Employment Specialist

We have an exciting opportunity for a member of staff to join Step On, the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) team as an Employment Specialist working across Stoke on Trent and North Staffordshire.

The post is fixed term for 12 months and is for 37.5 hours per week.

You will be joining a well-established IPS Employment Service, which has been externally rated as 'good' fidelity and will have access to a range of professional development and training opportunities. IPS training will be provided in the role by IPS Grow/Centre for Mental Health.

Your role will focus on promoting employment and raising expectations and aspirations around the ability of service users to access paid employment. You will receive professional supervision and support from an Employment Team leader, a clinical supervisor, and local peers. You will also be expected to spend time in the community negotiating job opportunities via the hidden labour market, as well as networking with local agencies

If you have a passion for working in mental health services and have excellent communication skills, are person-centered, and have recovery values at your core then we are looking for someone like you.

Please note that the role will require you to travel to appointments within your working day therefore access to reliable transportation is essential.
- To effectively manage a caseload of twenty people in receipt of Services, in order to facilitate individuals to gain and retain paid employment and/or engage in Higher Education.
- To receive complex and sensitive information in the form of referrals from Care Coordinators, to meet regularly with Case Managers to co-ordinate and integrate vocational services into mental health treatment.
- To communicate effectively with clients, giving empathy when disclosing sensitive or contentious information, providing reassurance, training and the motivation to move forward and to overcome any barriers to understanding.

Our Trust is on an incredible journey of innovation and we’d like you to be part of it.

Our vision is ‘To be Outstanding in all we do and how we do it.’ Our teams pride themselves on compassion, team work and resilience. The Trust supports you by offering a flexible shift system including twilight shifts and compressed hours to support working families and our staff parking is free on all our main sites.

As an employee and representative of the Trust, you are required to demonstrate and uphold the Trust’s Values. These are:
**Proud to CARE**:
Compassionate

Caring with compassion, it’s about how we listen, what we say, what we do.

Approachable

Friendly, welcoming, sharing ideas and being open

Responsible

Taking personal and collective responsibility, being accountable for our actions

Excellent

Striving for the best, for high-quality safe care and continually improving.
- Understanding of a range of work procedures and practises following the Centre for Mental Health’s intensive IPS Training course, Motivational Interviewing training and benefits advice programme.
- To keep updated on changing practice within vocational rehabilitation.
- To provide education, information and advice to employers as agreed with the individual, which includes negotiating reasonable adjustments and ongoing contact with employers to ensure job retention.
- Using skills of assessment to make judgements, involving facts or situations; completing documentation including Vocational Profiles and individual action plans in order to assess individual support needs. (Help with benefits, travel to work, and managing client’s mental health at work.)