About this role

Help transform access to healthcare for people experiencing homelessness in Islington 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 new Homeless Health Peer Advocacy (HHPA) Caseworker in Islington, you'll play a key role in establishing an exciting new service that helps people experiencing homelessness get the healthcare they need while bringing local health, housing and homelessness services together around the people who need them most.

Every day you'll build trusted relationships, remove barriers to healthcare and support people to take greater control of their health and wellbeing. Whether you're accompanying someone to a health appointment, helping them understand their treatment, supporting a safe hospital discharge or working alongside local partners to coordinate care, you'll see the difference your work makes. At Groundswell, we believe lasting change happens through relationships.

We work alongside people rather than doing things for them, building confidence, creating opportunities and supporting people to become active participants in their own health. This is an opportunity to help shape a new service from the beginning, working as part of an ambitious partnership that's committed to reducing health inequalities and creating a more joined-up, compassionate system for people experiencing homelessness in Islington.

If you're passionate about tackling health inequalities, enjoy building relationships, and want to be part of a values-led organisation where lived experience is at the heart of everything we do, 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 Islington HHPA Caseworker, 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 book and 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: register with healthcare services 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. 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.  Delivering HHPA in Islington Groundswell has been commissioned by Islington Council to deliver a new borough-wide Homeless Health Peer Advocacy (HHPA) service.

The service supports people who are sleeping rough or living in hostels, supported accommodation and temporary housing to access healthcare earlier, stay engaged with treatment and receive coordinated support across local services. Working alongside Single Homelessness Project (SHP), Thames Reach, the Islington Health Outreach Team (IHOT), Whittington Health NHS Trust, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust, Islington GP Federation, Change Grow Live, Islington Council and local accommodation providers, the service delivers outreac

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