Housing Assistant

Salary: £26,000 per year

Pinnacle Group provides people-first, integrated services across a range of community-facing assets and infrastructure – including multi-tenure housing, schools, open spaces, public buildings, utilities and broadband networks – as well as a range of complementary employment and wellbeing outcomes. Across the UK, Pinnacle supports over 300,000 homes, 200 schools and 80 public buildings creating value, providing stewardship and generating positive outcomes for our customers, our partners and our clients.

The landmark National Accommodation Management Services (NAMS) contract for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) goes live in April 2022 to provide Service Family Accommodation housing management to 49,000 homes, and the service families who live in them.

As a Housing Assistant, you will be based at a local office and responsible for providing a comprehensive support and administration service for regional and area housing services including responding to a range of enquiries from service families as well as internal and external stakeholders

The Role – Housing Assistant – 6-month FTC

As well as administering and supporting area housing services, the Housing Assistant role will be central to the success of the team by planning, monitoring, scheduling and management of Housing Officer appointments/diaries.

The Housing Assistant role can also be considered a development opportunity for colleagues wanting to progress into a Housing Officer career. As such the Housing Assistant will also be trained and act as additional Housing Officer support during times of peak activity e.g. unit moves, seasonal increases and short notice demand which will include some site based work

Key Responsibilities

The Housing Assistant will:

• Provide administrative and mainly office based operational support to the area housing teams relating to the occupancy cycle for pre move out, move out, pre move in, move in, key management and 14-day observation (settling in) visit appointments
• Assist in following up unresolved issues as a result of the occupancy cycle (voids) e.g. checking any items raised at pre move in are completed by RAMS if Housing Officer is attending another appointment.
• Coordinate, administer, monitor Housing Officer appointments/diaries including short notices changes and long-term planning liaising with the area manager and other stakeholders as required. Using the 60/40 criteria
• Support, administer, and lead as appropriate, on the management of garages in liaison with Homes Services. Maintaining records of the availability of garages and ensuring occupant data is correct highlighting need for action.
• Contribute to ensuring families and the places that they live receive a comprehensive and holistic patch service by raising, reporting, and monitoring to a successful conclusion any health and safety concerns, issues which impact on service families lived experience in their homes and or the areas they live in.
• Administer and support regional teams with follow on ‘in occupancy’ enquiries such as aids and adaptations (ANDA), permissions, squatters, abandonment, ASB and referrals to other agencies
• Contribute, lead and support as required in the management and allocation of garages
• Support large scale and sometimes short notice moves which may require regional and national travel with overnight stays – includes attending occupancy cycle appointments if trained and required
• Lead on the management of Welcome Packs ensuring they are kept up to date, contain all relevant information, ready for move in and meet the contractual requirements
• Provide and keep up to date local information for families to improve their lived experience and introduction to a new area with the associated facilities (Portal and Welcome Pack)
• Support, track and keep updated stakeholder contacts, engagement outcomes and record feedback/actions
• Participate and support events and a range of activities to engage with service personnel and their representatives including planning, organising, and attending one off and routine service family housing surgeries and stakeholder meetings
• Support the investigation and resolution of complaints – making enquiries as necessary
• Provide a range of office related duties and administration such as but not exclusively Pinnacle first aid representative, ordering equipment/stationary, office health and safety compliance/audit
• Complete and maintain accurate and detailed records in all operational systems and templates
• Act as an operational software and systems super user
  • Maintain the highest standards of conduct and integrity ensuring that service families, colleagues, and stakeholders are treated fairly, irrespective of race, gender, disability, creed, or sexual orientation.
  • Support and contribute to initiatives and projects
  • Support the production of operational performance and off reports gathering data and information as necessary
  • Contribute to continuous improvement and the development of processes and good practice
  • Provide administrative support to managers

Person Specification

• Experience working in a public or private sector customer service environment providing administrative support and responding to customer/stakeholder enquiries. Applications from ex service personnel welcome.
• Security and other relevant clearance
• Occasional national and regional travel
• Demonstrates commitment to and passion for providing enhanced services to service families
• Good standard of numeracy and literacy