As the membership organisation for the homelessness sector, Homeless Link works in the interests of the workforce. There are thousands of people working in homelessness and adjacent sectors. The work can be incredibly rewarding but also comes with many challenges.

We help our members to recruit and retain the very best staff and volunteers to deliver the best services. We also research and advocate on behalf of the workforce.

Find out more about becoming a Homeless Link member.

Recruitment

We have created a range of resources to support the sector when it comes to recruitment.

Jobs Board

This is where homelessness services can advertise any vacancies to thousands of interested users.

Visit Jobs Board

DBS Guidance

We've produced an overview of the different types of Disclosure and Barring Service checks when recruiting.

Find out more

Job descriptions

We have created standard job descriptions for common roles in the homeless sector, from Advice Workers to Project Managers, and even Chief Executives and Trustees.

Find out more

Recruitment policies

For organisations who are new to employment, we can offer consultancy support such as with drafting policies etc.

Find out more

What's it like to work in homelessness?

This is a video of interviews with different people who currently work in the sector.

Retention

Training and development

Training and development is crucial to staff retention. Homeless Link delivers an extensive training programme through a combination of open courses that individuals can attend, or tailored courses that can be delivered in house.

We also deliver CIH-accredited qualifications in frontline practice, outreach, and service management. These qualifications are designed to build confidence, recognise expertise, and support consistent, high‑quality practice.

Management and leadership

Taking our learning from frontline work we have produced a series of resources on psychologically informed management.

We offer specific training and support in leadership for staff moving into management, and also for established leaders, right up to CEO level.

And we offer coaching for leaders, groups and teams for all levels, including specialist coaching for leaders and sessions for teams. All of which can contribute to the retention of staff.

Staff wellbeing

Looking after the wellbeing of staff is critical to retention, particularly in high stress and complex jobs that are often found in homelessness. We run a number of courses on this:

You can read about the experience of a course attendee in this guest blog.

And if you prefer a podcast you can listen here.

Equity, diversity and inclusion

A critical part of retaining staff is to ensure that the working environment is equitable, diverse and inclusive. Homeless Link is on our journey to continually improve our efforts in this space (see our strategy), but we also have a number of resources available to help homelessness organisations.

Recent materials on developing the workforce

Here are some recent publications from Homeless Link on how to strengthen the skills, capacity and capability of the homelessness workforce. Visit the Knowledge Hub for more.

A new national skills framework

As part of our VCFS grant from MHCLG, Homeless Link has developed a new national skills framework. This is designed to be a key resource to support the learning and development of the housing and homelessness workforce.

The National Homelessness Skills Framework provides an overview of the key frontline roles within the sector, and the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed for effective delivery.

It aims to create a common skills language for the current and prospective workforce to help facilitate the recognition of transferable skills, knowledge and behaviours and support career development. This allows skills to be passported between services, helping the sector to retain qualified, knowledgeable staff.

The framework is useful for people who are looking to work in the sector, those who wish to develop their skills within their current role, managers to support staff development, and HR/recruitment leads.

Download the Skills Framework here.

For more information about workforce issues

6M5A1830

Kate Alaway

Head of National Workforce Development

Kate is Homeless Link's Head of National Workforce Development. She manages the team who provide services designed to help create a high-performing homelessness workforce with the skills, knowledge and behaviours to provide professional and consistent support to people experiencing homelessness, and the recognition for this expertise.