Justlife’s Vision
Making people's experience of temporary accommodation be short, safe and healthy.
About this role
We are looking for a motivated individual with an understanding of homelessness to fulfil this exciting role gathering people, exploring challenges and considering solutions related to temporary accommodation (TA). The role will be responsible for supporting and facilitating the delivery of a number of Temporary Accommodation Action Groups (TAAG’s) across London that feed into national discussions and policy recommendations through Justlife’s campaigning work. Could this be you?
You will be comfortable leading cross-sector meetings and navigating conflicting priorities to move towards change. You will also be enthusiastic to represent an organisation which puts people with lived experience at the heart of everything they do. You will be a self-starter with great communications skills and a dedication to supporting people with current or lived experience to engage in the change making process. The role requires a flexible, pro-active and open approach to work, working within Justlife’s values - People before Programmes, Collaboration before Competition and Innovation before Institutions.
This role will be fully remote, based in London. It will require some national travel and occasional overnight stays.
Why do we exist
Justlife is in existence because we know thousands of people struggle to manage in poor and unsuitable temporary accommodation. Their stay isn’t temporary, they are likely to be suffering with deteriorating mental and physical health, becoming victims of crime, losing control of their life and even dying prematurely. We are working towards making their stays as short, safe and healthy as possible.
How do we operate?
Our values guide our work and are very important to us:
- Collaboration before competition
- People before programmes
- Innovation before Institutions
What do we do?
Justlife delivers impactful services in Greater Manchester and Brighton & Hove, supporting and empowering people experiencing homelessness in temporary accommodation. We also drive positive system change across the national temporary accommodation sector, convening those with a common interest; people with lived experience, landlords, charities, local and national government, and carrying out research and gathering insights.
We aim to grow our impact and reach, supporting more people in temporary accommodation and to build a movement that brings about lasting positive change.
Why work for us?
Here at Justlife, we're committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. We want to be an organisation that's representative of the communities we serve, which is why we strive for diversity of age, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity and perspective.
Perks of working at Justlife
- Great holiday package! Starting at 27 days annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays (increasing to 29 days after 5 years’ service and 30 days after 10 years’ service)
- Additional 5 days annual leave purchase scheme through salary sacrifice
- Enhanced pension contribution scheme, 5% Justlife contribution (correct at time of print)
- Cycle to work scheme
- 2 Volunteering days per year
Employment Terms and Conditions
Job Title: London Network Development Worker
Hours: Full time, but open to part-time hours for the right candidate.
Contract Type/Term: Fixed Term (Ends 30th June 2026)
Normal hrs. to be worked: Monday-Friday 9am-5pm.
Location: London (including regular travel across London and occasional travel nationally)
Salary: £29,330 (including £4000 London weighting)
Closing date for applications: Midnight on Monday 10th February 2025
Application Process
To apply, please email a covering letter addressing how you meet the person specification, together with an up to date CV and an Equal Opportunities form.
We may hold short informal Zoom interviews in the week of 16th February. Final in-person interviews are planned for Wednesday 5th or Thursday 6th March. These are likely to be in London but we will confirm nearer the time - we can cover reasonable travel expenses for those invited to interview.
You will receive an automated email receipt of your submitted forms. If you do not hear from us by the end of Friday 14th February, please assume your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion. We are grateful to you for considering this role but unfortunately we are unable to provide feedback on unsuccessful shortlisting.
Job Summary
The Justlife Network Development Worker will have a desire to see systemic change for individuals and families experiencing temporary accommodation (TA) across London and a commitment to doing so with the voice of lived experience at its heart. TA in London is acute - with 1 in 50 Londoners living in TA and it is increasingly being recognised as the central issue of the housing crisis.
This role will involve working in partnership with local authorities, charities, accommodation providers and people who live in TA or have lived experience, to support and run a number of Temporary Accommodation Action Groups (TAAG’s) that have been developed over the past two years as part of Trust for London’s Better Temporary Accommodation for Londoners Initiative. Over the contract period, the post holder will support TAAGs to test proposed solutions to local challenges of TA, continuity plan beyond Justlife’s support, and gather impact learning.
