Act 1996 and the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017), local and national housing allocation policies, best practices and adapting to changing housing demands, regulatory and legislative requirements as well as leading the service in relation to the discharge of homelessness duties from temporary accommodation.
•  To manage the better use and reduction of temporary accommodation by supporting households to move on to secure permanent accommodation and discharge homelessness duty.
•  To provide leadership and management to multi-disciplinary teams covering allocations, assessments, and resettlement services, ensuring temporary accommodation compliance.
• To manage budgets and resources efficiently to meet community housing needs, ensuring the best use of funds and resources, and identifying and securing additional funding opportunities to support housing initiatives.
•  To deliver operational excellence in housing allocations and accommodation services, leading continuous improvement efforts and collaborating with other departments to support new property acquisition and supply projects.
• To collaborate with internal departments, government agencies, non-profits, and community groups to build strong relationships, enhance service delivery, and ensure housing needs are understood and addressed.

Key accountabilities

1. Ensure that service policies, procedures, and processes are continuously developed to reflect regulatory and legislative changes, as well as changes to industry guidance, and best practice, with a strong emphasis on adhering to legislation affecting the service, ensuring all working practices are compliant and efficient.

2. Establish a culture of continuous improvement and innovation by developing and implementing key changes, including clearly communicating goals and expectations to enhance service delivery, processes, and outcomes, ensuring alignment with the organisation’s and directorate's overall objectives, as well as industry trends and best practice.

3. To be responsible for leading the service in relation to the discharge of homelessness duties from temporary accommodation, including in relation to all legal challenges, judicial reviews and similar relating to statutory homeless duties.

4. leading and inspiring the workforce, ensuring effective team management, professional development, and fostering a positive and productive work environment in line the council’s employment policies, procedures and practices.

5. To engage with community stakeholders and partners, ensuring collaboration and co-creation on joint initiatives and integrating community and partnership working into service planning and delivery.

6. To be responsible and accountable for managing the budget, involving finance teams early, ensuring compliance with financial and procurement procedures, policies and processes, and proactively managing risks and overspends, and maximising income, funding opportunities and efficiencies.

7. Fostering effective communication with all service staff, ensuring they are well-informed and actively involved. Clearly articulating service objectives, providing comprehensive briefings on Council-wide issues, and ensuring that corporate messages are effectively cascaded.

8. Drafting comprehensive reports, briefing notes, and presentations, supporting audits and committee meetings with detailed information and analysis and collaborating with the Assistant Director to ensure all documentation meets organisational standards and supports decision-making.

9. To be responsible for identifying, assessing, and managing risks to ensure effective service delivery in accordance with the council’s risk management policy, frameworks, and local risk register, including ensuring the timely escalation of risks to the Assistant Director.

10.Supporting the Assistant Director in managing relationships with members concerning service delivery and politically sensitive issues by providing accurate and timely information and reporting within your area of responsibility, whilst representing the service and the council at meetings and events as required.

11.Developing and implementing a business continuity strategy for critical service delivery functions, ensuring effective planning and communication, and collaborating with the council’s emergency planning team, emergency and health services, partner agencies, and government organisations to establish robust contingency plans and procedures for managing emergencies.

12.Ensuring continuous professional development and mandatory training for yourself and your team, fostering a culture of ongoing learning and compliance.

13.To have responsibility for ensuring robust arrangements to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of staff and others in line with the council’s policies, procedures and guidance.

14.Ensuring adherence to the council’s equality, diversity, and inclusion strategies, policies, frameworks, and legislative requirements, actively promoting these principles in all areas of service delivery, including conducting equality analysis assessments and fostering inclusive interactions with service users, partners, and the workforce.

15.Responsibility for delivering accurate insights, establishing and monitoring metrics, and ensuring KPI targets are met, and collaborating with the council’s corporate performance team to align with broader organisational goals and reporting requirements.

16.Ensuring the safeguarding of vulnerable adults by implementing and adhering to local authority policies, promptly addressing concerns, collaborating with relevant agencies, and providing training and guidance to the allocations and accommodation team.

17.Undertaking any duties commensurate with the role, including deputising for the Assistant Director and Heads of Services as needed, to ensure the effective delivery of the directorate’s services.

Key performance indicators

• Delivery of statutory and local performance reporting to agreed timescales and quality standards
•  Timely identification and notification of applicants to properties
•  Resettlement targets of households from temporary accommodation
• Temporary Accommodation compliance
• Temporary Accommodation Voids let within target
•  Responses to complaints, FOIs and Ombudsman enquiries
• Compliance with statutory and corporate stand
•  Delivery of improvement projects within agreed timeframes and budgets Key relationships (internal and external) • Assistant Director of Housing Demand
•  Housing Demand management team
•  Housing Demand staff
•  Housing & Environment Directorate colleagues
• Council wide senior managers and heads of service e.g. Children’s Adults and Public Health, Housing Benefits
•  Corporate colleagues e.g., Finance, HR, ICT, Legal, Audit, Commercial hub, and Comms
•  Representing the council as a company director for Locata, if nominated to represent the Council in this respect
•  External stakeholders e.g., Ealing Homelessness Forum, Accommodation Providers, including Registered providers, Managing Agents, Landlords, Supported Accommodation providers, Greater London Authority, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government,
•  Peers in other London Councils
•  Other stakeholders e.g. voluntary sector organisations, service providers, resident groups, partnership organisations

Authority level

•  Responsibility for staffing and salaries budget
• Policy development and implementation subject to approval as appropriate
•  Financial sign off up to £100k
•  Supporting revenue budget of £33m
• Board Director of Locata if nominated to represent the Council in this respect

Person specification

Recruitment practices to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and/or vulnerable adults apply to this post in addition to the requirement to obtain a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Essential knowledge, skills, and experience

1. Significant experience in housing management or a related field, with a track record of delivering successful housing allocation and accommodation solutions.

2. In-depth knowledge of the Housing Act 1996, including Part VI and Part VII, and the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.

3. Significant understanding of local and national housing allocation and homelessness policies, strategies, and best practices.

4. Sound knowledge of welfare and benefits systems that impact housing and homelessness.

5. Proven ability to lead, manage, and motivate a team, ensuring high performance and effective service delivery.

 6. Strong skills in developing and implementing strategic plans to manage housing allocations and accommodation.

7. Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to engage effectively with a wide range of stakeholders.

8. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to address complex housing issues and develop innovative solutions.

9. Ability to manage budgets and financial resources efficiently, ensuring services are delivered within budget.

10.Experience of developing and writing successful grant funding bids to secure additional resources for housing services.

11.Experience in working collaboratively with other agencies, charities, and service providers to support housing needs.

12.Demonstratable experience in managing projects from inception to completion, ensuring objectives are met on time and within budget.

Essential qualification(s) and professional memberships

1. Educated to degree level in a related field such as Housing, Social Work, Public Administration.

2. A Level 4 or 5 Certificate or Diploma in Housing, or a foundation degree from the Chartered Institute of Housing, or a willingness and ability to work towards obtaining this qualification.

3. Membership in a relevant professional body, such as the Chartered Institute of Housing.

4. Evidence of Continuous Professional Development, for example

•  Formal management training and development programmes such as ILM Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management
•  Project Management training such as Prince2 or Project Management Professional certification.