Employment Specialist in Milton Keynes

• Milton Keynes (Bletchley) | Central and North West London NHS Trust
• Permanent contract

Could you help people experiencing mental health challenges achieve their employment goals and build a brighter future through work?

Join Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust as an Employment Specialist and support people across Milton Keynes to secure and sustain meaningful employment through the evidence-based IPS approach.

• South East
• Full-time
• Job overview

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) is one of the UK’s largest NHS Foundation Trusts, providing a wide range of mental health, community health, learning disability, addiction, specialist and health justice services across London, Milton Keynes, Surrey and surrounding areas.

The Trust delivers care and support throughout a person’s life, with a strong focus on recovery, wellbeing, inclusion and enabling people to live fulfilling lives within their communities.

CNWL is committed to delivering person-centred, recovery-focused services that help people achieve their goals and improve their quality of life.

Working closely with local communities, partner organisations and employers, the Trust promotes innovative approaches that support both physical and mental wellbeing.

The Trust is recognised for its commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, creating opportunities for both service users and staff to thrive

Role

Looking for a role where no two days are the same? Where your values matter and your energy makes an impact? This could be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.

We’re on the lookout for a motivated, passionate self-starter to join our team as an Employment Specialist—someone ready to kick-start a career in mental health and make a meaningful difference across the North West London community.

This is more than just a desk job.

If you thrive on being out and about, building relationships with local employers, and meeting people in the community where they are — this could be the role for you.

You’ll work independently and remotely for a significant part of your working week, but will be supported by a team supervisor and colleagues in your mental health team.

You’ll receive comprehensive, on-the-job training, including IPS (Individual Placement and Support) best practices, and healthcare-related CPD.

Whether you’re new to the field or bringing valuable life experience, we’ll support your growth every step of the way.

As an IPS Employment Specialist, you’ll be part of a multi-disciplinary team within secondary mental health services, helping people with mental health needs find fulfilling, paid employment as part of their recovery journey.

You’ll work collaboratively, advocate passionately, and walk alongside people as they regain confidence, purpose, and independence.

If you’re values-driven, community-minded, and ready to grow – this is your next step.

Responsibilities

• Communication
• To manage a caseload of between 20–25 people who have experienced mental health or substance misuse problems who wish to return to work.
• To challenge inequalities experienced by mental health service users and to address existing discrimination, whilst ensuring a process of learning for the organisation.
• To provide individualised support to service users once they have returned to work to assist them in sustaining employment.
• To market the service to clinical staff and service users to ensure the service is well utilised.
• To have an understanding of evidenced based IPS employment practice, with a focus on delivering a person-centred, high quality service.
• To meet and exceed sustained job outcome targets for people accessing the service.
• Building relationships with clinical teams to generate referrals and create collaborative working partnerships with clinical staff, ensuring a Multi-Disciplinary Team approach to supporting individuals to get back to work.
• To support the team in promoting a recovery orientated environment by identifying recovery-focused activities and imparting information and education as required.

This would involve promoting courses being delivered by Recovery and Wellbeing College as well as supporting the development of information sessions.

• To prepare individuals for a return to work by supporting people to understand their skills, aspirations and goals by offering employment profiling, job matching, action planning and employment case management support.
• To focus on rapid job search with service users, whilst utilising local support networks to help individuals overcome their barriers to employment.
• Source job opportunities for service users through tailored job search and regular contact with employers.
• To provide advice and support to employers, as agreed with the individual, which may include negotiating adjustments and ongoing contact with supervisors to ensure job retention.
• To proactively engage and build relationships with external employers to open up and secure paid employment opportunities for people who have experienced mental health difficulties.

This may involve accessing the hidden labour market or creating ‘carved’ jobs where specific tasks can be assigned.

• To assess individual support needs related to work which might typically include help with benefits, travel to work, managing health at work etc.
• To develop effective working relationships with a range of external agencies who are able to help individuals to achieve their employment goals, for example, local colleges and training providers.
• To provide effective in work support to individuals once they secure paid employment to ensure they retain it.
• To deliver employment workshops, employment surgeries and job clubs with other members of staff as required.
• To offer employment surgeries for service users not able to access the caseload.
• To maintain a professional relationship with the clients of the programme and with other staff, with particular attention to confidentiality, trust policies and maintenance of professional boundaries.
• To contribute to the on-going improvement and development of Trust-wide employment services.
• To work independently, reliably and deliver consistently to deliver effective IPS practice.
• To work flexibly as required by the individual and employer which may require some working out of normal office hours.
• To adhere to administrative and data capture protocols which record the progress of individuals, and to keep accurate and complete records of casework.
• Ensure that effective monitoring and evaluation systems are adhered to and keep abreast of changing practice within vocational rehabilitation.
• To adhere to CNWL Employment Services policies and service standards.
• To undertake mandatory training as required including training in the IPS approach.
• To actively participate in own continuous professional development.
• Training
• To actively participate in own supervision and appraisal.
• To participate in Trust mandatory training and development opportunities considered appropriate to the Employment Specialist’s role and as identified in the Personal Development Plan (PDP).
• To undertake IPS training or equivalent as identified by management.
• To contribute and commit to undertaking an annual Development Review/Appraisal.
• To receive regular line management supervision as arranged by the service manager.
• To work effectively as part of your local employment team, sharing resources, contacts and working together to increase access to paid employment opportunities.

This may require covering for other team members as required.

• To work with Trust-wide employment service colleagues to ensure that employment services offered continue to develop effectively.
• To ensure that effective referral and information structures related to this scheme are in place.
• To co-produce service developments with service users wherever possible.
• To collect employment recovery stories from people accessing the service.
• Management of Resources
• To work with external agencies to maximise use of both internal and external resources in the delivery of employment services.
• Research and Development
• To keep abreast of changing practice within evidenced based IPS practice and employment law.
• The person

What You’ll Bring

• Experience supporting people with mental health needs
• Strong communication, coaching, and problem-solving skills
• Confidence to work independently and in teams
• Passion for recovery-focused, person-centred support
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