Employment Specialist

IPS Grow; Maidstone; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 36,000; Full time

Job summary

Shaw Trust is seeking an IPS Employment Specialist to support clients with mental health needs into sustainable paid employment. You will deliver IPS, engage with employers, and work within a multidisciplinary team to enable holistic recovery through work.

The role is community-based, requiring travel across Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone and surrounding areas, with limited home working and a focus on person-centred support.

Qualifications

• Trained/Knowledge of the IPS approach
• 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
• Previous experience of working assertively to influence decision makers
• Experience of supporting people to obtain or keep work
• Great to have: QCF in Advice & Guidance (Level 3)
• Experience of working within mental health services
• Experience of delivering a service using the IPS model

Responsibilities

• Deliver the IPS approach to clients, providing person-centred advice and guidance.
• Build positive relationships with local employers to enable clients to move into suitable employment.
• Work with clients on their employment journey from profiling to job placement and withdrawal of support.
• Collaborate within a community mental health team and/or IAPT/psychology services to support holistic recovery through employment.
• Work primarily in the community or clinical hubs with minimal home working.

Skills

IPS approach knowledge

One-to-one work

Mental health awareness

Communication skills

Education

Level 3 Diploma in Employability Services Sector Qualification

Job description

Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone | Shaw Trust

Permanent contract

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.

Deadline: 14th September 2026

• South East
• Full-time

Job overview

“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.

Role

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 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 a 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 the in work support is no longer required.

Location: You will be based in Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone. This is community based role covering Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Maidstone, Aylesford and the surrounding Areas.

Responsibilities

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 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 a 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:

• 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 the in work support is no longer required.

The person

Trained/Knowledge of the IPS approach

• Level 3 Diploma in Employability Services Sector Qualification 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
• Previous experience of working assertively to influence decision makers
• Experience of supporting people to obtain or keep work

Great to have/be able to:

• QCF in Advice & Guidance (Level 3)
• Experience of working within mental health services
• Previous experience of delivering a service using the IPS model