We are looking for someone to join our team as an employment specialist, to champion our mission and help people with severe mental health issues – your clients – get into, sustain and retain paid work. For people who need mental health support, work can be a vital step on their recovery journey. But, although 90% of people with severe mental health issues want to work, only 8% of them are in paid employment.
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s Individual Placement and Support Employment Service, now in its seventh year, has a diverse team and brings many strengths together. We welcome people from a range of backgrounds and with a variety of experience for this role – you don’t need any specific qualifications or clinical experience, but youmust clearly be able to demonstrate that you are able to meet the person specification.We’ll train you in the Individual Placement and Support approach, giving you the tools, you need to provide expert support and advice to clients, while also building positive relationships with employers, opening doors, and changing perceptions around mental health.
You’ll manage a caseload of up to 20 people at any time, following the IPS approach. These will be people who have severe mental health issues and are unemployed or struggling in work due to their mental health issues. Working directly with all relevant stakeholders – including clients, clinicians, consultant psychiatrists and employers, Job Centre Plus, and other employment support providers – you’ll aim to enable most of your clients to gain, sustain or retain paid employment. In this role, you will also work with clients with significant mental health issues who come through primary care networks and are supported across our east Berkshire mental health integrated care services.
This is an incredibly rewarding role – you’ll have the opportunity to transform the lives of your clients, to give them hope, direction and support their recovery journey. It’s also challenging, so you’ll need to be able to demonstrate perseverance, whilst being empathic and dedicated to finding clients a role that’s right for them. As a people person, you’ll build a good rapport with your clients, gaining a real understanding of their key skills, aspirations and career goals and finding them opportunities to match. You’ll also spend time developing productive relationships with employers to identify and negotiate job opportunities, including in the hidden labour market.
More information about the employment specialist role:Why work in IPS? – IPS Grow
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is a specialist mental health and community health services trust. Rated ‘outstanding’ by the CQC, we’re committed to providing the best possible care to people across Berkshire.
The trust employs almost 5,000 people over more than 100 sites and community settings across Windsor & Maidenhead, Slough, Bracknell Forest, Wokingham, Reading and West Berkshire.
As an inclusive employer, we value diversity and are proud to be a Stonewall 100 Top Employer. Whatever your background or individual needs, at Berkshire Healthcare you’ll be supported by friendly and professional managers to succeed.
These are the values that we live by at Berkshire Healthcare:
• Caring for and about you is our top priority
• Committed to providing good quality, safe services
• Working Together with you to develop innovative solutions
We welcome people who share these values to come and work for us.
Benefits of working for us include:
• Flexible working options to support work-life balance.
• 27 days’ annual leave rising with service + opportunity to buy and sell leave
• Generous NHS pension scheme – 20.68% employer contribution
• Excellent learning and career development opportunities
• Advanced IT enablement
• ‘Cycle to Work’ and car leasing scheme
• Access to a range of wellbeing tools and services
• Discounts at hundreds of popular retailers and restaurants via the Blue Light Card
• Staff networks for race, diversity, disabilities and more to support equality
• Generous maternity, paternity and adoption leave and access to our three staff nurseries
• Free parking
The “must haves” for this role:
1. Degree or equivalent experience
2. Experience of working with and supporting people who have mental health issues
3. Experience of supporting disadvantaged groups into employment
4. Strong and empathic communication and influencing skills
5. A high level of organisation and perseverance
If you’re someone who shares our passion for excellence and care, join us and let’s be outstanding together.
We are happy to answer any questions that you may have. Please don’t hesitate to contactMiranda Jeeawock on 07500 994253 on who’ll be delighted to help.
We are committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community, regardless of any protected characteristics. Reasonable adjustments will be made for disabled applicants where required.
This advert closes on Tuesday 11 Apr 2023
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme
Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.