Environmetal Health Officer (Private Sector Housing)

Full Vacancy Description

Job Description      Private Sector Housing Officer

Overall Purpose of the Role

The overall purpose is to deliver a range of specific effective and efficient services to the people, businesses and community of St Albans or internally to the Council through the provision and application of specialist skills, knowledge and expertise, which supports the Council in the delivery of services ensuring compliance with statutory provisions and corporate policy.

Specifics

The contract is for an initial three months, pay is £24.25 per hour PAYE or £30 umbrella

Generic Accountabilities

Service Management

1.         Supervise, coach, mentor and be involved in the recruitment of team members and assist them in their development to ensure individuals’ and team’s objectives are achieved to agreed standards

2.         Provide input and feedback on the development and progress of the business plan to ensure that work area objectives are achieved and the Council continues to comply with relevant standards and regulations

3.         Manage and monitor the delivery of work area objectives to ensure a high performing service is being delivered and ensures the Council complies with relevant standards and regulations                 

4.         Contribute to project work, promotions and initiatives, engaging with colleagues, customers, councillors, external agencies and partnerships, ensuring that deliverables are within agreed timescales and resources, to meet service plan objectives                                                             

5.         Assist in the development and implementation of robust management systems, processes and infrastructures to ensure that data / information within the work area can be collected and verified to meet service delivery requirements and fulfil statutory duties                                    

6.         Contribute to the development, implementation, monitoring and review of service area policies and guidelines to meet statutory and Council’s standards and support the delivery of services

7.         Investigate, research and assess a range of situations and activities and provide information so that appropriate action can be taken to meet the needs of customers and comply with relevant standards and regulations                                           

8.         Provide complex technical and professional advice, guidance, consultation and solutions to customers, colleagues and external agencies within specialist or specific work area and within defined guidelines to meet service delivery requirements                                                                     

9.         Design, develop, plan and deliver solutions, including enforcement and court action, to resolve issues for internal and external customers and external agencies and partnerships, to meet work area objectives and ensuring that the Council’s statutory and regulatory obligations and guidelines are met                                                                                                                                               

10.       Identify and recommend change and continuous improvement initiatives to own and/or team’s activities to enhance and improve performance and service delivery                                                          

11.       Contribute to embedding a performance improvement culture to further improve and enhance service delivery                                                                                                                                           

12.       Research, analyse, diagnose, interpret and evaluate complex data / information (using specialist software and interrogation techniques where appropriate) and take action or make recommendations to enable users to make informed decisions                                                                     

13.       Monitor, collate and evaluate information and produce accurate and timely factual reports to enable the monitoring of service delivery against service requirements                                                      

14.       Ensure compliance to agreed policy and quality systems and procedures within specific work area to minimise risk to the Council and its partners and uphold excellent standards of governance                                                                                                                                                   

15.       Participate in business continuity arrangements in the event of emergencies and local critical incidents in accordance with the Council’s emergency plans                                                                       

16.       Build, maintain and promote effective working relationships with councillors, colleagues, customers, partners and external agencies to ensure that work area objectives are effectively delivered                                                                                                                                                           

17.       Work effectively with other teams across the organisation and sometimes with partners and agencies to deliver improved, cost-effective and value-added services                                                       

18.       Keep abreast of the relevant changing  legal and statutory obligations, promptly updating management systems, policies, processes and infrastructures as required, to ensure compliance                                                                                           

19.       Demonstrate the Council’s Managing Effectively competencies –  leadership, managing performance, developing talent, managing resources, communicating with the team, managing change, acting with integrity and customer focus – to ensure that leadership is provided in a purposeful and positive way                                                                                                             

20.       Ensure that effective arrangements are in place to secure the overall well-being and health and safety of all employees and people delivering services for the Council                                                       

21.       Ensure that all activities and ways of working build upon the Council’s positive approach to equal opportunities and comply with the relevant statutory duties               

22.       Provide cover, where required, and general assistance to line manager  to ensure effective delivery of objectives

Resource Management

Depending on the nature of the specific role some of these accountabilities may not be directly applicable

1.         Monitor allocated team resources to meet budgetary and service performance requirements

2.         Contribute to generating and securing funding for relevant areas of work so that work area objectives can be efficiently delivered

3.         Co-ordinate and monitor contractor performance to ensure specified delivery requirements and standards are met

4.         Monitor specific team / service resources and contribute to the procurement of external resources to ensure the service area has the capability and capacity to deliver high performing services

5.         Monitor and evaluate significant physical resources to meet the needs of internal and external customers and comply with statutory provisions and/or Council policy

The job holder will be required to be flexible and undertake any other duties according to the needs of the organisation.  This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of activities, but rather an outline of the main areas of responsibility. Any reasonable changes will be discussed and agreed with the job holder before any variations to the job description are made. 

