Shelter jobs in Blackburn, england

1 post available

Location: Rochdale - linked to Manchester Hub

This can be a hybrid role based on service demands

Salary: Solicitor - Grade 5 - £38,724 or Grade 6 - £44,323 depending on experience or Paralegal Grade 3 - £32,585 per annum

Hours: Full time - 35 per week

Contract: Permanent 

Closing date: Sunday 31st May 2026 at 11.30 pm

Join Shelter as a Housing Solicitor or Paralegal, in our mission to drive systemic change and fight for Justice.

If you are a dedicated legal professional with a strong commitment to addressing the housing crisis, we welcome you to apply for this role.

At a time when the housing emergency continues to deepen, your experience could help transform lives and challenge the systems that perpetuate injustice. Come and play a central role in our mission to defend the right to a safe, and secure home.

Working with Shelter means being part of a passionate team that believes a safe home is a fundamental right. Here, your legal skills don’t just change lives - they shape a fairer housing system.

About the roles

Based with our partnering organisations, you will ensure you deliver high quality legal services through casework, the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Scheme and ensuring Legal Aid contract requirements and performance targets are met.

Solicitor

You will challenge unfair housing practices and systemic causes of homelessness through strategic casework and litigation. Working closely with our Greater Manchester team and the Managing Solicitor to strengthen housing rights awareness across the region, you will support Legal Advisers, ensuring high professional standards and compliance.

Paralegal

You will help our solicitors to maintain an active caseload, enabling our clients to enforce their housing rights. Your role will be varied and will include taking instructions and witness statements, drafting letters, making applications, providing court representation and making sure time recording and income targets are met. Please note this role is being advertised as a Paralegal but on appointment the job title will be Legal Adviser.

About You

For the Solicitor role, we are open to newly qualified candidates with a demonstrable interest in social justice, as well as those who have 3+ years PQE and a strong track record in housing law and Legal Aid work. You will have experience or a demonstrable interest in legal practice in the private or not for profit sector with experience of working on a wide range of housing cases, knowledge of legal aid, housing, homelessness and welfare law. You have the ability to research, write reports, time record and meet financial targets, as well as meeting or be willing to develop to meet the Housing Supervisor Requirements (September 2023).

For the Paralegal role you will need a good understanding of litigation work, be able to carry out legal research and provide a good standard of professional service and client care. You will have excellent communication skills, both in writing/drafting and face-to-face along with proficiency using case management systems and time recording, as well as the ability to manage your time and workload. If you have housing law experience and knowledge of Legal Aid/ CCMS this would be an advantage. You enjoy collaborating as part of a team, respond quickly and positively to change and are not afraid to challenge the status quo and introduce new ideas when appropriate.

Benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits, including 30 days of annual leave, enhanced family friendly policies, pension and interest free travel loans. Our employees also have access to a tenancy deposit loan, payroll giving, cycle to work scheme and an employee assistance programme.

About The Team

Our legal Teams (Managing Solicitors, Solicitors, Legal Advisors and Trainees) are based throughout our England hubs. We are currently based in London, Plymouth, Bristol, Norwich, Birmingham, Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire, Sheffield and Newcastle.

We are enthusiastic, driven and champions for fighting housing injustice. Whilst generating an income, we also address the housing crisis.

You will be part of an existing multi-disciplinary team that offers housing and homelessness advice and support across Greater Manchester. It consists of a solicitor led legal team providing advice and representation, and an advice service providing advice, support and guided self-help to people with housing, debt or welfare benefit issues. There is also a committed and skilled team of volunteers that offer peer support, mentoring and more general volunteering, adding significant value to our core service offer.

About Shelter

Home is a human right. It’s our foundation and where we thrive. Yet everyday millions of people are being devastated by the housing emergency.

We exist to defend the right to a safe home. Because home is everything.

We need ambitious, passionate people to join us. This is your chance to play a part in the fundamental change we are striving to achieve.

Our enemy is the social injustice at the core of the escalating housing emergency. To win this fight, we must be representative of the people we are here to help and those who support our movement. In all our people decisions, we take pride in being inclusive, equitable and transparent. We are committed to combating racism both within and outside Shelter. We welcome you on our journey to becoming truly anti-racist.

