Casework Team Leader

As a leader, you will be supportive, resilient, and committed to trauma-informed and psychologically informed practice. You will have the skills to motivate and develop staff, manage performance, and help the team navigate complex situations with empathy and professionalism. You will work effectively with a wide range of internal and external partners, from safeguarding agencies and MAPPA to health, criminal justice, and voluntary organisations.

Strong communication skills - written and verbal - are essential, as you will ensure decision letters, case notes, and advice are clear, accurate, and accessible. If you are driven by improving outcomes for people facing homelessness and want to lead a team that makes a meaningful impact every day, we would welcome your application.

Exeter City Council is seeking an experienced and motivated Casework Team Leader to help deliver our newly redesigned Housing Needs & Homelessness service. This is a key role, managing a team that plays a critical part in preventing homelessness, relieving housing crises, and supporting people sleeping rough or at risk of rough sleeping. You will lead a trauma-informed, customer-focused casework service that ensures the Council meets its statutory duties under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, while driving quality, consistency, and continuous improvement across the team.

As a Team Leader, you will provide expert guidance on homelessness legislation, case law, assessments, and decision-making, while ensuring casework is robust, timely, and person-centred. You will oversee safeguarding responses, support staff through change, manage performance, and build strong relationships with partners, including those working with individuals fleeing domestic abuse, leaving prison, hospital discharges, those that have care experience or the armed forces.

This is an exciting opportunity to lead a frontline team that makes a real difference in reducing homelessness and improving outcomes for some of the city’s most vulnerable.

Exeter City Council is transforming its Housing Needs and Homelessness service to create a more proactive, compassionate, and effective system for the city. Following a comprehensive review of our homelessness pressures, we have redesigned our services to focus on early intervention, trauma-informed practice, and integrated multi‑agency working. This transformation includes new specialist teams, a strengthened commissioning model, clearer pathways, and a renewed focus on prevention, quality, and outcomes for vulnerable residents.

We are now recruiting ambitious and motivated leaders to help deliver this new model. These roles offer the chance to shape a modern, evidence‑led service, drive innovation, and make a meaningful difference to people experiencing homelessness in Exeter.

Join us and be part of building a system that delivers better support, better value, and better outcomes for our community.

You will be an experienced and confident housing professional with a strong understanding of homelessness legislation, including the Homelessness Reduction Act, Housing Act 1996 (Part VII), suitability duties, and landlord and tenant law. You bring experience working with vulnerable households, complex casework, and frontline homelessness services, and you are able to analyse legislation and apply it effectively to real‑world situations. You will have the ability to provide expert guidance to casework officers, oversee statutory assessments, lead safeguarding responses, and ensure that high‑quality, legally robust casework is completed consistently across the team.

You are someone who thrives in a fast‑paced environment, remains calm under pressure, and can make sound, evidence‑based decisions while balancing risk, statutory requirements, and customer needs.

At Exeter City Council we are fully committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce to reflect the communities we serve. To support this commitment we will strive to implement reasonable adjustments to support any members of our communities who face barriers in recruitment processes, irrespective of the reason. We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and have committed to guaranteeing an interview to anyone with a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.