IPS Employment Specialist

If you would like to join our team and champion our mission and help people who need employment support to get back into work. You will be supporting clients who are under the care of Secondary Mental Health services to gain and retain paid employment and will be based within a clinical team. This is an incredibly rewarding role. You'll have the opportunity to transform the lives of clients, to give them hope, direction and support with their recovery journey alongside other key professionals.

This is also a challenging role, so you'll need to be empathetic, adaptable and dedicated to finding clients a role that's right for them. As an Employment Specialist, you'll build a good rapport with your clients, gaining a real understanding of their key skills, their aspirations and their career goals and finding them opportunities to match. You'll also spend time building productive relationships with employers in order to identify and negotiate job opportunities in the hidden labour market.

Successful applicants for this post will receive training in the IPS approach, giving you the tools, you need to provide expert support and advice to clients, staff within your clinical team (e.g. Psychiatrist, Social Workers or Mental Health Nurse), while also building positive relationships with employers, opening doors and changing perceptions around mental health.

• To provide support into employment for people with mental health problems including:
• Managing a caseload of clients who wish to return to paid work, enabling them to find or retain employment by liaising with work and training providers, accessing benefits advice and by personally providing on-going support to clients in job search and after gaining employment, in accordance with evidence based supported employment practice such as the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model of supported employment.
• Link with local employers and voluntary bodies in order to secure employment opportunities within the community
• Pro-actively support and motivate clients in obtaining employment opportunities
• Provide on-going support according to both the employee's and employer's needs to enable clients to both gain and retain employment., To work in partnership with individuals to support them in finding paid employment, or taking steps towards this.
• To develop strong links with other agencies such as voluntary, statutory and businesses in the development of work opportunities for clients.
• To support Community Mental Health Team colleagues with information about work and training opportunities.
• To report on outcome measures for the service.
• To provide monitoring/audit information to the Senior IPS Employment Specialist responsible for Employment Services.

• Manage a caseload of people who have experienced mental health problems who wish to work.
• Prepare individuals for employment by assessing each person's individual vocational needs which might typically include identifying strengths, help with benefits, support networks, travel to work plans, etc.
• Co create employment action plans with the individual, and provide this to the care co-ordinator and other professionals where appropriate.
• Assist individuals in job search and prepare them to apply for employment/education, liaising with colleagues as required e.g. Disability Employment Advisors, Jobcentre Plus, DWP contract providers and local colleges.
• Contact and meet with employers to identify job opportunities for individual clients.
• Have a proactive approach in developing jobs tailored to suit individual clients' needs by contacting local employers, discussing mutual requirements and negotiating opportunities.
• Accompany job seekers to interviews if required.
• Provide education and support to employers, as…