Person Specification

Qualifications

Educated to degree or equivalent level

Membership of appropriate professional body or equivalent experience

Evidence of continuous professional development

Mandatory practising certificates, where appropriate

Knowledge

Up to date and working knowledge of relevant legislation, regulations, standards and core disciplines of work area

Knowledge and understanding of:

functions of local government

 major issues and challenges facing specific work area

performance management

project working

procurement and contract management

Commitment to and clear understanding of equal opportunities

Understanding of health and safety issues relevant to work area

Knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite and work specific software packages

Experience

Experience of successfully achieving work area objectives in a relevant role

Experience of successfully supervising a team

Evidence of dealing effectively with change

Understanding of continuous improvement

Experience of providing input into policy development and implementing policies, practices and service improvements

Experience of monitoring budgets

Competencies 

All Principal Officers at this level are expected to be fully competent in all aspects of the Council's Competency Framework:

Managing Effectively at ‘Team Leader Level’

Leadership

Managing Change

Acting with Integrity

Communicating with the Team

Managing Performance

Developing Talent

Managing Resources        

Personal Effectiveness

Communicating with others

Team working

Respecting others

Managing work

Striving for excellence

Responding to change

Customer focus

Specific Role Requirements for Private Sector Housing Officer

Qualifications

Educated to degree or equivalent level in Environmental Health

Membership of appropriate professional body (Chartered Member of Institute of Environmental Health Officers- Fellow or voting member)

Evidence of continuous professional development

Mandatory practising certificates, where appropriate

Knowledge 

Up to date and working knowledge of relevant Environmental Health legislation, Housing Health and Safety Rating system, regulations, standards and core disciplines of work area

Knowledge and understanding of:

functions of local government

major issues and challenges facing specific work area

performance management

project working

procurement and contract management

Commitment to and clear understanding of equal opportunities

Understanding of health and safety issues relevant to work area

Knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite and work specific software packages

Experience

Experience of successfully achieving work area objectives in a relevant role

Experience of successfully supervising a team

Evidence of dealing effectively with change

Understanding of continuous improvement

Experience of providing input into policy development and implementing policies, practices and service improvements

Experience of monitoring budgets

Experience of working in private sector housing

Experience of undertaking a range of enforcement actions

Job Purpose

To ensure compliance with the Council’s policies, protocols and the relevant statutory requirements, in particular working with relevant stakeholders to maintain and improve the quality of private sector housing in the district.

To maximise the provision of decent housing in the private sector and to build positive relationships between the Council, landlords and tenants and assist in the provision of suitable housing for clients approaching the Housing Options Service. 

Accountabilities

1.         Undertake and execute in a consistent, proportionate and transparent manner, a caseload of proactive and reactive complaint handling, licensing, registration and enforcement work to meet statutory and service requirements in relation to HMOs, poor housing conditions, empty homes and private mobile home sites.

2.         To proactively identify HMO's, examine and determine applications for HMO Licensing/Registration.

3.         Collaborate with colleagues by cascading information relating to best practice, through regional specialist groups to ensure consistency, fairness and transparency in the delivery of relevant services.

4.         To be the senior officer responsible for making decisions on enforcement action needed in the private sector housing stock and  on the issuing and serving of notices to improve the quality of the private housing stock. This includes attendance and presentation of evidence on specialist areas of work at court or similar formal hearings or meetings, to enable informed and proportionate decisions to be reached.

5.         Update the empty homes register and investigate ownership, and take action to bring empty homes back into use.

6.         To provide expert advice to landlords and tenants in the private sector, responding  proactively to tenants suffering harassment and threatened with illegal eviction, initiating and serving notices where appropriate.

7.         To operate, administer and promote the Council's Rent Deposit Scheme and any other initiative involving the use of the private sector housing stock to meet housing need, including preparing an promoting relevant initiatives such as a landlords’ forum, landlords’ accreditation scheme for example.

8.         To update the Private Sector Housing Strategy and ensure that records on non decent homes in the private sector are maintained.

9.         . Provide expert advice where required to internal departments on private sector housing issues to ensure compliance with national legislative standards and guidelines

10.       Manage an individual and varied case load and where applicable to use the current database software system to prioritise visits and inspections and cases to ensure that performance targets are met. 

Demands

Ability to deal with verbal abuse and aggressive behaviour on a weekly basis up to 30 minutes in duration.

The ability to deal with interruptions and reprioritising work accordingly.  Daily up to 4/5 times at an average of 15 minutes.

Working Conditions

Ability to carry out visits to customers homes which may have restricted access, involve climbing stairs and be dirty or infested. 

Home visits could take place several times per week and last up to one hour.

The postholder is likely to be exposed to unpleasant working conditions such as filthy houses.

This post may be suitable for an element of home working

Other Employment Requirements

To attend occasional evening meetings up to 6 per year, annual residents’ conferences and other out of hours meetings with stakeholders up to 4 per year.

A clean driving licence and access to a vehicle, taxed and insured for business use is required.