IPS Employment Specialist

Location: Medway

Salary: £25,200 per annum

Vacancy Type: Permanent, Full Time

Closing Date: 26^th September 2025

We are looking for a motivated and compassionate Employment Specialist to join our team. In this role, you will support people in structured treatment for drug and/or alcohol use to secure and sustain meaningful paid employment.

You will deliver the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model (training provided), offering tailored advice and guidance to clients, while also developing strong relationships with local employers to create employment opportunities that match clients’ skills and aspirations.

Working as part of the community drug and alcohol treatment service, you will be embedded in the clinical team and play a key role in promoting recovery through employment.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage a caseload of around 25 clients in structured substance use treatment who are motivated to start or return to work.
• Deliver the IPS approach, supporting clients into competitive and sustainable employment.
• Meet and support clients to identify skills, aspirations and goals, producing tailored action plans.
• Provide practical job search support including CV writing, applications, and interview preparation.
• Deliver one-to-one and group coaching to build clients’ confidence, motivation, and resilience.
• Support clients to disclose and manage barriers to work, including mental health or welfare-related issues.
• Liaise with employers to identify opportunities, arrange interviews, and provide ongoing support to ensure job retention.
• Actively engage with clinical teams, attending weekly meetings to embed employment as a key aspect of recovery.
• Build partnerships with local employers and colleagues to generate referrals, placements, and sustainable outcomes.

About You

We are seeking someone with strong interpersonal skills, a solution-focused mindset, and a passion for supporting people into lasting employment.

Essential experience and skills:

• Experience delivering employability support including CV writing, job search, and interview preparation to learners or job seekers (e.g. people in recovery, ex-offenders, NEET, unemployed).
• Understanding of the challenges faced by people who experience labour market exclusion.
• Experience providing high-quality coaching and guidance that leads to employment outcomes.
• Ability to build confidence, motivation, and resilience in clients to help them succeed.
• Experience liaising with employers, arranging interviews, and gathering feedback.
• Skilled at identifying transferable skills and matching clients to suitable opportunities.
• Experience supporting clients into employment and helping them sustain work.
• Experience of working in KPI-driven environments, with the ability to achieve targets while maintaining a focus on supporting vulnerable people.
• Knowledge of substance misuse and safeguarding practices is highly beneficial.

About Us

We are The Forward Trust, the social enterprise with charitable status that empowers people to break the often-interlinked cycles of crime and addiction to move forward with their lives. For more than 25 years we have been working with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past. We believe that anyone is capable of lasting change. Our services have supported thousands of people to make positive changes and build productive lives with a job, family, friends and a sense of community.

We are committed to our cause and the work we carry out as a charity. Equally the wellbeing and the employees who work for us are also important. Joining us an employee, we will offer you the following benefits:

• Flexible working
• Training and development opportunities
• Simply Health Cashback Scheme (optional)
• Season Ticket Loan Scheme 
• Cycle to work scheme
• Crisis Loan Scheme
• Electric Car Scheme
• 3 x Wellbeing Days (pro rata'd for part time employees)
• Access to Blue Light Card
• 25 days (rising to 30 with length of service) Annual Leave plus Bank Holidays 
• Contributory Pension Scheme – Employer matched contributions of up to 6% in the first two years’ service and up to 9% thereafter 
• Death in Service Payment (2x annual salary) 
• Critical Illness Insurance (subject to qualifying criteria)

Diversity at Forward Trust

The Forward Trust commits to providing opportunities to everyone. We want to ensure we have a diverse team with a range of lived and professional experiences. This includes those with ‘Lived Experience’ of addiction, offending, or homelessness.

When we recruit, we welcome applications from everyone. This is inclusive of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion and/or belief, marriage and civil partnerships, pregnancy and maternity and socio-economic background. Where operationally possible, we will consider flexible working requests and make reasonable adjustments for all roles.

To Apply

If you feel you are a suitable candidate and would like to work for the Forward Trust, please proceed through the following link to be redirected to their website to complete your application.

https://careers.forwardtrust.org.uk/vacancies/352/ips-employment-specialist.html

Contact information

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