IPS Employment Specialist

Are you passionate about supporting people into employment? 

Do you enjoy networking and building productive relationships with a wide range of stakeholders?  

Are you proactive, resilient and able to work both independently and collaboratively within local communities to help people achieve their employment goals and improve their mental wellbeing? 

If so, we would love to hear from you. 

South East London Mind's Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Employment Service helps people experiencing mental health challenges to secure and sustain paid employment. 

We are currently recruiting: 

• Five permanent IPS Employment Specialists in Greenwich 
• Two permanent IPS Employment Specialists in Bromley 

These roles will be embedded within Community Mental Health Teams and the Mental Health Hub, working closely alongside healthcare professionals and Mental Health Advisers.

As an IPS Employment Specialist, you will support people referred by clinical teams and Mental Health Advisers, helping them achieve their employment aspirations through the evidence-based IPS model. You will manage a caseload of approximately 20 to 25 clients, providing personalised support from vocational profiling through to securing employment and sustaining work in line with their preference. Full IPS training will be provided. 

A significant part of your role will take place in the community rather than behind a desk. You will actively engage and build relationship with local employers, develop local employment opportunities, identify vacancies that may not be advertised, and negotiate workplace adjustments or job carving opportunities to support clients into suitable employment. 

You will also contribute to weekly multidisciplinary meetings with colleagues from Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust to ensure employment support is fully integrated within clients' wider recovery journey. 

What You'll Be Doing:

• Managing a caseload of clients seeking employment.
• Completing vocational profiles and developing personalised employment plans.
• Supporting individuals with job searching, applications and interview 

We welcome applications from people with a variety of backgrounds and levels of experience. Most importantly, you will have excellent interpersonal skills, the ability to motivate and engage others, strong organisational skills, and a genuine belief that everyone with a health condition or disability can work and contribute meaningfully to their community. 

What We Are Looking For:

• Employer Engagement & Relationship Building - the ability to confidently initiate, develop and maintain relationships with employers using a range of approaches, including telephone outreach, online engagement and face-to-face networking within the community. 
• Record Keeping & Organisation - strong attention to detail, ensuring accurate and timely recording of case notes, outcomes and performance data to support service delivery and achieve targets. 
• Collaboration - the ability to work effectively within multidisciplinary teams, building positive relationships with healthcare professionals and other stakeholders to enhance participant outcomes. 
• Resilience & Perseverance - a solution-focused approach, with the determination to overcome challenges, advocate for participants and remain positive when faced with barriers to employment. 
• Innovation & Creativity - the confidence to explore new approaches, identify opportunities, challenge barriers to employment and promote inclusive employment practices with local employers. 

Successful applicants will be expected to undergo an Enhanced Level Disclosure and Barring Service check.

Closing date: Sunday 23rd August (11:59pm)

Likely interview date: Week beginning 14th September

We encourage early applications as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if we receive a high number of applications.

About Us

SEL Mind supports people with mental health problems and dementia in the boroughs of Bromley, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark. We are proud of our diverse workforce and know that our organisation is made stronger by the variety of backgrounds, experience, and ideas within it. We promote a culture of inclusion and representation, and are working hard to build a workforce that even better reflects the communities we support.

SEL Mind is somewhere that you can be your authentic self without fear of discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, neurodivergence, gender, age, lived experience of mental health problems or anything else that’s part of who you are.

Read more about staff benefits and why staff love working here on our website.