Employment Specialist

Job Description

Starting Salary: £25.5k (without IPS experience) - upto £29kLocation: Coventry & RugbyOutreach/Homebased/Community BasedWe are progressive charity on an exciting journey to help five times more people over the next five years. For over 30 years we have supported disabled and disadvantaged people to make positive changes to their lives through training and employment, andour ambitious plans need the right people to help us transform many more lives, in many more ways.Job PurposeEmbedded with Primary Care, Community Health Teams, and the wider community you will be delivering employment support to participants in parallel to the health treatment being delivered by NHS clinicians. Working intensively with a maximum caseload of 30participants who have a health condition which impacts on their ability to gain work or stay in work. Assisting them to obtain and sustain employment that is consistent with their vocational goals, following the eight principles of IPS. Meeting and exceedingperformance targets for referrals, programme starts, employer engagement, job starts and sustainment, in compliance with contractual guidelines and quality procedures.Duties are as follows:

• Complete extensive outreach activities to secure referrals to the trial
• Build relationships with clinical and community health teams to generate referrals and create collaborative working partnerships with NHS clinicians including GPs, Practice Managers, Nursing staff and wider clinical teams
• Attend meetings with clinical teams, where possible, and communicate with team members to integrate vocational services into health treatment processes
• Conduct initial meeting with participant to build rapport, gain consent to proceed with the service.
• Support participants to understand their skills, aspirations and goals through the completion of a Vocational Profile and produce an Action Plan to obtain and sustain competitive employment in line with their preferences
• Assisting participants to understand their benefits through the delivery or sign posting for In Work Benefit calculations and sourcing additional financial support
• Focus on rapid job search with the participant, whilst utilising local support networks to help them overcome their barriers to employment
• To develop effective working relationships with a range of external agencies who might be better able to help individuals to achieve their employment goals.
• Develop collaborative working relationships with employers to enable support to be provided to participants in work, and to help employers understand how to better support their staff. In particular, ensuring the service is focused on accessing the hiddenlabour market to unlock potential jobs that match with participant preference
• Source job opportunities for participants through tailored job search and regular contact with employers
• Promote the benefits of supporting participants to access employment, aiming to raise the profile of IPS services and raise expectations around the ability of participants to access paid employment
• To assess individual support needs related to work which might typically include help with benefits, travel to work, managing health at work etc. and sign post on for support needs
• To deliver Thrive presentations to potential participants and community partners as required
• Provide individualised in work support using the place then train model and ensuring effective support networks are in place to achieve sustainment
• To maintain a professional relationship with the participants of the programme and with other staff, with particular attention to confidentiality and maintenance of professional boundaries
• Management of an active caseload of up to 30 participants to meet personal and team targets and KPIs and provide caseload support internally to colleagues

Essential:

• IPS delivery experience (preferably in a Primary care setting)
• Driver with access to vehicle and business insurance
• Experience at generating programme referrals
• Experience of meeting and exceeding programme outcomes and targets
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to adapt to a wide range of communication and learning styles
• Excellent digital skills with experience in using Microsoft Teams
• Proactive approach to engaging with participants and sourcing potential referrals
• High level of optimism, initiative and effective interpersonal skills in order to engage effectively with participants, clinical teams and employers
• Influencing skills that promote commitment and action

Keyskills :
Community HealthExternal AgenciesIPSEmployer EngagementBarriers