Occupational profile - housing practice

Occupational profile

A number of job titles cover the roles and responsibilities of those intended to work in this area:

• housing administrator or housing assistant
• customer services advisor
• property services administrator or assistant
• tenant involvement role
• development administrator or assistant
• floating support role covering homeless services  and older people

Level 3 Apprentice role requirements

• delivering excellence in customer services as a customer advocate across a comprehensive range of housing services
•  understanding the diverse needs of tenants and provide support available to them from across the health and social care sector
• recognising and prioritising a wide range of maintenance and heating repairs will be essential
• developing knowledge and confidence and competence in being able to assess and accurately diagnose and record repairs as well as work in partnership with others to resolve issues
• responding appropriately to customer complaints in a timely and professional way
• ensuring appropriate protocols are applied
• carrying out a triage and/or heavy repair reporting
• completing inspection reports on void properties and/or complete audits
• developing excellent computing skills to record and manage and retrieve information for various aspects of the job role

Core Knowledge

• history of social housing
• understanding of Nolan Principles and good governance
• awareness of housing sector including public sector housing, social housing, private rented
• housing selection scheme, benefit system
• data protection GDPR 
• employees rights and responsibilities (ERR)
• customer service and customer focus 
• knowledge and understanding of the customer profile
• working with internal and external stakeholders
• how to use the different housing reporting systems
• employer induction programme

Core skills

• excellent written, verbal and non-verbal communication skills
• customer service skills
• excellent telephone and video call style
• interpersonal skills
• problem solving
• team working
• creative thinking
• organisational and decision-making skills
• self-reflecting skills
• continuous improvement

Core Behaviours

• empathy
• reliability
• adaptability
• fairness
• impartiality
• responsibility
• ability to work on own initiative
• eagerness to learn
• assertiveness
• ambition to build a career in housing
• ability to embrace change and adapt to it
• to be polite
• to be methodical
• to be conscientious
• want to help others and make a difference

Transversal skills

These Transversal Skills have been identified against their levels of complexity required for the Level 3 apprentices in housing practice:

• self-management – intermediate
• working with others – advanced
• citizenship and participating in society – advanced
• work professionalism – advanced
• problem solving and decision making - intermediate
• numeracy - intermediate
• digital literacy – intermediate
• communication and literacy – advanced

Transversal Skills have been mapped against required units and learning outcomes of competence and knowledge qualifications.

Assessment

The assessment methods are defined by qualifications in this framework. These are assessed in line with the awarding organisations assessment requirements. Assessments can take place during or at the end of the apprenticeship, resulting in the successful achievement of competence and knowledge qualifications.

The assessors must be appropriately qualified to make assessment decisions, occupationally capable and knowledgeable in carrying out the relevant qualification requirements. The assessors should maintain their occupational knowledge annually through continuing learning and professional development activities.

The following assessment methods can be used in this framework:

Portfolio of evidence

As the apprentice completes a task in the workplace that demonstrates they have achieved appropriate levels of skill, knowledge and behaviour, they will store details in the portfolio as evidence. Portfolios can be paper based or electronic.

Observation of performance in the workplace environment Apprentices may be observed by their assessor performing a task or tasks in the workplace against the assessment criteria for the relevant units.

Practical skills end assessment

As part of final confirmation of competence, the apprentices may be observed in the workplace demonstrating a range of practical skills to a specially constructed panel consisting of an employer, an assessor and a relevant member of the appropriate professional body.

Assignments

An assignment is a task or set of tasks that may involve research into a particular topic together with a practical activity, either on the job or off the job.

Oral /Professional Discussion/ Interview

A discussion between the apprentice, their assessor and possibly the employer about practical tasks completed including how they were carried out.

Witness statement or testimony

A signed personal statement from an appropriate person may be used to describe how an apprentice performed a task in the workplace or produced his/her evidence for assessment.

Enhancements

The framework must include an induction. Employees Rights and Responsibilities (ERR) must be covered and confirmation of completing ERR must be included with the request for the apprenticeship certificate.

Employers may wish apprentices to take the following additional training (in-house or online) where it is not already covered in the qualifications:

• aims and objectives of association or housing provider
• role of Housing Executive as regional strategic housing authority
• introduction and overview of housing management systems
• health and safety
• fire awareness
• manual handling
• data protection and GDPR including equality and diversity
• whistleblowing
• cyber security awareness
• health and wellbeing
• code of conduct
• code of ethics
• standards of practice recognised by Chartered Institute for Housing
• Nolan’s Principles for public life
• customer focus

Such additional training is optional and is not funded by DfE.

Progression

Currently there are no progression opportunities to HLAs in Housing, however a Foundation degree is currently being developed to allow progression to a HLA in the sector.

After finishing the Level 3 Apprenticeship in Housing Practice progression opportunities in employment should include the following roles with specialist 'officer' title:

• accounts officer including income recovery and financial inclusion)
• housing officer or advisor
• property services officer
• developments officer
• assets officer
• tenants participation officer
• welfare advice officer
• allocations officer
• financial inclusion officer
• planned maintenance officer
• compliance officer

National occupational standards (NOS)

Every framework must be underpinned by national occupational standards which will show the standards of performance you must achieve when carrying out functions in the workplace, together with specifications of the underpinning knowledge and understanding.

The standards you will achieve upon finishing are:

• provide housing rent services
• provide housing advice and guidance to customers
• identify the housing requirements of customers
• allocate accommodation to meet customer requirements
• match the requirements of customers with available accommodation
• assist customers to move and accept new living environments
• work with private sector landlords to increase the availability of new rented homes
• advertise and market properties to customers
• manage rents and services charges
• manage temporary accommodation
• provide support to customers to reduce risk of homelessness
• set up occupancy agreements
• complete relevant paperwork for occupancy agreements
• investigate identified breaches of occupancy agreements
• manage and carry out investigations of disputes and breaches of agreements
• contribute to housing reviews and strategies and plans
• identify and put in place changes to improve housing services
• manage housing projects and contractors
• inspect the condition of rented or tenanted property
• check and record the condition of property
• respond to customer requests for repairs
• organise the maintenance and repair of property
• reduce the number and impact of empty properties
• manage empty properties
• assess and act on the risk of danger and harm or abuse
• support tenants and residents in contributing to decision making at housing governance groups
• support the involvement of tenants and residents in the local community
• support tenants and residents and speak for their interests in the local community
• provide support to individuals in isolating situations to maintain social contacts
• maintain and update records and reports

Further information

Further information can be found at: National Occupational Standards