Employment Specialist - Employment Coach

Job overview

Are you looking for a career where you can make a positive difference to the lives of people with Mental Health Difficulties?

Do you believe you have the skills to support people back into employment?

Are you passionate that occupation can support a person's wellbeing?

If so this role may be just what you're looking for!

For people who need Mental Health support, getting back into work is a vital step on their recovery journey. The evidence backs this up and although 90% of people with Severe Mental Illness want to work, only 8% of them are in paid employment. This is why we are looking for people to join our friendly Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Service, as an Employment Specialist.

This is an incredibly rewarding role - you will have the opportunity to transform the lives of your clients, to give them hope, direction and support their recovery journey. This is also a challenging role, so you’ll need to be resilient, empathetic and dedicated to finding clients employment that is right for them. As a people person, you will build a good rapport with your clients, gaining a real understanding of their key skills, their aspirations and their career goals. You will also spend time building productive relationships with employers, in order to identify and negotiate job opportunities in the hidden labour market.

Main duties of the job

We welcome people from a range of backgrounds and with a variety of experience for this role.  We will train you on the Individual Placement & Support (IPS) approach, giving you the tools you need to provide expert support and advice to clients, while also building positive relationships with employers and changing perceptions around mental health.

You will be required to:

• Proactively manage a caseload of people, who have experienced Mental Health Difficulties, to either find and maintain paid employment, or to retain existing employment.
• Follow the IPS model, collate evidence and participate in Fidelity Reviews.
• Identify and meet the employment goals of clients by providing individually tailored programmes, using a person-centred approach.
• Work within a multi-disciplinary environment and liaise closely with a variety of stakeholders i.e. Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and Citizen Advise
• Work proactively at Employer Engagement and research the labour market and spend time getting to know local employers, in order to negotiate job opportunities.
• Support Service Users and employers to identify reasonable adjustments and return to work strategies, to ensure job retention.

Act independently, using own judgement, knowledge and initiative.

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Gloucestershire Health and Care is committed to embedding and providing personalised care through all of its services as part of our high-quality care strategy. The purpose of personalised care is to empower people to lead the lives they want to live. Personalised care starts with a conversation with people about what matters to them. It builds on what people can do, as well as addressing their health needs.  Including new ways of working and delivering care, emphasising that we need to make effective use of the full range of our people’s skills and experience to deliver the best possible patient care.  So we want to know What Matters to You and that you will share our values and join us on this very important journey.

Please refer to the Additional Information attachment before submitting your application.