Homeless Health Peer Advocacy (HHPA) Development Manager

Groundswell

SW9, London (Hybrid)

£38,800 per year

Full-time

Permanent

Housing and Homelessness

Save Saved

Job description

Help make healthcare work better for people experiencing homelessness 

Thank you for your interest in joining Groundswell.

We're looking for someone who believes everyone should be able to access healthcare with dignity, whatever their circumstances.

As our Homeless Health Peer Advocacy (HHPA) Development Manager, you'll help make that happen by building the partnerships that enable people experiencing homelessness to access the healthcare they need.

At Groundswell, we know that good services alone aren't enough. Lasting change happens when health, housing and homelessness organisations work together around the person, sharing responsibility, building trust and removing barriers to care. This role exists to make that collaboration happen in practice.

Working across London, you'll strengthen partnerships, improve referral pathways and help embed HHPA within local systems so that more people can access timely, coordinated and person-centred healthcare. You'll also lead our Health Promotion programme, support the development of staff and volunteers, and help shape the future growth of the service.

This is an opportunity to improve individual lives by helping organisations work better together. Through your leadership, you'll help create a more connected health and homelessness system—one where people experiencing homelessness can access healthcare with confidence, dignity and choice.

If you're passionate about collaboration, committed to tackling health inequalities and excited by the opportunity to help shape the future of Homeless Health Peer Advocacy, we'd love to hear from you.

About Groundswell

For 30 years we've worked alongside people with lived experience to develop practical solutions that improve health, reduce inequalities and create opportunities for lasting change. We believe that people who have experienced homelessness are experts in the barriers they face and should play a central role in designing services and shaping the systems that affect them. 

Today, Groundswell delivers peer-led services, helping thousands of people each year access healthcare, improve their wellbeing and influence the systems that affect their lives. As HHPA Development Manager, you'll join a supportive organisation that believes lasting change happens through relationships, partnership and involving people with lived experience at all levels. 

Our Vision

Our vision is for a society which is fair, inclusive and equal.

We need equitable access to a healthier life and a better future for anyone with experience of homelessness.

Our Mission

Our mission is to bring people together to:

Amplify voices of people with lived experience to create solutions to homelessness and health inequalities.

Stand in solidarity and champion their rights, to create positive change.

Our Strategy

We co-produced our strategy with staff and volunteers with experience of homelessness. We’re proud to have remained true to our values of participation and co-production.

Stronger Voices, Healthier Lives, Better Futures, Greater Together

People with experience of homelessness must inform the solutions – because they understand the problems people face.

At every stage, we will hear, unite and amplify more voices of people with lived experience to speak out. Through participation we will build a stronger, more inclusive community to create change – through our organisation, in services, our sectors and wider society, locally and nationally.

Homelessness is a health emergency.

We will work to end health inequalities for people who have or are experiencing homelessness through advocacy, practical support, information and by influencing people, policy and services.

Everyone deserves a better, more hopeful life and future.

Lived experience of homelessness can lead to barriers that impact people’s life chances.

Recognising the potential in everyone, we will provide more opportunities and support for people with experience of homelessness to progress if, and when, they are ready.

We can’t achieve our goals alone – we are more impactful when we pull together.

We will become more effective and sustainable, building on our culture of relationships, compassion and transparency, and working closely with partners to learn, share and create change.

How Homeless Health Peer Advocacy Works

HHPA helps people experiencing homelessness overcome the barriers that prevent them accessing healthcare.

Many people face significant challenges navigating health services. Appointments can be difficult to attend, treatment can be confusing, and previous experiences of stigma, trauma or exclusion can make healthcare feel inaccessible. Without the right support, people often delay seeking help until their health has deteriorated.

"I need someone with me that I know that I can trust. I wouldn't do things like that on my own."

HHPA Client

HHPA provides practical, person-centred support that helps people access the care they need while building the confidence to manage their own health. Rather than providing one-off interventions, HHPA works alongside people over time, developing trusted relationships, responding flexibly to changing needs and supporting people to become more confident and independent.

The service combines the expertise of skilled Caseworkers with the unique insight of trained volunteer Peer Advocates who have lived experience of homelessness. Together they provide one-to-one advocacy, practical support and health promotion to help people:

prepare for and attend appointments

understand treatment and care plans

navigate hospital admission and discharge

access wider health and wellbeing services

make informed decisions about their health

become increasingly confident in managing their own health.

Alongside one-to-one support, HHPA delivers peer-led health promotion in hostels, day centres, outreach settings and other community spaces. Through informal conversations and group activities, Peer Advocates share accessible information about physical health, mental health and wellbeing, encourage preventative healthcare, identify unmet health needs and help people access support earlier. These conversations often provide the first step towards engaging with healthcare, creating trusted pathways into ongoing advocacy and reducing the need for crisis intervention.

