Housing and Homelessness Strategic Lead

Salary- £47,418 per annum

Contract Length- Fixed term- Maternity cover to March 2026

Hours- Full-time 37.5 per week

Location- Bristol

Closing date: Wednesday 12th March 2025 at 11.30 pm

Are you an influential, analytical and ambitious individual with excellent leadership skills and a proven record of working in homelessness or social justice? Do you have experience of service delivery and project planning, budget setting and management, and stakeholder engagement? If so, consider moving to Shelter as our new Strategic Lead for Bristol and you could soon be making a real difference to people affected by the housing emergency.

This role is being advertised as Housing and Homelessness Strategic Lead but on appointment your job title will be Strategic Lead.

About the role

You will be the local leader for Shelter s Community Services, leading the team in implementing Shelter s strategy locally, delivering the local response to the housing emergency and empowering the local community in Bristol to fight for home.

You will take the lead on the delivery of services and contracts to provide consistently high levels of performance, and plan and deliver service development strategies, including seeking business development opportunities that align with our strategic aims.

As the strategic lead for your locality, you will promote and direct systems change activity, so we better understand what is influencing people s experience of homelessness and bad housing, and so we have effective plans to influence change.

You will act as an ambassador for Shelter within your region, representing the organisation through media, networks, and local stakeholder engagement.

Alongside this, you will plan and implement resourcing plans for your Hub, including staffing, volunteers, and engaging people with lived experience, and will manage the Hub Leadership team. Ensuring there are multiple and ongoing opportunities for people with lived experience of homelessness and bad housing to be part of Hub development, activities, and learning is a key element of this role, as is upholding and promoting a learning culture with the Hub.

About you

A natural leader, who can inspire, support and motivate individuals, communities, and your own team to advocate for change, you will have a proven working knowledge of homelessness, housing and related issues affecting local communities. You will possess sound experience of managing and delivering contracts, partnerships, and services, and of being involved in implementing and reviewing change management, whilst demonstrating excellent budgeting and financial reporting skills.

The ability to proactively develop and maintain key relationships and having impressive analytical skills to use insight and evidence to present data, manage performance and to identify and implement systems change are vital to this role, as are impressive interpersonal and communication skills, both verbal and written.

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.

About the team

Our Bristol hub specialises in providing housing advice and homelessness work, with a particular focus on families. We work in partnership with a range of organisations to improve the underlying systems that prevent people from living securely in suitable, safe, affordable accommodation.

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.

Shelter helps millions of people every year struggling with bad housing or homelessness through our advice, support and legal services. And we campaign to make sure that, one day, no one will have to turn to us for help. We re here so no one has to fight bad housing or homelessness on their own.

Home is everything. We exist to defend the right to a safe home. Join us in ending the devastating impact the housing emergency has on people and our communities.

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.

We are happy to talk about flexible working, personal growth, and to promote a workplace where you can be yourself and achieve success based only on your merit.

How to apply

Please submit your CV with a supporting statement with responses to the 'About You' points 1-5 outlined in the job description of no more than 1000 words total. 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

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