IPS Employment Specialist – Drug and Alcohol Team: Sponsorship Available

Job summary

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.

Person Specification

Education / Qualificaltions

Essential

• 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

Desirable

• Occupational Therapy, Social Work, Psychology or Employment qualifications
• IPS training
• Motivational interviewing training

Experience

Essential

• 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

Desirable

• 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

Essential

• 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

Desirable

• Knowledge of relevant welfare benefits and benefits rules

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Good time management skills to balance the co-ordination of own diary making best use of time, efficiently and effectively.

Other

Desirable

• Ability to travel independently and in a timely manner across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to meet strict deadlines.

Closing Date: 13 September 2026