IPS Employment Specialist – Drug and Alcohol Team
Band 5
Main area Clinical Support Grade Band 5 Contract Fixed term: 21 months (Ends 31st March 2028) Hours
- Full time
- Flexible working
- Compressed hours
37.5 hours per week Job ref 310-ASMH-7958845-A
Site CGL Cambridge Town Cambridge Salary £32,073 – £39,043 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 13/09/2026 23:59
Job overview
Could you help people in recovery build brighter futures through employment? Join CPFT as an Employment Specialist and use the IPS approach to support individuals receiving drug and alcohol treatment into meaningful, sustainable paid work. We are currently seeking an Employment Specialist to join our well established Individual Placement and Support Team. The post will be based at CGL in Cambridge.
This is an incredibly rewarding role – you’ll have the opportunity to transform the lives of service users, to give them hope, direction and support their recovery journey. This is also a challenging role, so you’ll need to be resilient, empathetic and dedicated to supporting service users find a role that’s right for them.
You’ll build a good rapport with your clients, gaining a real understanding of their key skills, their aspirations and their career goals and finding them opportunities to match. You’ll also spend time building productive relationships with employers in order to identify and negotiate job opportunities in the hidden labour market.
Main duties of the job
- Building the profile of employment within CGL, and raising expectations around the ability of service users under those teams to find employment.
- Preparing people who have experience drug and alcohol addiction to find paid work and supporting them to the practicalities of job searching and applications.
- Building effective working relationships with external employers to secure employment opportunities for people who have experienced addiction.
- Providing on-going support according to needs of both employer and employee in orders to enable people who have experienced addiction to retain employment.
- Helping those currently employed but struggling to get appropriate support at work.
- Ensuring the service follows evidenced-based Individual Placement and Support (IPS) practice
Please note, this is not an administrative role, it is a client facing role which includes working to achieve set KPIs and targets.
Working for our organisation
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting and empowering them to lead fulfilling lives.
Our clinical teams deliver a wide range of NHS services across inpatient, primary care and community settings, including children’s, adult and older people’s mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, and research and development.
To achieve our goals, we recruit high calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities’ employer, we welcome applications from all sections of the community, particularly underrepresented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.
All appointments for new employees to CPFT are subject to the successful completion of a probationary period.
Please note we reserve the right to close adverts early should we receive sufficient applications.
Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all roles. If you apply for a post that does not attract sponsorship, your application will be withdrawn from the process.
For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at https://www.cpft.nhs.uk
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities.
- Support service users to identify and meet their vocational goals by providing individually tailored programmes using a person-centred approach.
- Complete initial assessments of service users’ vocational needs, working collaboratively with service users to complete a Vocational Profile. Support service users to complete job applications and compile CVs.
- Actively and regularly engage with employers and employment providers and seek out employment opportunities for service users.
- Proactively address barriers to education, training and employment through partnership working with services.
- Ensure effective communication with clinical team colleagues and relevant organisations internal and external to the Trust.
- Ensure that service users are supported to progress through the service in a timely manner and are discharged / signposted / referred on at appropriate stages of their treatment.
- Make regular written and verbal reports concerning the progress of service users, and maintain written and electronic records as per Trust policy.
- Contribute positively to the achievement of service targets and outcomes to achieve commissioners requirements and target.
- Complete required records for caseload and service activity and achievement of outcomes.
Please note for this role you will need the ability to travel independently and in a timely manner across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to meet strict time deadlines.
Person specification
Education / Qualificaltions
- Educated to degree level Or equivalent experience in the field of supported employment – to degree level
- Or NVQ Level 3/equivalent relevant training to diploma level and/or experience relevant to the duties of the post to degree level
- Occupational Therapy, Social Work, Psychology or Employment qualifications
- IPS training
- Motivational interviewing training
Experience
- Experience of initiating, liaising and collaborating with a wide range of individuals and organisations promoting and developing employment, education and training opportunities on behalf of service users.
- Experience of working with a range of mental health service users (in health, social care and/or voluntary sectors) implementing individual programmes and interventions.
- Experience of actively and regularly engaging with employers and employment providers to seek out employment opportunities on behalf of service users
- Knowledge of vocational assessment & profiling of service users’ vocational needs
- Recent experience of working with service users to help them meet their employment-related goals
- Experience & knowledge of the benefits agency and all disability employment related benefits
- Personal experience of recovery from addiction
Knowledge and Skills
- Enthusiasm and commitment towards supporting people with mental health problems find paid employment.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to work autonomously and use own initiative
- Knowledge of relevant welfare benefits and benefits rules
Personal Qualities
- Good time management skills to balance the co-ordination of own diary making best use of time, efficiently and effectively.
Other
- Ability to travel independently and in a timely manner across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to meet strict deadlines.
Here at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) we are dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion. We deliver many of the NHS services that are provided outside of hospital and in the community such as physical, mental health and specialist services.
We are a health and social care organisation, offering a wide range of services, including:
- Integrated physical and mental health services for adults and older people;
- Specialist mental health and learning disability services;
- Children’s community services in Peterborough;
- Ground-breaking research
We strongly encourage applications from all sections of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including disabled people and members of our ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ communities. For further information about our positive equality, diversity and Inclusion work, please visit https://www.cpft.nhs.uk/equalityanddiversity .
CPFT is looking to build upon its pool of temporary workers with Temporary Staffing Services (TSS). You will be asked at interview if you would be willing to register with TSS. This is an excellent opportunity for those looking to take on additional hours that are flexible around your personal circumstances.
Please be advised that in line with the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List, 2020 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust currently are unable to accept applications from overseas candidates whose country of residence is classed as a ‘Red List’ country.
Applicants who require entry into the UK will be required to provide a valid police certificate from the relevant authority from each country (except the UK) where the applicant has been present for 12 months or more, 10 years before the date of visa application, while aged 18 or over.
If you are successful at interview you will be subject to pre‑employment checks, including a DBS (if appropriate), references and Occupational Health. To ensure a smooth process please bring all identity documents to your interview. A list of required identity documents will be attached to your interview invitation.
All communications will be sent to you via TRAC Systems. By applying for this post you are agreeing to CPFT transferring the information contained in this application to TRAC. If you are made an offer, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Name Ellie Freeman Job title Individual Placement and Support Service Lead Email address ellie.freeman@cpft.nhs.uk Telephone number 07813 992147
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