Rather than doing things for people, HHPA works alongside them—building trust, reducing barriers and enabling people to become active participants in their own healthcare. This relational, peer-led approach improves individual health outcomes while strengthening partnerships across health, housing and homelessness services, helping more people access coordinated, person-centred care. 

The Role

The HHPA Development Manager is a key leadership role within Groundswell's HHPA service.

You'll help shape how people experiencing homelessness access healthcare by strengthening partnerships across London's health, housing and homelessness system while leading the continued development of our Health Promotion programme.

People experiencing homelessness often interact with multiple services but still experience fragmented care, missed opportunities for prevention and barriers to accessing the support they need. HHPA bridges these gaps through trusted relationships, peer-led advocacy and health promotion. This role helps create the partnerships, systems and programmes that make that possible.

This isn't a traditional partnership management role focused on maintaining stakeholder relationships. It's a practical, hands-on leadership role that brings organisations together, supports colleagues to deliver excellent services and identifies opportunities to improve how healthcare is delivered and experienced.

Working closely with the Services Director, Systems Manager and Health and Social Care Lead, you'll help ensure HHPA remains well connected, continually improving and responsive to changing need.

The role combines five key areas of responsibility:

Leading the Service 
Providing day-to-day operational leadership, supporting colleagues and helping ensure HHPA is delivered safely, consistently and effectively.

Building Partnerships 
Developing strong relationships with NHS organisations, local authorities, homelessness services and voluntary organisations to embed HHPA and strengthen collaborative working.

Leading Health Promotion 
Developing and overseeing Groundswell's Health Promotion and In-Reach programme, working with partners to deliver accessible, peer-led health promotion that encourages earlier engagement with healthcare.

Growing HHPA 
Using learning from frontline delivery and partnership working to improve services, develop new approaches and support the expansion of HHPA into new boroughs and communities.

Developing People 
Supporting, developing and inspiring staff and volunteers through reflective supervision, shared learning and a culture that values lived experience, collaboration and continuous improvement.

Together, these responsibilities make this a varied and influential role where you'll help shape both the future of HHPA and the wider health and homelessness system.

Role Description

As HHPA Development Manager, you'll provide operational leadership for key areas of Groundswell's Homeless Health Peer Advocacy service.

You'll lead the development of strategic partnerships, oversee the delivery and growth of our Health Promotion programme, support and develop staff and volunteers, and identify opportunities to strengthen and expand HHPA.

Working closely with the Services Director, Systems Manager and Health and Social Care Lead, you'll help ensure the service is well connected, evidence-informed and continually improving, so that more people experiencing homelessness can access timely, coordinated and person-centred healthcare.

Building Partnerships:

Develop trusted relationships across health, housing and homelessness services so organisations work together more effectively and people experiencing homelessness can access timely, coordinated healthcare.

Build and sustain relationships with NHS organisations, local authorities, homelessness services and community partners.

Support the Services Director to develop relationships with commissioners and strategic partners.

Represent Groundswell at operational meetings, networks and multidisciplinary teams.

Champion peer-led health advocacy and the involvement of people with lived experience.

Work with partners to identify shared challenges and develop practical solutions.

Embedding HHPA in Local Systems:

Help ensure HHPA becomes an established and valued part of local health and homelessness systems by strengthening collaboration and improving access to the service.

Embed HHPA within partner organisations' day-to-day practice.

Strengthen collaboration between HHPA staff and local services.

Develop and improve referral pathways.

Support timely, appropriate referrals and monitor referral activity.

Identify and resolve barriers to effective partnership working.

Work with the Systems Manager to strengthen systems that support collaboration.

Leading Health Promotion:

Lead the development of Groundswell's peer-led Health Promotion and In-Reach programme, helping people engage with healthcare earlier through accessible, trauma-informed support in hostels, day centres and community settings.

Develop partnerships that expand Health Promotion opportunities.

Oversee delivery across boroughs.

Develop accessible health information with communications colleagues.

Monitor quality, impact and learning and produce reports for funders

Ensure activities are delivered safely, including venue risk assessments where required.

Leading and Developing People:

Create a supportive, high-performing culture where staff and volunteers can thrive.

Line manage a team of Caseworkers and support volunteers.

Provide reflective supervision that encourages learning, wellbeing and high-quality practice.

Promote continuous learning and reflective practice.

Working alongside the Volunteer Management team, support volunteer recruitment, induction and ongoing development.

Foster collaboration, accountability and shared learning across teams.

Use coaching and asset-based approaches to help staff and volunteers recognise their strengths, build their skills and reach their potential.

Improving Services:

Use learning from partnerships, health promotion and complex casework to strengthen HHPA and improve system responses.