This will include coming alongside local organisations working with people in TA, building their connections and capacity to bring about change in the sector. The role will convene regular steering group meetings bringing partners together to share learning across the London TAAG’s and enabling the them to feed into national discussions and policy recommendations through Justlife’s campaigning work including the Households in Temporary Accommodation All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) and our Alliance.
The role will amplify the voices of those with lived experience of TA connecting them with others and enabling them to advocate, lobby and influence for meaningful change, positively impacting the circumstances of those living in TA, in London and nationally. This will be carried out working alongside existing lived experience forums providing a safe method of engagement, to actively promote the involvement of those with lived experience.
The role will gather good practice examples from the groups and the wider TA sector, monitor and evaluate the groups, report on their effectiveness and support continued learning within Justlife. Working alongside the wider Justlife team the role will consider solutions to the issues faced in TA that can be tested by Justlife or partner organisations.
This post is a fixed term contract, however Justlife is committed to the continued development of this work beyond June 2026, resource dependent.
The role will include:
- Supporting existing TAAG’s across London.
- Supporting TAAG’s to work with existing lived experience forums locally in order to ensure effective and safe lived experience engagement in the TAAGs.
- Developing learning around TA and building potential solutions through issues raised.
Responsible to: Head of Research, Policy & Communications
Responsible for: No direct reports
Role Description
Key Responsibilities
- Working in partnership with local authorities, charities, accommodation providers and people who live in TA or have lived experience of TA, to support and facilitate a number of TAAG’s across London boroughs to thrive and achieve their aims.
- Supporting TAAG’s to work alongside existing lived experience forums in order to ensure effective and safe lived experience engagement
- Convening and supporting regular steering group meetings bringing partners together to share learning across the London TAAG’s and enabling the TAAG’s to feed into national discussions and policy recommendations through Justlife’s campaigning work including the Households in Temporary Accommodation All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) and our Alliance.
- Proactively engaging with local organisations working with people in TA, strengthening their voice, building their connections and capacity to bring about change in the sector.
- Gathering good practice models and developing potential solutions with partners to issues relating to TA that can be tested by Justlife frontline services and partner organisations.
- Being part of Justlife’s Research, Policy & Communications team, attending weekly virtual team meetings, contributing to reports, presentations and communications to share learning.
- Being part of and contributing to the Justlife team, attending meetings as appropriate and to be involved in appropriate staff development and training and be committed to team events
This role will be based in London, fully remote from Justlife offices in Brighton and Manchester. It will require some national travel and occasional overnight stays.
This job description is intended as an outline indicator of general areas of activity and will be amended in light of the changing needs of Justlife. It is expected that the post holder will be as positive and flexible as possible in using this document as a framework, and in performing other duties commensurate with these responsibilities, the band of the post and skills and qualification of the post-holder.
Person Specification
Experience & Knowledge
- Experience of engaging with a wide variety of stakeholders in a variety of environments and across sectors
- Experience of working in multi-disciplinary environments where competing priorities are represented
- Experience of working/volunteering with, or research involving, people facing multiple disadvantage (such as those experiencing homelessness)
- Understanding of systems thinking approaches, including systems mapping and stakeholder analysis
- Understanding of co-production and other user lived experience engagement models
Skills
- Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to build relationships, influence and communicate effectively with a range of people
- Ability to Interpret and analyse data to make convincing arguments and capture people’s interest
- Group Facilitation skills
- IT skills (Office suite, online cloud-based tools)
- Flexibility, adaptability and an ability to think creatively
- Excellent communication skills, verbally and written, including ability to write content and engage in social media
Personal attributes
- A strong commitment to drive change for people living in TA
- Commitment to diversity and anti-oppressive practice in all areas of work
- Self-motivation, able to prioritise workload and operate without close guidance from a manager
- Willingness to travel across London and, from time to time, further afield.
- Commitment to the values of Justlife:
○ Collaboration before competition
○ People before programmes
○ Innovation before Institution
