Individual Placement and Support Senior Programme Officer

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 390142

**Salary**:

- £41,206 - £49,264
- National = £41,206 - £45,497
London = £45,144 - £49,264
- A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

**Job grade**:

- Senior Executive Officer

**Contract type**:

- Permanent
Loan
Secondment

**Length of employment**:

- This role is being advertised on a permanent basis. If preferable, Loan or Secondment options will also be available for existing Civil Servants (Loan) and applicants from accredited NDPBs or any other employer (Secondment). Prior agreement to be released

**Business area**:

- DHSC - Global and Public Health Group - Health Improvement

**Type of role**:

- Project Delivery

**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

**Number of jobs available**:

- 1

Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- Leeds, Yorkshire and the Humber, LS2 7UE : City of Westminster, London (region), SW1H 0EU

About the job

**Job summary**:
In the Department of Health and Social Care, we are proud of our purpose - to enable everyone to live more independent, healthier lives for longer. To achieve this, and create a great place to work, we have four values: we are inclusive, we constantly improve, we challenge, and we are agile. If this sounds like an environment you would like to work in, we would love to hear from you.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) officially launched on 1 October 2021 with the aim of tackling health inequalities across the country. As part of DHSC, OHID brings together expert advice, analysis and evidence with policy development and implementation working with the whole of government, the NHS, local government, industry and wider partners to shape and drive health improvement and equalities priorities for government.

As a member of the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) employment support team in the Health Improvement directorate, you will work alongside colleagues to complete the national roll-out of IPS in community drug and alcohol treatment and to improve performance and fidelity in areas where IPS is already embedded.

**Job description**:
The Health Improvement Directorate within OHID aims to make a significant and sustainable improvement to the public’s health through innovative interventions and engagement. People accessing community drug and alcohol treatment have a significantly lower employment rate than the wider community, although there is evidence that recovery and employment can be mutually reinforcing. Recognising that people are often unable to access the specialist and integrated support they need, OHID, in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions, is working with local authorities, and treatment providers and IPS providers around the country to expand the provision of Individual Placement and Support (IPS). IPS is model of employment support with a robust evidence base for effectiveness previously trialled by OHID’s predecessor organization Public Health England in community drug and alcohol treatment as the IPS-AD trial.

This expansion of provision comes with investment totalling approximately £23m in 2025-26. The focus of the IPS Programme Officer role will be to support three main strands of this work:

- Supporting the continuous improvement of IPS delivery by over 100 IPS teams currently working across almost 150 local authority areas
- Supporting the expansion of IPS to areas currently without access to IPS
- Supporting the wider work of the IPS team as requested by the IPS Programme Manager

**Communication and key working relationships**

Internal
- Colleagues within A&I involved in the delivery other programmes aimed at improving outcomes for people affected by substance use, including cross-government programmes
- Colleagues within other OHID national teams, such as those leading on inclusion health and health inequalities
- OHID centres, including regional drug and alcohol leads

External
- Key senior stakeholders, research and policy makers in the fields of employment support and IPS.
- Other government departments/units, including the Department for Work and Pensions, the Home Office and the Cabinet Office, the Joint Work and Health Directorate and the Joint Combatting Drugs Unit.
- Others including local authority Directors of Public Health and public health commissioners, staff at all levels of treatment providers from the public and voluntary sectors, people accessing community drug and alcohol treatment and providers of IPS technical guidance and training.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The post holder duties and responsibilities will include the following:

- Provide programme support and coordination to the IPS programme, in particular, supporting the Programme Manager to ensure that effective project management processes are in place.
- Be a point of contact for designated areas (i.e. local authorities and commissioned providers) t