Briefly describe the initiative/ project/service; please include your aims and objectives

The Early Help Navigator service is delivered through a three-way partnership led by Shelter, alongside Back on Track and The Big Life Group. Together, they form the Navigator partnership within Manchester’s Early Help for Adults (EHA) and MAPS(Multi-Agency Prevention Support) programme—a city-wide early-intervention model for adults experiencing multiple disadvantage but below statutory thresholds.

This collaborative model brings a wealth of expertise across housing rights, mental health, substance misuse, criminal justice, and community engagement. By combining these strengths, the partnership ensures residents receive holistic, trauma-informed support tailored to their priorities. It also enables shared learning and flexibility: partners adapt delivery as insights emerge, co-designing tools, training, and pathways to improve outcomes and remove systemic barriers.

Through their Navigator service and peer mentor infrastructure, the Navigator partnership has embedded trauma-informed, person-centred support into MAPS forums, ensuring residents receive coordinated help across housing, health, finances, safety, and social connection. The Navigators work in partnership with MAPS, they deliver solutions where appropriate by holding cases, sequencing intervention, and ensuring actions agreed in MAPS translate into real outcomes.

The Navigator Service is a key partner in MAPS; they are instrumental in the delivery of support that changes lives and helps to meet the outcomes identified by MAPS and its city-wide partners.

Aims and objectives of the Navigator partnership:

Provide early help, not crisis response. Navigators step in before issues escalate, supporting people who would otherwise fall through gaps and require assistance from statutory services.

Make the resident journey seamless. By bridging MAPS and frontline delivery, Navigators ensure people are not left waiting.

Navigators coordinate actions, maintain momentum, and taper support so individuals exit with strong community links.

Embed lived experience. Peer mentors recruited and supported by Shelter co-produce tools, attend MAPS meetings, and shape delivery. They’ve created case-study templates, reviewed referral forms, designed wellbeing sessions, and influenced training. Crucially, the partnership has adapted the programme as learning emerged by shaping induction, reflective practice, and professional skills training to make services more inclusive and responsive.

Drive system change. The Navigator Partnership has been a key driver in identifying barriers and influencing policy. Their insights and casework helped design Manchester’s new Multi-Agency Risk & Escalation Policy and the Community Safety Response to Criminal Exploitation pathway—embedding early help principles into city-wide safeguarding and community safety frameworks.

Deliver measurable impact and value for money. Through Navigator case studies and cost-benefit analysis, the Navigator partnership demonstrates tangible savings and improved outcomes.

Why this partnership stands out:

Shelter, Back on Track and Big Life have gone beyond their traditional contracted remit. They’ve embedded trauma-informed practice, built workforce capability through training (e.g., trauma-responsive workshops for 100+ housing staff), and championed lived experience as a driver of system change. Their Navigators don’t just solve housing problems—they tackle mental health, finances, and social isolation in one holistic plan. Peer mentors, supported by Shelter, now sit at MAPS tables, shaping decisions and culture. This is innovation in action: a partner creating space for people to be heard, supported, and to thrive, while delivering measurable impact and replicable practice.

Additional context and ambition:

Manchester faced a critical gap in support for adults experiencing multiple disadvantage but below statutory thresholds. Too often, help arrived only at crisis point, creating harm and driving up costs across housing, health, and criminal justice. The Navigator partnership was designed to change this, embedding early help and prevention at the heart of the system. What makes this model exceptional is its adaptability: partners have evolved delivery as learning emerged, co-designing referral pathways, training, and tools to make services more inclusive and responsive. This flexibility has allowed the partnership to respond to systemic barriers quickly, shaping induction processes, reflective practice, and professional skills training for staff and peers. Strategically, the Navigator partnership is now embedded in Manchester’s wider prevention and safeguarding frameworks, influencing city-wide policy through initiatives such as the Multi-Agency Risk & Escalation Policy and the Community Safety Response to Criminal Exploitation.

 

What are the key achievements?

The Navigator Partnership has been a driving force behind Manchester’s shift from crisis response to early help for adults experiencing multiple disadvantage. Working collaboratively with Manchester City Council, health partners, housing providers, GMP, and the VCFSE sector, the partnership has delivered measurable outcomes for residents while influencing policy and practice across the city. Its achievements demonstrate excellence in partnership working, innovation, and impact.