Work with the Health and Social Care Lead to improve multi-agency responses.

Identify opportunities to develop and expand HHPA.

Support the introduction of services in new boroughs.

Share innovation and best practice across the organisation.

Contribute to continuous improvement.

Supporting Service Delivery:

Alongside your strategic responsibilities, you'll help ensure HHPA delivers a responsive, safe and reliable service every day.

Participate in the HHPA duty system, including occasional early and late shifts.

Maintain effective communication with partners around referrals and triage.

Work with colleagues to resolve operational challenges.

General Responsibilities:

As a member of the HHPA leadership team, you'll contribute to the wider development of Groundswell.

Contribute to organisational planning and Team Leads meetings.

Champion equality, diversity, inclusion and anti-discriminatory practice.

Promote trauma-informed, strengths-based and person-centred approaches.

Ensure all work reflects Groundswell's values and commitment to lived experience.

Undertake other duties appropriate to the role.

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role is measured not simply by the partnerships you build, but by the difference those partnerships—and Groundswell's Health Promotion programme—make to people's lives and to the way health and homelessness services work together.

In your first year, you will have:

Built trusted partnerships across London's health, housing and homelessness system, establishing Groundswell as a valued and reliable partner.

Embedded HHPA within local services, strengthening referral pathways and making it easier for people experiencing homelessness to access timely, coordinated healthcare.

Led and developed Groundswell's Health Promotion and In-Reach programme, expanding peer-led health promotion across London and creating more opportunities for people to engage with healthcare earlier, in trusted community settings.

Supported and developed Caseworkers, volunteers and colleagues, creating a positive culture of reflection, collaboration and continuous learning.

Worked alongside colleagues and partner organisations to improve responses for people with complex needs, removing barriers to healthcare and strengthening multidisciplinary working.

Used learning from partnerships and frontline delivery to improve existing services, support innovation and contribute to the growth of HHPA into new boroughs.

Helped strengthen the wider health and homelessness system by promoting earlier intervention, improving collaboration and ensuring more people experiencing homelessness can access healthcare with dignity, confidence and choice.

Above all, you'll have created the conditions that enable both excellent health advocacy and impactful Health Promotion to thrive. By bringing organisations together, supporting colleagues and volunteers, and embedding peer-led approaches within local systems, you'll help more people experiencing homelessness access healthcare earlier, experience better outcomes and receive more connected, compassionate and person-centred support.

Working as Part of the HHPA Leadership Structure

These roles work closely together, combining strategic leadership, operational delivery, partnership development and specialist expertise to ensure HHPA is safe, effective and continually improving.

The HHPA service is delivered through a collaborative leadership model:

Services Director 
Provides strategic direction, secures funding, and holds overall accountability for delivery, performance and growth.

Systems Manager 
Designs and maintains the systems, processes and infrastructure that enable safe, efficient and compliant delivery.

Health and Social Care Lead  
Leads on supporting individuals facing the greatest barriers, providing specialist knowledge and navigating complex health and social care systems.

Development Manager (this role) 
Ensures HHPA is embedded within local systems and relationships, so that partnerships translate into effective access to healthcare in practice.

Together, these roles ensure the service is:

Well designed (systems)

Well connected (development)

Effective for those with greatest need (health and social care)

Strategically led and sustainable (director)

Our work is:

Person-centred — responding to individual needs

Peer-led — shaped by lived experience

Collaborative — built through partnership

Rights-based — focused on access and equity

System-focused — working to create lasting change

We understand that care is demonstrated through consistent, reliable and thoughtful practice — in how we communicate, follow up, and deliver support.

Person Specification

At Groundswell, we know there is no single route to becoming a great manager. You may have gained your experience through paid work, volunteering, community organising, supporting people experiencing homelessness or other forms of social exclusion, or through your own lived experience. We welcome applicants from a wide range of backgrounds who share our values and commitment to improving people's lives.

We're looking for someone who shares our values, enjoys building relationships and wants to help create a health and homelessness system that works better for everyone.

What We're Looking For

A) Core Requirements:

We're looking for someone who can demonstrate:

Experience of building and developing partnerships across health, housing, homelessness or voluntary sector organisations dealing with similar issues. 
Experience of leading, supporting or managing staff and helping others to develop. 
Experience of working collaboratively across organisations to improve services or outcomes. 
The ability to build trusted relationships with a wide range of people, including frontline staff, senior managers, commissioners and people with lived experience. 
Strong organisational skills, with the ability to balance competing priorities and work effectively in a complex environment. 
Sound judgement when responding to risk, safeguarding concerns and sensitive situations. 
A commitment to Groundswell's values of lived experience leadership, participation, equity, compassion and collaboration.

