About you:

You are an experienced and compassionate housing professional with a strong track record of leading frontline services that support people at risk of homelessness. You are motivated by early intervention and prevention, and you understand the difference that timely, trauma‑informed support can make to people’s lives.
You bring proven experience of managing and developing staff in a busy, complex environment, providing clear direction, support and challenge to help teams perform at their best. You are confident in setting priorities, managing competing demands and using data and performance information to drive service improvement.
You have a sound working knowledge of homelessness legislation, landlord and tenant law, and tenancy sustainment, and you can apply this confidently to real‑life situations. You are comfortable making balanced, defensible decisions in pressurised circumstances, always keeping customer outcomes, safeguarding and legal compliance at the forefront.

You are an effective communicator who can build strong relationships with service users, colleagues, elected members and external partners across statutory and voluntary sectors. You are able to navigate challenging conversations with empathy, professionalism and authority.
You work in a person‑centred, non‑judgemental way and are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. You are adaptable, resilient and solutions‑focused, with the flexibility to respond to emergency situations and participate in out‑of‑hours arrangements when required.
Most importantly, you share our ambition to reduce homelessness, strengthen early support pathways and help more people access and sustain safe, suitable accommodation.

About the role:

As Early Intervention and Prevention Team Leader, you will lead a frontline service focused on preventing homelessness before statutory duties arise. You will manage and support a multidisciplinary team delivering early intervention, tenancy sustainment, advice to tenants and landlords on Renters Rights Act, having Devon Home Choice allocations oversight and facilitating access to private rented and supported accommodation sectors.

Working in a trauma‑informed and person‑centred way, you will use data and insight to identify risk early, coordinate effective prevention pathways and improve access to sustainable housing solutions. You will play a key role in building strong partnerships across internal services, landlords and external agencies to reduce crisis presentations and deliver better outcomes for residents.

This is a pivotal leadership role within Housing Needs and Homelessness, directly contributing to the council’s ambition to reduce homelessness and reliance on temporary accommodation. You will combine strong people management, sound legal understanding and a proactive, solutions‑focused approach to drive high‑quality service delivery in a fast‑paced, complex environment.

About the team:

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.

What next?

If we sound like the right fit for you and you feel like the right fit for us we would welcome your application. Please click on the Apply button at the bottom of this page.

Alternatively if you would like to find out more about the post, the team or working with us at the Council please contact Vicki Whitty – Assistant Head of Service – Housing Needs and Homelessness at [email protected]

We reserve the right to close any vacancy before the closing date if enough applications are received.

Our commitment

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.