1. Scaling and Reach

• Expanded the Navigator service from a four-neighbourhood pilot into a city-wide offer, integrated with seven MAPS forums.
• Created a joined-up pathway linking MAPS decisions to Navigator-led casework and peer mentoring, turning MAPS from a discussion forum into a delivery mechanism.
• Supported 171 individuals to date, with 79 active cases and 75 supported in Q3 of 2025-26 alone, meeting and exceeding contract targets.

 

2. Resident Outcomes

• Delivered 88% positive outcomes in social/emotional wellbeing and 100% in financial resilience for closed cases.
• Navigators prevented evictions, secured debt relief orders, supported benefit appeals, and reduced safeguarding risks—helping residents stabilise and thrive.
• Case studies show life-changing results, including family reunification and improved safety for victims of exploitation.

 

3. Embedding Lived Experience

• Peer mentors recruited and supported by Shelter now attend MAPS meetings, co-produce tools, and shape delivery.
• Achievements include designing case-study templates, reviewing referral forms, and creating wellbeing sessions for staff and peers.
• Developed bespoke training: “Using Your Voice in Group Sessions – From Lived Experience to Confident Facilitation” to empower peers in system forums.

 

4. Workforce Development

• Delivered trauma-responsive workshops to over 100 housing staff and senior leaders.
• Provided training on supporting adults with convictions and dual diagnosis.
• Created Navigator toolkits and hosted away days to build confidence and consistency across the team.

 

5. Driving System Change

• Navigator insights were pivotal in shaping Manchester’s Multi-Agency Risk & Escalation Policy and the Community Safety Response to Criminal Exploitation pathway.
• Working to develop new escalation routes and unified guidance for professionals, reducing duplication and improving accountability.
• Embedded early help principles into safeguarding and prevention frameworks—making proactive support the norm, not the exception.

 

6. Financial Impact

• Costed case studies show £17k–£70k avoided per person over 12 months.
• Provisional cost-benefit analysis: £1.52 return for every £1 invested, with £1.67m projected savings across local authority, health, housing, DWP, and criminal justice.
• Savings achieved through reduced homelessness, fewer safeguarding interventions, and prevention of high-cost crisis responses.

 

7. Cultural Shift and Sustainability

• The Navigator Partnership has attended every MAPS meeting as a core stakeholder, providing expert advice and practical problem-solving to unblock cases and improve outcomes.
• Demonstrated flexibility by chairing one of seven MAPS forums, working alongside other stakeholders who chair the remaining groups, showing shared leadership and commitment to collaboration.
• Actively contributed to making MAPS processes more person-centred, feeding back barriers and co-designing improvements such as clearer referral forms, simplified language, and reflective practice sessions.
• Embedded lived experience into the culture through peer mentors who attend MAPS, support navigators, and co-produce tools and training, ensuring client voice shapes decisions.
• Supported the introduction of the “waiting well ” approach, so individuals are not left without support when Navigator capacity is reached, reinforcing a proactive and compassionate culture.
• Influenced system thinking by consistently feeding back barriers and solutions through Steering Groups and MAPS forums, helping shape escalation routes and safeguarding policies and embedding early help principles into city-wide frameworks.

In summary:

The Navigator Partnership has delivered measurable outcomes for residents, strengthened collaboration across the public sector, and driven cultural and policy change. It has proven that early help works by reducing harm, improving lives, and saving public money, while creating a model that is scalable and replicable across other localities.

 

How Innovative is your initiative?

Manchester had no consistent early help offer for adults below statutory thresholds. Support was reactive, fragmented, and only available at crisis point. When the tender was released, Shelter, Back on Track, and Big Life Group came together to submit a three-way bid, a deliberate innovation to break siloed working and combine expertise in housing rights, mental health, substance misuse, and education and employment. This collaborative design was a first for Manchester and set the foundation for a service that is flexible, trauma-informed, and system-changing.

The Navigator Partnership didn’t just fill that gap, they designed and delivered a new early help model that others have struggled to implement. This was a bold move in a system built on thresholds and crisis intervention, requiring cultural change across agencies and deep engagement with stakeholders. Today, this partnership is leading the way in Manchester, setting a benchmark for early help while many areas remain stuck in reactive models.

What makes it different?