How to Apply

Please submit your CV with a supporting statement with responses to the 'About You' points 1-7 outlined in the job description of no more than 1000 words. Please provide specific examples following the STAR format and ensure you demonstrate how you address the behaviour below throughout your responses:

• We prioritise diversity and have an inclusive and open mindset

Safeguarding Statement

Safeguarding is everyone's business. Shelter is committed to protecting the health, wellbeing and human rights of those we support, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect. All our staff will be expected to observe professional standards of behaviour and conduct their work in line with our Safeguarding Policies.

Recruitment Agencies

Shelter does not accept unsolicited CVs from external recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.

Salary: £32,585 per annum pro rata for part time

Contract: Fixed term Contract until 30th June 2027

Hours: Part time – 28 per week 

Location: Blackburn Central Library

Closing date: Wednesday 3rd June 2026 at 11.30pm

Do you have experience of providing welfare benefits advice and advocacy? Then join Shelter as a Welfare Benefits Adviser and you could soon be playing a vital role in helping our clients get the support they need.

About the role

Your role will be to deliver a specialist advice service, supporting clients with a wide range of issues from benefit entitlement checks and supporting with claims, to providing representation at appeal tribunals. You will use legislation and your own experience to complete submissions and manage a varied caseload. Working in partnership with colleagues in the Hub, you will support clients in crisis to maximise their income and secure accommodation.

About you

You will need experience of providing welfare benefits advice and advocacy with the ability to progress to specialist level knowledge. You will be able to carry out casework related interviews, maintain detailed case records and deliver group workshops and presentations. The role will also involve effective communication with all stakeholders, particularly those with lived experience of homelessness and collaborate with people from other teams and organisations.

Benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits, including 30 days of annual leave, enhanced family friendly policies, pension and interest free travel loans. Our employees also have access to a tenancy deposit loan, payroll giving, cycle to work scheme and an employee assistance programme.

About Shelter

Home is a human right. It’s our foundation and where we thrive. Yet every day millions of people are being devastated by the housing emergency.

We exist to defend the right to a safe home. Because home is everything.

We need ambitious, passionate people to join us. This is your chance to play a part in the fundamental change we are striving to achieve.

Our enemy is the social injustice at the core of the escalating housing emergency. To win this fight, we must be representative of the people we are here to help and those who support our movement. In all our people decisions, we take pride in being inclusive, equitable and transparent. We are committed to combating racism both within and outside Shelter. We welcome you on our journey to becoming truly anti-racist.

Safeguarding statement

Safeguarding is everyone's business. Shelter is committed to protecting the health, wellbeing and human rights of those we support, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect. All our staff will be expected to observe professional standards of behaviour and conduct their work in line with our Safeguarding Policies.

How to apply

 Please click ‘Apply for Job’. You are required to submit your work history and a supporting statement. The supporting statement should include your responses to the first four points in the ‘About You’ section of the job description of no more than 1000 words in total. 

Please provide specific examples following the STAR format and ensure you demonstrate how you address the behaviours below in your responses:

• We prioritise diversity and have an inclusive and open mindset

Any applications submitted without a supporting statement will not be considered.

Shelter does not accept unsolicited CVs from external recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.

This role will support the development and delivery of our services and resources for young people born with a cleft lip and/or palate. Working closely with the Engagement & Services team to help us achieve our mission. 

The Youth Engagement Coordinator will sit within the Engagement & Services Team. They will join a friendly and supportive team of seven colleagues who, together, are responsible for the delivery of CLAPA’s adult, family, children and young people and involvement services. The post holder will develop and deliver services for eight- to seventeen-year-olds, which will enable the young cleft community to connect, share experiences and access guidance and emotional support. Shaping what support looks like, creating positive impact and strengthening reach, this new role for CLAPA will make a real difference to the lives of children and young people born with a cleft.

If you think you have the talent, passion and experience to help us ensure we can always meet the needs of the community we serve, we want to hear from you.