IPS Employment Specialist

IPS Grow; CHESTERFIELD; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional healthcare organization based in Chesterfield is seeking an IPS Employment Specialist to transform the lives of individuals with mental health needs by helping them access meaningful employment. The successful candidate will provide ongoing client support, engage with local employers, and promote the benefits of the IPS service. This role offers comprehensive training and the chance to make a real difference in the community, targeting applicants with strong interpersonal skills and a passion for mental health care.

Qualifications

• Experience working with mental health support needs or similar groups.
• Experience in employment support services, offering motivation and support.
• Understanding of IPS model and its implementation.

Responsibilities

• Support clients with mental health needs to access and sustain employment.
• Help clients identify job matches and provide CV and interview support.
• Advocate for clients by engaging with employers on IPS services.

Skills

Empathy

Strong communication skills

Organizational skills

Persuasive communication

Time management

Job description

Chesterfield | Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Permanent contract

Want to transform lives in Derbyshire? Join Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust as an IPS Employment Specialist in Chesterfield.

Deadline: 28th December 2025

• East Midlands
• Full-time

Job overview

Do you want to make a genuine difference and transform someone’s life?

As a result of service expansion, we have 1 full time vacancy for IPS employment specialists to work in Derbyshire – Chesterfield

We are looking for motivated, passionate self-starters who wants to kickstart a career in the mental health sector. This position, with on-the-job training, is a fantastic opportunity to make a real difference and support those with mental health needs.

Role

As an Employment Specialist you will play a vital role in helping people with mental health needs find meaningful and fulfilling employment. You’ll receive all the training and support you need to take on the role, develop your skills and have access to a broad range of opportunities within Derbyshire Healthcare.

We welcome applications from a range of backgrounds and with all kinds of life experience. What you will need is the ability to empathise and build relationships with clients, strong organisational skills, the resilience and confidence to communicate and engage with a range of employers, and a fundamental belief that anyone with a mental health condition can work.

• Able to drive for long periods of time

Responsibilities

What is a Mental Health IPS Employment Specialist?

This is an exciting and dynamic role, where no one day is the same and you’ll be making a genuine difference to people’s lives. Using the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model you’ll be:

• Supporting and motivating individuals with mental health needs to access and sustain paid employment.
• Regularly meeting with clients to listen, help them identify their best job match, reflecting on their skills and aspirations, providing support including CV production, interview techniques
• Provide in-work support, assessing each client’s work-related needs, designing a return-to-work strategy, and ensuring job retention with ongoing contact.
• Advocating for your clients by educating and engaging with employers regarding the IPS service.
• Sourcing job opportunities for your clients through regular contact with local employers within the community.
• Work as part of the Derbyshire Healthcare mental health team to promote employment and raise expectations around the ability of service users to access paid employment, breaking down the barriers for them.

The person

We are looking for an individual who is passionate in joining us to develop the service and transforms someone’s life. This role calls for empathy and the ability to initiate and develop relationships with a variety of individuals and be able to engage employers using a variety of methods such as via the telephone or face‑to‑face in the community. Alongside having strong and persuasive communication skills, excellent time management, and exceptional IT and administration skills.

It is desirable, to have experience of working with people with mental health support needs or similar groups, OR experience working in employment support services or equivalent, including working with people on a one-to-one basis, offering motivation and support.

We are also actively interested in individuals with transferrable skills for this role such as experience in using a persuasive communication style, data collection, motivational interviewing or promoting a service to a variety of audiences, this can include, but not limited to, coaching, recruitment, sales, education, training, mentoring, or sales roles.

If you’ve got any questions about the role, feel free to email [e-mail] and we’ll be happy to discuss it with you.

• Understanding of the impact of work as a recovery tool
• Working knowledge of IPS
• Experience of working with people with mental health problems implementing individual programmes and interventions
• Experience of working with employers and DWP
• Able to work autonomously
• IPS training
• Mental health knowledge
• Employability experience
• Supporting disadvantaged people into employment
• Accurately recording data
• Excellent organisational skills
• Excellent presentation skills

Skills

• Enthusiasm & understanding towards supporting people with mental health problems find employment
• Engage service users towards vocational goals