Head of Service - Homelessness and Reviews WCC624175
Shared Services Partnership
London, UK
Published today
Full Time
Job Details:
All applications must apply via Starfish. No applications will be considered via any other method. Please do not apply via the SuccessFactors job portal.
Salary range: £79,005 - £98,472 per annum. Salary negotiable depending upon experience.
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 36
Contract type: Permanent
Closing date: 31 May 2026
Interview date: June 2026
About Us:
Housing Needs in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. For leaders like Marleen, leadership is felt most clearly through the people they support and the service they help shape.
Marleen joined Westminster with a background in homelessness casework, temporary accommodation, and supported accommodation. With experience across housing and social care, they developed a strong understanding of the different ways people can become homeless, and the importance of responding with empathy, flexibility, and sound judgement.
In the Delivery Lead role, Marleen has oversight of some of the most complex areas of Housing Needs. This includes managing temporary accommodation for some of the most vulnerable households, overseeing supply and records, collaborating with other service leaders, and supporting teams working on high risk and complex cases.
What Marleen finds most rewarding is finding person centred solutions, particularly in difficult cases where outcomes are uncertain and pressures are high. Drawing on previous career experience, Marleen brings valuable insight into the challenges officers face and the realities for residents, using this to shape a resilient service and build teams equipped to deliver it.
A key part of Marleen's leadership is developing others and creating future leaders. They work closely with managers and officers, encouraging open conversations and creating space for people to grow. One of Marleen's proudest moments was supporting an officer to build confidence, take on new responsibilities, and progress into a management role.
At Westminster, we believe everyone is a leader. For Marleen, being a Delivery Lead means shaping a resident focused service that is responsive, supportive, and always learning, while empowering staff to step forward and lead in their own way.
The Role:
As Head of Services for Homelessness and Reviews, you too can make a powerful contribution. Westminster City Council's vision is to build a Fairer Westminster - a city that supports and celebrates its communities through social justice, effective leadership and high-quality services. We've created a new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy, which you will deliver on a day-to-day basis.
This is your opportunity to take senior leadership responsibility for one of the Council's most critical statutory services. We're currently facing unprecedented demand and complexity. You will lead Westminster's statutory homelessness functions, reviews and complaints service. This will entail taking accountability for service quality, legal compliance, and resident experience.
You will oversee our significant frontline service. This includes managers and teams who are responsible for statutory homelessness decisions, prevention and relief activities. They also work on statutory and non-statutory homelessness reviews, enquiries and complaints. You'll be joining a team that places great value on this purpose-led work and offering meaningful support to some of our most vulnerable residents. We strive to have a resident-centred practice that learns from cases, data and feedback. You will have a direct impact on how homelessness decisions are made, reviewed and improved. You'll work in a highly visible and politically attuned environment, where you'll support teams to manage challenge, respond to complaints and reviews, and use learning to strengthen decision-making and service quality over time. As this is a leadership position, we ask that you bring confidence and a visible presence to the office and across the frontline.
It's key that you collaborate with Delivery Leads, other Heads of Service and senior leaders to ensure a joined-up approach. You'll ensure that work is safe, compliant, and cost effective. Across the Council, you will promote high performance, strategic thinking and innovation so that we can be our most effective at improving housing outcomes and preventing homelessness.
This is a role where your leadership skills, values and impact all come together. Your influence will be felt every day across the service and the wider organisation.
Please refer to the Job Description for more information.
About You:
You'll bring strong leadership and professional expertise in statutory homelessness and customer experience to this role. You've built this through working at a senior strategic level within a local authority, government organisation or voluntary sector body focused on homelessness, where you've held accountability for lawful decision making, service quality and resident outcomes.
You have a proven track record of leading complex, demand led services, ensuring decisions are fair, consistent and defensible, even in highly pressured and politically sensitive environments. You're comfortable taking responsibility for services that operate under scrutiny and understand the importance of getting decisions right first time.
As a leader, you've successfully developed and supported multi disciplinary managers and frontline teams delivering homelessness services. You create a culture of professional judgement and accountability across the service.
You bring confidence in working with a wide range of stakeholders, including elected Members, senior leaders, legal colleagues and external partners. When issues arise, you're able to respond with empathy, clarity and sound reasoning, supported by strong written and verbal communication skills.
You have an excellent understanding of local government and its political context, alongside strong knowledge of homelessness legislation, policy and equalities practice. You're able to balance statutory compliance with resident centred service delivery, ensuring services remain both compassionate and robust.
As this role carries financial responsibility, you'll have experience managing budgets and resources effectively, using performance data, learning from complaints and reviews, and service insight to drive improvement and sustainability.
We welcome information about any qualifications you hold, though these are not essential.
Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme, will automatically be invited to interview should they meet the essential criteria for the role.
The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a Global Majority (GM), people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as 'ethnic minorities' (formally known as B.A.M.E, Black, Asian and multiple ethnic) background and, while the role is open to all applicants, we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments.
What We Offer:
Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city's future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe. At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is Our Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/
As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.
The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.
We reserve the right to extend or close this vacancy early without warning subject to the volume of suitable applicants.
