Lewisham Jobs | 1 Live Vacancy

About London Borough of Lewisham

Lewisham Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Lewisham in south-east London. It is based at Laurence House on Catford Road, with several housing and social care teams working from nearby buildings such as Eros House and the Kaleidoscope centre. The council describes itself as the UK's first Borough of Sanctuary in recognition of its work with refugees and migrants, and it serves one of the capital's most culturally diverse populations. It is a Living Wage Employer, a Disability Confident employer and a signatory to the Armed Forces Covenant.

Housing and homelessness services

The council runs its own Housing Options service, which assesses anyone who is homeless or at risk of homelessness, draws up a personalised housing and wellbeing plan and works to prevent or relieve homelessness under the Homelessness Reduction Act. The service offers budgeting and benefits help, support to find work and help with deposits for private rented homes, and it operates an out-of-hours line for housing emergencies. A separate Temporary Accommodation Team places households in hostels, nightly-paid accommodation and private sector leased properties while their application is assessed, and manages rent, repairs and move-on for those placements. The council also handles duty-to-refer notifications from partner agencies, supports people with no recourse to public funds, and manages a stock of over 16,000 council homes alongside Lewisham Homes and Regenter B3.

Where it operates and who it supports

Services cover the whole borough, from Deptford and New Cross in the north to Catford and Sydenham in the south. Frontline housing staff work with single adults and families facing eviction, rough sleepers referred through StreetLink, survivors of domestic abuse, and vulnerable households who need enhanced safeguarding. Many roles carry an enhanced DBS check for this reason.

Working at Lewisham

The council promotes flexible and hybrid working, flexitime, compressed hours and job sharing. Annual leave starts at 27 days and rises to 32 days after five years and 35 days after ten, on top of bank holidays. Staff join the Local Government Pension Scheme and have access to enhanced family leave, an employee assistance programme, interest-free travel and bicycle loans, discounted gym membership and staff forums for Black, Asian and multi-ethnic staff, disabled staff, LGBTQ+ staff and women. Recruitment is anonymised and CVs are not accepted. Recent adverts include a Homelessness Prevention and Assessments Officer at SO2 (around £44,000 to £45,700) and a Senior Licensing and Housing Enforcement Officer at PO3 with a market supplement.

Typical roles for homelessness job-seekers

• Homelessness Prevention and Assessments Officer (Housing Options)
• Housing enforcement and private rented sector licensing officers
• Temporary accommodation, income and tenancy roles
• Adult and children's social care practitioners who work alongside housing teams