Specialist jobs in Wickford, essex

IPS – Employment support

For people who need mental health support, getting back into work is a vital step on their recovery journey. The evidence backs this up, but although 90% of people with severe mental illness want to work, only 8% of them are in paid employment.

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.

We welcome applications from people with personal experience of using mental health services.

Job Summary

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.

Key responsibilities

 · 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.

Main duties

 · 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 agreed with the individual and provide job retention interventions to people at risk of losing their employment, negotiating adjustments to the job role with employers to enable the person to retain their employment.

· Support clients in the workplace by supporting them to learn the job role if necessary, and/or negotiating with employers to adapt the role at the start of employment or if difficulties arise in the workplace.

· Identify any barriers for return to work and develop appropriate strategies to overcome those barriers for clients who wish to gain or retain open employment maintaining a positive attitude to addressing challenges.

· Contribute to the opportunities for an individual’s increased social inclusion by developing partnership working with voluntary sector agencies, and linking with primary care employment and job retention initiatives.

· Promote the Mindful Employer initiative and best practice in mental health and employment within the mental health services and in other organisations in the local area.

· Maintain and develop close links with referrers, care co-ordinators and Community

· Regularly attend Team meetings.

· Complete data monitoring sheets and keep accurate caseload records.

· Maintain high standards of personal development and undertake further training as may be required.

· Undertake regular supervision and annual appraisal.

· Undertake other duties as may reasonably be required by the organisation

Person specification

Qualifications and experience

Essential

· Educated to degree level or equivalent experience

· Experience/understanding of working with people with mental health support needs, or a similar client group within health, social services or the voluntary sector

· Experience of working with someone on a one-to-one basis

· Experience of managing multiple tasks at any one time

Desirable

· Trained in IPS approach

· Experience of supporting people to obtain or keep work

· Experience of working within health, social services or voluntary sector with people who have experienced mental health problems.

· Experience of working assertively to influence decision makers

· Own personal lived experience of recovery from mental health difficulties

· Previous experience of delivering a service using the IPS model is a bonus

· Proven experience of meeting and exceeding outcomes and targets

Skills and knowledge

Essential

· An understanding of the employment needs, and challenges faced by people who experience mental health difficulties

· Developing a knowledge of a broad range of occupations and jobs

· Able to use IT systems, databases and tools such as MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel

· Strong motivational, communication and listening skills

· Outstanding interpersonal skills and ability to build rapport with a range of people

· Good organisational ability

· Natural ability to build close, trusting and productive relationships with people

· Team orientated and able to work collaboratively within a mixed-disciplinary team

· Ability to work independently and use initiative to develop and promote a service

Desirable

· Knowledge of DWP and disability/employment related benefits

· Knowledge of good practice in employment legislation protecting Disability and Equality

Interviews will take place on 14th, 16th and 21st April 2026.