David Goodsell

Managing a team of support workers and administrators in a team that provides temporary accommodation for homeless families, responsible for the operational aspect of the service ensuring that the team delivers a high level of support to homeless and vulnerable families in need. This can often be in crisis situations and may require having to provide immediate support where I rely on my decision making and adaptability skills to be responsive to the demands of the client and team. I am also responsible for the management of staff, relying on my interpersonal skills to sustain good working relationships with team members and manage individual and team performance.

The role required me to possess strong knowledge of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and The Homelessness Code of Guidance along with social care and immigration legislation and apply this in a multi-agency setting. I provided housing advice to colleagues working in social care developing strong partnership links between key agencies, contributing to the development of collaborative working across local authorities and organisations.

Working as a caseworker supporting families at risk of homelessness, I worked closely with local district & borough councils and registered social landlords to prevent families from being evicted and achieve tenancy sustainment. My tasks ranged from completing affordability assessments, assisting families to manage welfare benefit claims and representing families in the court arena. Success in this role was achieved from my adaptability and interpersonal skills being able to develop strong working relationships with clients over prolonged periods of support.

Working in the front door for children's social care, I would receive and outcome safeguarding referrals, make decisions on the risk to children and develop safety plans for vulnerable families. My ability to make on-the-spot decisions gathering information from partnership agencies and analyse risks meant that I was proficient in being able to quickly implement support and safety in high risk situations and help families to engage with emergency services and partnership agencies.

Providing administrative support for a local authority, I developed fundemantal skills for working in an office environment, completing data entry tasks accurately, paying invoices taking minutes in meetings whilst gaining experience handling and sharing sensitive data.