Early Help Navigator

Salary: Grade 3 - £31,600 per annum and excellent benefits

Location: Manchester

Contracts:  Fixed Term Until 31st August 2026 

possibility of extension pending funding

Hours: Full time - 35 hours a week

Closing date: Monday 6th April 2026 at 11.30 pm

Do you have experience with trauma-informed and person-centred support? Based in Manchester, we are looking for a Navigator to help work between partner organisations and adults to provide positive collaborate outcomes. If you want to make a difference in your local community, this might be the role for you.

About the role

You will provide Early Help Support for Adults facing multiple disadvantages via the ‘Bringing Service Together for People in Places’ (BST PiP) programme for Manchester and the national Changing Futures programme.  Your role will be to work directly with adults liaising with linked agencies and services in the community to improve outcomes. You will need a collaborative, trauma-responsive and person-centred approach to achieve this.  You will identify blocks and barriers within existing systems and find solutions to make wider and transformational change locally. We put the involvement of people with lived experience of multiple disadvantages at the heart of delivering this service and in co-production of future delivery.

About you

You will need experience of delivering frontline services, supporting adults from diverse backgrounds with multiple and complex needs and/or multiple disadvantages. You will need to demonstrate a good understanding of Manchester based services and community assets, be able to represent Shelter externally and have an appreciation of the barriers and personal difficulties faced by people accessing local services. Proactive, creative, and collaborative in your approach, you will have great relationship building skills, a flair for leading change and the confidence to challenge the status quo.  You will also have demonstrable experience of working with volunteers and co-production to make decisions.

About the team

The team will be made up of six Navigators based across the City of Manchester, as well as a Peer Coordinator and Peer Mentors. You will hold your own caseload, supported by the Team Leader.  You will work alongside Navigators who are based within partner organisations at the Big Life Group and Back on Track, as well as a team of peer volunteers. The team is responsible for contributing to Shelter’s wider community priorities and work with internal colleagues to deliver our strategy.

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’ on the advert. You are required to submit a CV and a supporting statement with responses to the six bullet points in the About You section of the job description (download below) of no more than 350 words each. Please provide specific examples following the STAR format.

Applications without both a CV and supporting statement will not be considered.

Please ensure you demonstrate how you address the behaviours below throughout your responses:

• We prioritise diversity and have an inclusive and open mindset