Housing officer supporting statement: tenancy evidence

A housing officer supporting statement should explain how your experience meets the advertised housing responsibilities, with evidence of tenancy support, record keeping and work with other services where requested. Use the person specification to organise your examples. Check the scope of the post before choosing them, because the job title alone does not tell you which housing work to cover.

Establish what this housing post covers

Torbay Council's Housing Officer job description and person specification, checked on 9 November 2026, provides a named example. It describes housing management including tenancies, neighbourhoods, anti-social behaviour, caretaking, arrears and lettings. The duties include helping tenants identify support needs, signposting to agencies, recording tenancy requests and monitoring site inspections.

Use that scope to choose relevant evidence if your vacancy asks for similar work. An example about explaining tenancy information answers a different question from one about processing a general enquiry. Show what the issue involved and the action you took within your responsibility. For the application process more broadly, use the council job guide.

Follow the person specification's order

Torbay says the supporting statement will assess whether applicants meet the essential requirements, and asks candidates to explain how they meet each one. It also encourages evidence of desirable criteria, which may be considered in a competitive situation.

The page's candidate instructions refer to numbered requirements, although the fetched specification displays bullet lists under headings. Use the headings and criterion wording to organise your notes. If your current application pack has numbers, retain those numbers so you can check that you have covered every line.

The table selects essential requirements from Torbay's specification. Application evidence is requested by the candidate instructions; the final column contains prompts to help you choose it. Use the full person specification to check the requirements omitted here.

Requirement and category in Torbay's specification	Related housing work	Evidence to prepare for the statement
Communication and active listening, skills	Understanding a tenant's issue and explaining a next step	How you checked understanding and recorded what was agreed
Work with tenants, tenant organisations and external agencies, experience	Coordinating advice or support	Your contribution and how you followed up with the people involved
Strong record keeping, experience	Recording tenancy requests and inspection outcomes	What you recorded and how it supported the next action
Advice and support on tenancy issues, experience	Helping someone understand or manage a tenancy matter	The issue, your authority and the support you provided
Site visits and inspections, experience	Identifying and following up property or estate issues	What you noticed, reported and monitored
Safeguarding policies and processes, knowledge	Reporting concerns under the council's procedures	Relevant learning and an example of following your own workplace procedure

Describe judgement within your role

For an arrears, tenancy or difficult-conversation example, explain what information you had and how you decided your next action. Say when you involved a manager, specialist colleague or partner agency. Avoid claiming that you made a legal decision if your part was gathering information or passing the case on.

Torbay's duties require accurate records of tenancy requests and inspection outcomes. In your own example, explain how your record helped someone follow up the issue. Keep tenants' names, addresses and private circumstances out of the application. Describe the task clearly enough for the shortlister to understand it without reproducing case notes.

The shape of one answer

Use these prompts for a real example against an actual criterion. They do not provide an applicant's answer.

Criterion: "Experience of providing advice and support on a range of tenancy issues."

• When and where: identify your role, the housing setting and the kind of tenancy issue, without naming the tenant.
• What you did: describe the information you checked, what you explained and any referral or escalation within your responsibility.
• What happened: state the follow-up or outcome you can verify and how you recorded it.

If your evidence comes from another service, name that setting and explain its relevance. Careers Wales advises using specific examples that fit the job description. Check any essential requirement for similar-role experience before assuming a transferable example covers it.

Check qualifications and gaps before sending

Torbay's essential qualifications include literacy and numeracy equivalent to GCSE English and maths passes, a full current driving licence, and a "CIH Housing Certificate or equivalent standard qualification (or working towards)". These are this post's requirements. Compare the exact wording with your own qualifications and current study, and ask the recruiter about an unclear equivalence.

Use the essential and desirable criteria guide to check gaps. Follow your form's length instructions, remove repeated evidence and make sure every essential requirement is addressed. You can check your draft against the person specification before submitting it.