Strategic Housing Specialist - South Prisons

Aylesbury, Bicester, Henley-on-Thames, Winchester

Region

South Central

Closing Date

29-Jul-2026

Business Unit

DDC South Central

Post Type

Permanent

HEO

Number of jobs available

1

Reserve List

12 Months

Job

19799

The post holder will be responsible for a portfolio of 1–3 prisons, dividing their time flexibly across the establishments within their allocated cluster. In addition, the successful candidate will be expected to provide ad hoc housing advice and support to all prisons across the South Central Prison Group, including those outside their designated portfolio, and undertake regular site visits.

Working closely with strategic housing partners, Probation Commissioned Rehabilitative Services (CRS), and Homelessness Prevention Teams (HPTs), the Strategic Housing Specialist will identify opportunities to improve access to accommodation for people leaving custody and help drive sustainable, long‑term improvements. The role will support effective partnership working between prisons and local HPTs, while ensuring senior leaders have access to high‑quality data and insights to inform decision‑making and improve outcomes.

To provide effective advice and guidance to Governors and their teams, the post holder will develop a sound understanding of the prisons within their portfolio, including their security categories and the geographical areas to which prisoners are released. Comprehensive prison familiarisation training will be provided to equip successful candidates with the knowledge required to perform the role effectively.

The job holder will be required to carry out the following responsibilities, activities and duties:

• The Strategic Housing Specialist will be responsible for co‑ordinating the strategic response of 1-3 prisons to improve housing outcomes for prison leavers and people in prison. They shall strengthen and support partnership working between the prison, all relevant housing stakeholders and other key resettlement agencies. They will identify existing structures/partnership working to address homelessness from custody in the region, and work to develop new solutions to homelessness from custody.

They will champion delivery of the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) and Duty to Refer (DtR), Offender Pathway (Wales) within the prison. This to include:

• Working with partners to ensure referrals under the DtR are as efficient and effective as possible.
• Design and deliver (or coordinate the delivery of) training related to homelessness within the prison and relevant statutory criminal justice agencies, so staff understand accommodation issues, increase their knowledge around the HRA and DtR, can identify related needs and have the knowledge to respond appropriately.
• Promote the HRA and DtR amongst prisoners to address unhelpful myths, set realistic housing expectations and encourage engagement with the commissioned rehabilitation service, prison housing stakeholders, and local authorities.
• Developing pre‑release assessments with Local Authorities in response to DTRs, through telephone, video and in‑person assessments.
• Promote the work of the Accommodation Commissioned Rehabilitative Services (CRS) within the prison and support these services by representing the prison on any joint engagement with external partners, such as local authorities or HPTs or local homelessness board. Contribute towards Accommodation CRS becoming successfully embedded into the prison and promote their work to the prison’s Senior Leadership Team. Help to find solutions to issues that arise in relation to practical challenges in service delivery and an understanding of the role of CRS with all relevant staff groups.
  
  This role will act as an enabler and will not manage, or duplicate efforts of, the Accommodation CRS.
• When working within a Probation Region delivering the Community Accommodation Service - Tier 3(CAS3) temporary accommodation provision: o Ensure processes are in place to make sure the Duty to Refer has been discharged appropriately and that all other accommodation options have been fully explored before a CAS3 referral is made. o Work with the Regional Probation team and their Homelessness…