Employment Specialist – Connect to Work

Do you want to make a real difference by supporting people to stay in work, and overcome challenges?

Job Title: Employment Specialist – Connect To Work
Salary: £28,951 - £32,316 per annum
Hours: Full Time – 37 hours per week
Contract: Permanent
Location(s): North Tyneside

About us

Groundwork NE & Cumbria is a long‑established environmental and community charity with over 30 years of experience creating greener, healthier and more resilient places across the region. Our mission centres on Creating Better Places, Improving People’s Prospects, and Promoting Greener Living, helping communities thrive no matter the challenges they face.

We deliver hundreds of locally‑led projects each year, including initiatives that support young people into education, training and employment, helping them overcome barriers, build life skills, and reach their full potential.

About the role

We are recruiting for an Employment Specialist – Connect To Work in North Tyneside.

We are seeking a motivated and passionate Employment Specialist to support people across North Tyneside to secure and sustain meaningful employment. Working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, you will provide personalised employment support to individuals facing barriers to work, including those with mental health conditions, disabilities, long-term health conditions, or other complex needs.

You will work closely with employers, health professionals, community services, and local partners to create opportunities that enable people to achieve their employment goals. This is an exciting opportunity for someone who believes in the positive impact that good work can have on people's health, wellbeing, confidence, and independence.

Job Purpose

Using the Individual Placement & Support (IPS) model, you’ll provide person-centred information, advice and guidance to a caseload of around 25 clients, helping them access, return to, and sustain employment that is right for them.

You’ll also build strong employer relationships to source suitable opportunities and work closely with partners, including health providers, mental health services, JCP and other employment organisations, to ensure clients receive joined-up support.

We’re looking for someone who is:

• Passionate about supporting people in North Tyneside to access, return to, or sustain meaningful employment.
• A strong communicator, confident engaging with people, and referral partners and health care professionals.
• Equipped with strong analytical and problem-solving ability, able to assess needs and identify effective employment solutions.
• Skilled at building and maintaining strong employer relationships in line with the IPS and Connect to Work model, creating opportunities that support people to move into, return to, or sustain meaningful employment.
• Experienced at maintaining detailed participant paperwork and CRM records that demonstrate a person-centred, empathetic and proactive approach, evidencing tailored support and a genuine commitment to helping participants succeed.
• Highly organised, with the ability to manage a varied caseload and meet deadlines.
• Experienced in demonstrating the IPS Place, Train and Maintain approach through participant paperwork and CRM records, evidencing timely job search activity, personalised in-work support, ongoing engagement, and interventions designed to help participants obtain and sustain employment.

Closing Date: Friday, 25th September 2026
Please note, should we receive a high volume of applications, we may look to close the role early, therefore we recommend an early application.

Interested?

If you would like to find out more, please click the apply button. You will be directed to our website to complete your application for this position.

This role is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure endorsed by the Disclosure and Barring Service.

We want you to be yourself at Groundwork and we value everything that makes you unique. We recognise and celebrate your difference and together we make Groundwork a special and great place to work. As a Disability Confident employer we offer a guaranteed interview to applicants with a disability who meet the essential criteria for the role.

At Groundwork we ensure that we provide a safe environment for adults, children and young people to take part in any activity or service that we organise. We are committed to creating a culture that promotes safeguarding and the welfare of all children, young people and adults at risk.Our safer recruitment practices support this by ensuring that there is a consistent and comprehensive process of obtaining, collating, analysing and evaluating information from and about candidates to ensure that all the people we appoint are suitable to work with our children, young people and adults

This role is not eligible for UK Visa Sponsorship - the successful applicant will need to have a pre-existing Right to Work in the UK in order to be offered an employment contract.

No agencies please.