IPS Employment Specialist

Job Category:
Community Mental Health

Location:

Kent, United Kingdom

Salary: £30,384 - £38,813

Closing date: 25/10/2026

Contract type:
Permanent

Total hours per week: 37.5

“Shaw Trust promotes team spirit, inclusiveness and it is an organisation where everybody is somebody. I am proud to be part of this great organisation.”

At Shaw Trust we believe everyone has the right to live a decent and dignified life and an opportunity for rewarding work. We are a social purpose organisation challenging inequality and breaking down barriers to enable social mobility.

For us being part of the solution is about creating the conditions for this to happen, advocating and delivering services that make a real difference. Working in partnership not competition, we are part of an eco-system of purpose-led organisations, striving for a fairer, more equal society centred on opportunity for all.

As an IPS Employment Specialist, you will support people experiencing mental health challenges to find and sustain paid employment that matches their interests, strengths and aspirations. You will play a key role in supporting recovery, improving wellbeing and helping people achieve their goals through work.

Working with clients, health professionals, service providers and employers, IPS Employment Specialists are focused on making sure a person's journey into employment, with associated improved social inclusion and wellbeing, is as easy as possible. You will work with clients (managing a caseload) who have mental health support needs, to assist them in securing sustainable paid employment in line with their preferences.

Your role will be to deliver the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) approach (for which training will be given); providing person centred advice and guidance to clients, whilst building positive relationships with local employers to enable clients to move into suitable employment.

You will receive a comprehensive induction, full IPS training, ongoing learning and development opportunities, regular supervision and support from an experienced IPS team. This is a fantastic opportunity to build a rewarding career within an evidence-based employment support service that changes lives.

You will work as part of a community mental health team and/or early intervention psychosis team or Improving Access to Psychological Therapy (IAPT) team, maintaining positive and integrated relationships, fostering a holistic approach to recovery through employment.

As an IPS Employment Specialist, you will need to be an able communicator, passionate about getting it right and focused on transforming individual lives through sustainable solutions. This role is peripatetic and will work the majority of time in the community or at clinical hubs. There is no/minimal home working as part of this role.

You will work with people on their individual employment journey from vocational profiling to the point where they no longer require face-to-face in-work support. The six key stages on a typical journey are:

• Outreach/referral
• Vocational profiling
• Action planning
• Job search activities (including working on a one-to-one basis with employers to match people with appropriate employment)
• Job placement and coordinating support whilst in employment
• Managing withdrawal of support as in-work support is no longer required

You will be based in Kent

As an employee of Shaw Trust as well as positively impacting people’s lives, you will have access to the following benefits:

• 25 days annual leave per year (plus bank holidays), with incremental increases post 3 years’ service up to 28 days, and the option to purchase additional holiday
• 2 days paid volunteering leave each year
• An enhanced pension scheme…