IPS Employment Specialists

IPS Grow; Chesterfield; Remote; GBP 28,000 - 36,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

27 days annual leave

Free car parking

Yearly appraisal

Health service discounts

Employee assistance programme

Upskilling opportunities

Supportive learning culture

Job summary

Derbyshire Healthcare in Chesterfield is recruiting two IPS Employment Specialists to help people with mental health needs find and maintain paid employment using the IPS model. You will build relationships with clients and local employers, delivering personalised support and strategies.

Join a compassionate team with strong values, excellent training, and opportunities for professional development. The role offers a supportive environment with generous leave, parking, and ongoing appraisal.

Qualifications

• Experience working with people with mental health support needs.
• Experience implementing individual programmes and interventions.
• Ability to engage employers using a variety of methods.
• Strong communication and motivational interviewing skills.

Responsibilities

• Support and motivate individuals with mental health needs to access and sustain paid employment.
• Regularly meet with clients to identify best job matches, reflect on skills and aspirations, and assist with CVs and interview techniques.
• Provide in-work support, design return-to-work strategies, and ensure ongoing job retention.
• Advocate for clients by educating and engaging with employers regarding the IPS service.
• Source job opportunities through regular contact with local employers within the community.
• Work with the Derbyshire Healthcare mental health team to promote employment and raise expectations about paid work.

Skills

Employment advisory experience

IPS knowledge

Understanding of work as a recovery

Experience with employers and DWP

Able to work autonomously

Excellent organisational skills

Job description

Join Derbyshire Healthcare as an IPS Employment Specialist in Chesterfield, supporting people with mental health needs to find and sustain meaningful paid employment. We are seeking 2 IPS Employment Specialists.

Deadline: 12th November 2026

• East Midlands
• Full-time

Job overview

Join ‘Team Derbyshire Healthcare’ and become part of a talented, compassionate and enthusiastic workforce committed to a vision of ‘making a positive difference in people’s lives’.

CQC rated us as ‘GOOD’ overall, commenting on how our colleagues “treated patients with compassion and kindness” and “felt positive and proud about working for the trust.”

Benefits include:

• 27 days annual leave/year plus bank holidays, increasing to 29 days after 5 years & 33 days after 10 years’ service pro rata for part time
• Free car parking
• Yearly appraisal and commitment to ongoing training
• Good maternity, paternity and adoption benefits
• Health service discounts and online benefits
• Incremental pay progression
• Free confidential employee assistance programme 24/7
• Access to our LGBT+ network, BAME Network and Christian Network
• Health and wellbeing opportunities
• Structured learning and development opportunities

Role

We are looking for an individual who is passionate in joining us to develop the service and transform’s someone’s life. This role calls for empathy and the ability to initiate and develop relationships with a variety of individuals and be able to engage employers using a variety of methods such as via the telephone or face-to-face in the community. Alongside having strong and persuasive communication skills, excellent time management, and exceptional IT and administration skills.

It is essential, to have experience of working with people with mental health support needs or similar groups, OR experience working in employment support services or equivalent, including working with people on a one-to-one basis, offering motivation and support.

We are also actively interested in individuals with transferrable skills for this role such as experience in using a persuasive communication style, data collection, motivational interviewing or promoting a service to a variety of audiences, this can include, but not limited to, coaching, recruitment, sales, education, training, mentoring, or sales roles.

If you’ve got any questions about the role, feel free to email [e-mail] and we’ll be happy to discuss it with you.

Responsibilities

This is an exciting and dynamic role, where no one day is the same and you’ll be making a genuine difference to people’s lives. Using the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model you’ll be:

• Supporting and motivating individuals with mental health needs to access and sustain paid employment.
• Regularly meeting with clients to listen, help them identify their best job match, reflecting on their skills and aspirations, providing support including CV production, interview techniques
• Provide in-work support, assessing each client’s work-related needs, designing a return-to-work strategy, and ensuring job retention with ongoing contact.
• Advocating for your clients by educating and engaging with employers regarding the IPS service.
• Sourcing job opportunities for your clients through regular contact with local employers within the community.
• Work as part of the Derbyshire Healthcare mental health team to promote employment and raise expectations around the ability of service users to access paid employment, breaking down the barriers for them.

The person

Experience/Knowledge

• Employment advisory experience
• Understanding of the impact of work as a recovery tool
• Working knowledge of IPS
• Experience of working with people with mental health problems * Implementing individual programmes and interventions
• Experience of working with employers and DWP
• Able to work autonomously
• IPS training
• Mental health knowledge
• Employability experience
• Supporting disadvantaged people into employment
• Accurately recording data
• Excellent organisational skills
• Excellent presentation skills
• Enthusiasm & understanding towards supporting people with mental health problems find employment
• Engage service users towards vocational goals
• Strong administrator
• Ability to plan and prioritise
• People person who builds rapport
• Understands the importance of audits
• Full UK Driving Licence & Access to a vehicle