B) Knowledge and Experience:

The successful candidate is likely to have knowledge or experience of:

Essential:

The barriers people experiencing homelessness face when accessing healthcare.  
Health, housing and adult social care systems, and how they work together.  
Trauma-informed, strengths-based and person-centred approaches.  
Building partnerships that improve services and outcomes.  
Safeguarding, professional boundaries and information sharing.  
Contributing to service development, quality improvement or organisational learning.  
Microsoft 365: Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook

Desirable:

London's health and homelessness landscape.  
Health Promotion, outreach or community engagement.  
Co-production, peer-led services or lived experience leadership.  
Developing services across multiple sites or boroughs.  
Working within a duty-based or high-volume service.  
Salesforce or another case management or CRM system.  
Using coaching and asset-based approaches to support people to develop their skills, confidence and independence.

C) Personal Qualities:

We're looking for someone who is:

An excellent relationship builder who enjoys bringing people together around a shared purpose.  
Compassionate, approachable and respectful in the way they work with colleagues, partners and people using our services.  
Curious and reflective, always looking for opportunities to learn and improve.  
Confident working across organisational boundaries and able to influence through collaboration rather than authority.  
Adaptable and comfortable working in a changing environment where no two days are the same.  
Passionate about reducing health inequalities and improving access to healthcare for people experiencing homelessness.  
Reflective and solution-focused, with a commitment to learning and continuous improvement.

We'd Particularly Welcome Applications from People Who Have:

Lived experience of homelessness or another form of social exclusion.

Experience of working in partnership with local communities.

Experience of co-production or supporting people with lived experience to shape services.

A commitment to using lived experience to influence systems and improve outcomes.

Our Commitment to Inclusive Recruitment:

Groundswell is committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. We actively encourage applications from people with lived experience of homelessness, migration, the criminal justice system, mental ill health, substance use or other forms of social exclusion.

We recognise that no one candidate will meet every requirement. If you believe you have the skills, values and potential to succeed in this role, we'd encourage you to apply.

Why Join Groundswell

Meaningful Work

This is an opportunity to improve not just individual lives, but the way services work together.

As HHPA Development Manager, you'll help shape partnerships that make healthcare more accessible for people experiencing homelessness. Your work will influence how organisations collaborate, how services are designed and how people experience care. Every partnership you strengthen and every barrier you help remove has the potential to improve health outcomes for people who are too often excluded from healthcare.

A Supportive Team

We're a values-led organisation where collaboration, compassion and lived experience shape everything we do. You'll work alongside experienced colleagues who are committed to learning from one another and supporting each other to do challenging work well.

We believe good leadership is rooted in reflection, openness and trust. Through regular supervision, reflective practice and close collaboration across the HHPA leadership team, you'll have the support and autonomy to develop your ideas, build strong partnerships and make a lasting contribution.

Learn and Grow

HHPA is continuing to grow, creating exciting opportunities to influence the future of the service.

You'll have the opportunity to deepen your understanding of health inequalities, partnership working and systems change, while developing your leadership skills and contributing to the expansion of Homeless Health Peer Advocacy across London. Whether you're looking to broaden your expertise, lead new initiatives or help shape the future direction of the service, we'll support your professional development every step of the way.

Benefits

We offer a range of benefits to support your wellbeing and work-life balance, including:

28 days annual leave plus bank holidays.

5% employer pension contribution.

Flexible and hybrid working, where service delivery allows.

A compressed hours working pattern is available.

Regular reflective practice and high-quality supervision.

Ongoing learning and development opportunities.

A supportive, inclusive and values-led working environment.

Be Part of Something Bigger

At Groundswell, we believe everyone should be able to access healthcare with dignity, whatever their circumstances.

By joining us, you'll help create stronger partnerships, more connected services and a fairer health system for people experiencing homelessness. You'll work alongside colleagues, volunteers and partner organisations who share a commitment to collaboration, lived experience and lasting systems change.

Better partnerships create better healthcare.

By bringing organisations together, supporting colleagues and strengthening the systems around people experiencing homelessness, you'll help ensure more people receive the care they need, when they need it.

If you're looking for a role where you can influence services, build lasting partnerships and help create fairer access to healthcare, we'd love to hear from you.

Application and Interview Process

Please let us know if you would like to request any accommodations or adjustments throughout the application and interview process. We will be very happy to support these wherever possible to give all applicants the best opportunity to showcase their skills and experience.

We encourage our candidates to draw from their personal and professional experiences, skills, knowledge and passion for our work in their applications, as we believe this will be the best representation of why you are the right fit for the role. While we acknowledge that Generative AI can be a useful tool when used selectively, we do not believe it can replace the authenticity each individual can bring to their application. Therefore, we ask you to consider carefully any use of Generative AI throughout the application process. 