• Leading the way in early help: While other areas are still grappling with how to move into this space, the Navigator Partnership has shown it is possible by changing culture and engaging a wide range of stakeholders across statutory, voluntary, and community sectors. MAPS forums now operate as proactive problem-solving spaces, and Navigators are embedded as trusted partners influencing practice city-wide.
• A flexible, person-led model: Navigators work around the person, not the system by meeting people where they are, at times that suit them, and adapting methods to individual needs. Caseloads are kept small to allow intensive, trauma-informed support. The partnership introduced the “waiting well” approach, ensuring people are never left without help when capacity is reached.
• Embedding lived experience as a driver of innovation: Many of their delivery team have lived experience. Peer mentors co-produce referral forms, induction training, and wellbeing sessions, and deliver trauma-informed training to statutory services. The GROW programme creates paid employment pathways, while Back on Track provides coaching for progression into education, training, and work.
• Challenging the status quo: The partnership moved away from reactive, crisis-driven interventions to a proactive, strengths-based approach. It influenced cultural change in MAPS forums and even chair one forum whilst helping redesign processes tomake them person-centred and solution-focused.
• System change through practice: Insights from Navigator casework have shaped city-wide safeguarding frameworks, including the Multi-Agency Risk & Escalation Policy and Community Safety Response to Criminal Exploitation. Trauma-informed principles are now embedded across housing and adult social care.
• Creative use of technology and data: The partnership use GMThink, a shared data platform that reduces duplication, improves coordination, and ensures people don’t have to repeat their story across multiple services.
• Risk-taking and innovation in workforce development: The partnership invested in bespoke training for Navigators and peers, covering trauma-informed practice, ACEs, and motivational interviewing. It also developed new professional skills training for peers, enabling them to confidently participate in system forums and influence decision-making.

Why this matters:

This model is not just innovative for Manchester, it is pioneering nationally. By taking risks, embedding co-production, and driving system reform, the Navigator Partnership has set a new standard for how services can work together to tackle complex disadvantage. It challenges traditional service design, proves that prevention works, and creates lasting cultural change by reducing harm, improving lives, and saving public money.

 

What are the key learning points?

One of the biggest lessons is that early help for adults is possible, but it takes more than a service, it takes a cultural shift. When we started, the system was geared towards crisis response and thresholds. Moving into prevention meant changing mindsets, building trust, and proving that early help works.

What we learned along the way:

• Culture change takes time and consistency. It’s about showing up, listening, and modelling a different way of working. Having Navigators at every MAPS meeting and chairing one forum helped us demonstrate what person-centred practice looks like in real time. Over time, this changed the tone of discussions from “who owns the risk?” to “how do we solve this together?”
• Flexibility matters. People’s lives don’t fit into neat boxes, and neither should services. We learned that small caseloads, tapered support, and meeting people where they are make a huge difference. When demand spiked, we introduced a “waiting well” approach so people weren’t left without help.
• Lived experience changes everything. Peer mentors didn’t just join the team, they shaped it. They redesigned referral forms, created wellbeing sessions, and even developed training for professionals. This wasn’t a token gesture; it was a shift in power that made the service more relevant and humane.
• Data is a game-changer. A big learning curve was supporting the partnership to improve data sets and use them to change how we work. We built feedback loops between council-level measures and frontline teams, so staff could see what the data was telling us and why it mattered. This helped us target work more effectively, for example, focusing on young people’s pathways when we saw gaps in referrals. Case studies and real-time data became tools for learning, not just reporting.
• Training and understanding drive improvement. We invested time in helping frontline staff understand what the data showed and how to act on it. This built confidence and created a shared sense of purpose across the partnership.

Challenges taught us as much as successes:

We faced capacity pressures and had to adapt quickly. We learned that clear communication, shared action logs, and joint problem-solving are essential when demand spikes. We also learned that cultural change doesn’t happen in isolation, it needs champions in every organisation.

The model is replicable.

The model works because it’s built on principles that can be applied anywhere:

• Consistent multi-agency forums with clear standards.
• Navigator practice (small caseloads, sequencing, tapered exit).
• Peer pathways for co-production and facilitation.
• Shared data and feedback loops.
• Training that connects insight to action.

The biggest lesson we learnt was don’t wait for perfect conditions, start, learn, adapt. Prevention becomes real when culture, practice, data, and lived experience move together.