All applications must apply via Starfish. No applications will be considered via any other method. Please do not apply via the SuccessFactors job portal.
All applications must apply via Starfish. No applications will be considered via any other method. Please do not apply via the SuccessFactors job portal.
Salary range: £79,005 - £98,472 per annum. Salary negotiable depending upon experience.
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 36
Contract type: Permanent
Closing date: 31 May 2026
Interview date: June 2026
About Us:
Housing Needs in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. For leaders like Marleen, leadership is felt most clearly through the people they support and the service they help shape.
Marleen joined Westminster with a background in homelessness casework, temporary accommodation, and supported accommodation. With experience across housing and social care, they developed a strong understanding of the different ways people can become homeless, and the importance of responding with empathy, flexibility, and sound judgement.
In the Delivery Lead role, Marleen has oversight of some of the most complex areas of Housing Needs. This includes managing temporary accommodation for some of the most vulnerable households, overseeing supply and records, collaborating with other service leaders, and supporting teams working on high risk and complex cases.
What Marleen finds most rewarding is finding person centred solutions, particularly in difficult cases where outcomes are uncertain and pressures are high. Drawing on previous career experience, Marleen brings valuable insight into the challenges officers face and the realities for residents, using this to shape a resilient service and build teams equipped to deliver it.
A key part of Marleen's leadership is developing others and creating future leaders. They work closely with managers and officers, encouraging open conversations and creating space for people to grow. One of Marleen's proudest moments was supporting an officer to build confidence, take on new responsibilities, and progress into a management role.
At Westminster, we believe everyone is a leader. For Marleen, being a Delivery Lead means shaping a resident focused service that is responsive, supportive, and always learning, while empowering staff to step forward and lead in their own way.
The Role:
As Head of Services for Homelessness and Reviews, you too can make a powerful contribution. Westminster City Council's vision is to build a Fairer Westminster - a city that supports and celebrates its communities through social justice, effective leadership and high-quality services. We've created a new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy, which you will deliver on a day-to-day basis.
This is your opportunity to take senior leadership responsibility for one of the Council's most critical statutory services. We're currently facing unprecedented demand and complexity. You will lead Westminster's statutory homelessness functions, reviews and complaints service. This will entail taking accountability for service quality, legal compliance, and resident experience.
You will oversee our significant frontline service. This includes managers and teams who are responsible for statutory homelessness decisions, prevention and relief activities. They also work on statutory and non-statutory homelessness reviews, enquiries and complaints. You'll be joining a team that places great value on this purpose-led work and offering meaningful support to some of our most vulnerable residents. We strive to have a resident-centred practice that learns from cases, data and feedback. You will have a direct impact on how homelessness decisions are made, reviewed and improved. You'll work in a highly visible and politically attuned environment, where you'll support teams to manage challenge, respond to complaints and reviews, and use learning to strengthen decision-making and service quality over time. As this is a leadership position, we ask that you bring confidence and a visible presence to the office and across the frontline.
It's key that you collaborate with Delivery Leads, other Heads of Service and senior leaders to ensure a joined-up approach. You'll ensure that work is safe, compliant, and cost effective. Across the Council, you will promote high performance, strategic thinking and innovation so that we can be our most effective at improving housing outcomes and preventing homelessness.
This is a role where your leadership skills, values and impact all come together. Your influence will be felt every day across the service and the wider organisation.
Please refer to the Job Description for more information.
About You:
You'll bring strong leadership and professional expertise in statutory homelessness and customer experience to this role. You've built this through working at a senior strategic level within a local authority, government organisation or voluntary sector body focused on homelessness, where you've held accountability for lawful decision making, service quality and resident outcomes.
You have a proven track record of leading complex, demand led services, ensuring decisions are fair, consistent and defensible, even in highly pressured and politically sensitive environments. You're comfortable taking responsibility for services that operate under scrutiny and understand the importance of getting decisions right first time.
As a leader, you've successfully developed and supported multi disciplinary managers and frontline teams delivering homelessness services. You create a culture of professional judgement and accountability across the service.
You bring confidence in working with a wide range of stakeholders, including elected Members, senior leaders, legal colleagues and external partners. When issues arise, you're able to respond with empathy, clarity and sound reasoning, supported by strong written and verbal communication skills.
You have an excellent understanding of local government and its political context, alongside strong knowledge of homelessness legislation, policy and equalities practice. You're able to balance statutory compliance with resident centred service delivery, ensuring services remain both compassionate and robust.
As this role carries financial responsibility, you'll have experience managing budgets and resources effectively, using performance data, learning from complaints and reviews, and service insight to drive improvement and sustainability.
We welcome information about any qualifications you hold, though these are not essential.
Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme, will automatically be invited to interview should they meet the essential criteria for the role.
The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a Global Majority (GM), people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as 'ethnic minorities' (formally known as B.A.M.E, Black, Asian and multiple ethnic) background and, while the role is open to all applicants, we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments.
What We Offer:
Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city's future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe. At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is Our Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/
As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.
The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.
We reserve the right to extend or close this vacancy early without warning subject to the volume of suitable applicants.
All applications must apply via Starfish. No applications will be considered via any other method. Please do not apply via the SuccessFactors job portal.