IPS Employment Specialist – Drug and Alcohol Team
The closing date is 14 July 2026
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 will 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 that match. You will 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
- Build the profile of employment within CGL, and raise expectations around the ability of service users on those teams to find employment.
- Prepare people who have experience of drug and alcohol addiction to find paid work and support them with the practicalities of job searching and applications.
- Build effective working relationships with external employers to secure employment opportunities for people who have experienced addiction.
- Provide ongoing support, according to the needs of both employer and employee, in order to enable people who have experienced addiction to retain employment.
- Help those currently employed but struggling to get appropriate support at work.
- Ensure the service follows evidence-based Individual Placement and Support (IPS) practice.
This is not an administrative role; it is a client-facing role which includes working to achieve set KPIs and targets.
About us
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.
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.
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
Job 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 or 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 meet commissioners’ requirements and targets.
- 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 / Qualifications
- 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 coordination of own diary making best use of time, efficiently and effectively.
Other
- Ability to travel independently around the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area meeting required timescales. A full driving licence and access to a vehicle is essential.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
Full-time, Flexible working, Compressed hours
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