Rough Sleeper Outreach Worker

What is the job role?

This is a great time to be working in Rough Sleeping and Housing Support. Coventry’s Rough Sleeping team have been operating for over five years now, and each year we see new challenges and new opportunities. Your role will be to provide support through outreach and street intervention, working with support services and agencies to improve pathways for individuals who are street homeless to access and sustain suitable accommodation and maintain engagement with services.

You will work as part of a team providing additional outreach capacity to work collaboratively with new or entrenched rough sleepers in Coventry. The outreach workers will be responsible for co-developing and monitoring support plans for rough sleepers on their caseload. To work with an agreed case load, providing intensive support that focuses on recovery. You will be working in community settings and work flexibly on occasions across the week to meet the needs of the service, which may include some early mornings, evenings, and weekends, and relies on the whole team working flexibly as necessary.

Use of your own car is desirable. This is a fixed-term role. This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

We value diverse perspectives and experiences and are striving to create a workplace culture that is inclusive, is accepting of all and is free from discrimination and bias. The Housing and Homelessness Service is a very busy environment and faces several challenges to meet the housing needs of citizens of Coventry. The team have grown significantly during the last 12 months and this reflects the fact that Housing & Homelessness are now a key council priority.

The team are responsible for the delivery of the following service functions:
Provision of the statutory homeless service, Provision of temporary accommodation, Management of the housing register, Co‑ordination of support to citizens rough sleeping, Commissioning of homeless services, and Responsibility for housing strategy. The Council has a strategic vision that is clearly set out in both the Housing & Homelessness and the Rough Sleeping Strategies which were both approved in 2019. By becoming part of an expanding team who are focused on preventing households from becoming homeless as well as providing tailored support and interventions when someone does become homeless this is a fantastic opportunity to make a real difference to some of the most vulnerable people in our city.

• Open and fair:
  We are fair, open, and transparent.
• Nurture and develop:
  We help and encourage everyone to be their best and do their best.
• Engage and empower:
  We talk and listen to others, working together as one.
• Create and innovate:
  We embrace new ways of working to continuously improve.
• Own and be accountable:
  We work together to deliver the best services for our residents.
• Value and respect:
  We put diversity and inclusion at the heart of all we do.

In line with our One Coventry Values, we want to ensure that our communities are represented across our workforce. A vital part of this is ensuring we are a truly inclusive organisation that encourages diversity in all respects, including diversity of thinking. We particularly welcome applicants from minority ethnic, LGBT+, disabled and neurodiverse communities to make a real difference to our residents so that equity and respect remains at the heart of everything we do.

To be successful in this role you need to have:
Knowledge and understanding of the issues faced by homeless people, including adults with multiple and complex needs and/or no recourse to public funds. Knowledge of homelessness, Experience in working with either rough sleepers, hard‑to‑reach groups or those with multiple and complex needs, Excellent interpersonal skills, Excellent negotiating and advocacy skills, Ability to lone work and manage own day‑to‑day caseload, Ability to deal positively with conflict and work to avoid situations…