Position: Senior IPS Employment Specialist
Location: Dover, Kent
Salary: £31,941 - £37,542
Type: Permanent
The Role
To lead a small team of Employment Specialists and deliver the IPS journey to a reduced caseload of clients. You will provide training, mentoring, supervision, and modelling of the IPS approach to promote quality services with the aim to meet targeted referrals, engagements, and outcomes.
Alongside your management duties you will be 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 accessing secondary mental health services, 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; 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 secondary mental health service team, establishing and maintaining positive and integrated relationships, fostering a holistic approach to recovery through employment.
As a Senior IPS Employment Specialist, you will need to be an able leader, communicator, passionate about getting it right and focused on transforming individual lives through sustainable solutions.
Essential:
You will have:
Previous training in the IPS approach
Education to degree level or equivalent experience
Experience/understanding of working with people with severe and enduring mental health needs, or a similar client group within health, social services or the voluntary sector
Good understanding of the principles and practice of supported employment
Main Duties and Responsibilities
o Managing a small team of Employment Specialists to ensure the service meets and exceeds its objectives including adherence to fidelity model and contractual outcomes
o Lead, develop and supervise the Employment Specialists using the evidence based IPS model, ensuring that the service delivers against budget and employment targets
o Provide field mentoring and observations to ensure continuous improvement in key areas of service provision including employer engagement
o Monitor and manage performance of the IPS Employment Specialists – guide them individually on best practice and achieving individual job outcome targets
o Create a culture of continuous improvement
o Identify training needs of staff and arrange appropriate training to support with continuous professional development
o Involve service users in co-production of service developments where possible
o Provide solution focused IPS monthly supervisions for each employment specialist within the team, including caseload management
o Lead by example managing a caseload of around 10-15 clients who have a severe and enduring mental health condition, who are motivated to start/return to work
o Deliver the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) approach whilst ensuring delivery is consistent across the service
o Assess client’s support needs related to work which may include benefits/welfare advice, disclosure of mental health symptoms etc., and provide support & guidance
o Ensure all Employment Specialists work in partnership with clinical teams. Attending weekly clinical team meetings as an embedded IPS practitioner.
Skills & Experience
o Experience of managing remote working teams and performance management
Procedures
o Experience/understanding of working with people with severe and enduring mental health needs, or a similar client group within health, social services or the voluntary sector
o Experience of working with someone on a one-to-one basis
o Proven experience of meeting and exceeding outcomes and targets
o Experience of managing multiple tasks at any one time
o Previous experience of working assertively to influence decision makers
o Experience of supporting people to obtain or keep work
o Experience of working within secondary mental health services or similar
o Previous experience of delivering a service using the IPS model
o Experience of internal (and external) partnership working
o Ability to use initiative when required and take a problem solving approach to work tasks
o Ability to work well as part of a team and independently when required
o Empathy with the needs of those with mental health support needs
o Passion and drive to make a positive difference to people's lives
o Highly motivated with a genuine belief that someone with a mental health condition can find paid employment