Shared Health Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation which is passionate about finding solutions so that the impact of poverty on health is reduced. We are absolutely committed to raising awareness and bringing change for the experience of families who are homeless. We have pioneered work to identify families and understand the situation at a local and national level through lived experience and research. Rates of children living in temporary accommodation, including hotels and B&Bs, are rising, and with this is the rising impact on their health and education outcomes. Shared Health has been advocating for change since 2018 and is proud to have been able to influence the conversation around homelessness in Greater Manchester, and nationally, through being co-secretariat of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Households in Temporary Accommodation. We are now bringing solutions forward and expanding our team to do so.
We have three open positions:
Health and Education Policy and Campaigns Officer
Local Authorities Policy Officer
Administrator and Events Planner
For an informal discussion around any of the roles, please email sam.pratt@sharedhealth.org.uk
These new roles are supported by Impact on Urban Health.
Health and Education Policy and Campaigns Officer
Contract type: Fixed-term or permanent, full time with part time considered.
Location: Office based in Oldham, Greater Manchester with travel around the UK.
Start date: Spring 2025.
Salary: £28-30k depending on experience
Application deadline: 02/05/2025
This new role specialises in the people and policies that can positively impact the health and education outcomes for children living in temporary accommodation (TA).
The successful candidate will have an interest in the health and education fields, and an understanding of how these outcomes can impact children. They will have a strong understanding of how to build supportive and effective relationships with professionals and also have an eye for detail in helping gather evidence, understand data, and make recommendations for change.
Main responsibilities:
- Formalise and facilitate an existing informal network of healthcare professionals interested in gathering evidence and supporting advocacy within their professional roles.
- Engage with the NHSE Health Inequalities team around the issues of TA for children.
- Support a pilot project to be held in hospitals to produce a data set for admissions and accident rates in TA.
- Increase visibility of Shared Health Foundation’s recommendations for change within professional bodies, including but not restricted to the Royal Colleges of Medicine, Public Health England, and the Institute of Health Visitors.
- Work with practitioners, researchers and data collectors for national policy influence for maternal and child health in TA.
- Work with the teams for the Children’s Minister and the Children’s Commissioner to address education concerns of children dropping out of school due to homelessness, including lobbying upcoming bills that should include specific support for children living in TA.
- Support already identified schools who are showing best practice and use their experience to spread learning across a wider network.
- Support civil servants at the Department of Education to produce guidance.
Local Authorities Policy Officer
Contract type: Fixed-term or permanent, full time with part time considered.
Location: Office based in Oldham, Greater Manchester with travel around the UK.
Start date: Spring 2025.
Salary: £28-30k depending on experience
Application deadline: 02/05/2025
This new role specialises in supporting local authorities and combined authorities to improve standards of living for children in temporary accommodation (TA).
The successful candidate will have an interest in politics at a local and regional level. They will have a strong understanding of how to build supportive and effective relationships with professionals and also have an eye for detail in helping gather evidence, understand data, and make recommendations for change.
Main responsibilities:
- Build relationships with all Metro Mayors and Combined Authorities to influence, educate and where needed, lobby, for better outcomes for homeless families. Build on existing relationships with local authorities nationally.
- Build on existing relationships with GM Local Authorities to implement pilots of new policies, such as providing training sessions on the delivery of these policies.
- Research of new and existing statistics. FOIs, driving partnerships with academic researchers, and evidence and policy reviews. The information gathered will also be used to assist with the writing of publications on behalf of Shared Health.
- Assist in generating a national network of champions for homeless families made of practitioners and advocates for homeless families, using this platform as a way of amplifying the voice of homeless children locally and nationally.
Administrator and Events Planner
Contract type: 20 hours a week
Location: Oldham, Greater Manchester
Start date: Spring 2025.
Salary: £23-25k FTE
Application deadline: 02/05/2025
This new role will hold us all together by supporting the administration and the events planning elements of the work.
The successful candidate will be organised, good at problem solving, and be able to think ahead and foresee problems that can be avoided. They will be able to balance a workload that could involve several different priorities and be able to support the rest of the advocacy team.
Main responsibilities:
- Organise room bookings for events held by Shared Health Foundation, working with the Parliamentary team when necessary or finding cost-effective solutions for meetings and conferences across the country.
- Organise travel solutions for the rest of the team when required.
- Support the event planning for around 5-10 small to medium events a year, including venue management, advertising, booking catering, etc.
- Support the administration required behind holding All-Party Parliamentary meetings, including minute writing.
- Support the senior team in any other administrative duties.
