Employment Specialist

A new and exciting opportunity has arisen for a permanent Employment Specialist to cover the following area - South East & South West Staffordshire.

Connect 2 Work provides personalised employment support, helping individuals build confidence, develop skills, and progress into meaningful, sustainable work opportunities

IPS (Individual Placement and Support) is an evidence-based approach to helping people within recovery find and keep a paid job.

Having a job can bring numerous benefits to people. We know having a job can help people to recover.

As an Employment Specialist you will be working with people who are engaging within the STaRS service and support them into competitive employment and then enabling them to retain that employment. As an IPS worker you will be looking for paid employment opportunities for clients who are currently involved with drug and/or alcohol recovery.

You will also be responsible in supporting participants on the SEQF C2W contract by championing accessibility and empowering participants to make informed career choices and ensuring their aspirations are truly heard.

Support disabled participants using the social model of disability, recognising when barriers such as limited resources, adjustments or knowledge may prevent suitable employment access.

Across both contracts you will ideally carry a caseload of 20-25 participants

You must have a Full UK Driving Licence

You will support service users within the service as part of their team to gain, return to or retain employment.

The role will involve working directly with Recovery Coordinators, care coordinators, Job Centre Plus, employers, trade unions, world of work and employment agencies to keep people in employment and secure employment opportunities. You will work closely with practitioners in Staffordshire.

You will work in partnership with specialist services and other primary and secondary care services serving Staffordshire. This is an exciting opportunity to make a real difference to the vocational outcomes of people accessing our services.

Inclusion, created in 2002 is part of the Specialist Services Care Group of Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT). We provide caring and effective services across England, including, West Yorkshire, West Midlands, East Midlands, West Mercia, Thames Valley, Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Thurrock, Essex. We support individuals, families and communities who are affected by addiction, crime, mental health or need treatment for their sexual health.

We believe that the individuals and families who use our services should receive high quality, committed and inclusive care, realising all the benefits a modern NHS organisation can provide. We work with patients and our staff teams to achieve the best outcomes we can. We invest heavily in training and development, and the wellbeing of our people, both staff and service users is central to who we are.

Here at MPFT, we are proud of the comprehensive wellbeing and lifestyle support offer available, in addition to in-house training and coaching support. Our services are robustly governed, evidence-based, inclusive, and designed and provided in conjunction with service users. We are committed to providing the best service we can, and if you share our values, we want you on our team!

Please see the Job Description and Person Specification for further details, a summary is below:

• To manage a caseload of people who have experienced drug and alcohol health problems using STaRS and who wish to retain, return to or regain meaningful employment.
• The ES workload will be led by and focused on the aspirations of the service user as part of a package of care.
• Conduct an assessment of employment needs and consider their strengths, difficulties and employment assets in order to offer the most effective support, which must include the persons job goals and any concerns regarding their capacity for work and previous work experience, making accurate recommendations.
• Match job tasks and the individuals ability to do the job and any work solutions that may be required to develop the match.
• Offer the service user support agreeing a written action plan with the person detailing the steps to be taken to either get back into or retain employment and the appropriate support route. Need to include abilities, work solutions, preparation for work, disclosure. The action plan should also be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time bound).
• The ES will develop in-depth knowledge of the local labour market, local support and new initiatives, taking into account the needs of the client to broker effective interventions. Including specialist schemes to help with retaining or finding employment.

You must have the Right to Work in the UK in order to be successfully appointed to this role.

This role isnot eligible for visa sponsorship. If it is identified that you require sponsorship to undertake this role your…