Employment Specialist

£27,647 per annum + benefits

Permanent 37.5 hours per week

High Wycombe, Bucks

You have recent experience in mental health employment support or a related field such as Human Resources, Recruitment, Education or Health and Social Care, and a good understanding of the Recovery and Personalisation agenda. All you need is the perfect environment to put your skills to great use. Welcome to Waythrough as an Employment Specialist.

We’re looking for Employment Specialists to join our friendly, vibrant team and support the delivery of our Employment Service. We are embedded within the NHS’s Bucks Talking Therapies Service providing employment support to patients within Bucks Talking Therapies. Our Employment team supports adults who are experiencing common mental health difficulties, such as anxiety and depression, to either find work, stay in their current job, or return from sick leave.

The successful candidate will support the delivery of our Employment Service. This will see you focus on motivating, supporting and providing person-centred advice and guidance to people receiving support to enable them to move into suitable and sustainable work or to retain their current employment.

As well as a good understanding of people with mental health problems, you will need to have recent experience in mental health or a related field. You should also have knowledge of the Equality Act and basic employment legislation. You will also need to have experience of networking/liaising with local employers, delivering training and the initiative to develop and promote a service.

Key tasks include:

• Work with clients to set action plans to support individuals with their employment goals by understanding what they would like to happen, what they need to know, the support that is available and how changes can be made. 
• Offer advice and guidance to help clients understand how they can find alternative employment including job searching, identifying transferable skills, CVs, cover letters and interview techniques. 
• Support clients who are off sick to establish a back to work plan, if appropriate. 
• Provide advice and guidance to clients experiencing work-related issues, such as workload issues, problems with line managers/colleagues, disciplinaries, grievances, bullying and harassment, and reasonable adjustments.  
• Facilitate group workshops to support clients to develop knowledge and practical skills in relation to employment.
• The ability to manage a caseload of clients and effective diary management, ensuring you are providing a high quality of service whilst achieving to weekly and monthly targets.  
• Strong administrative and organisational skills to complete high-quality client case notes within required timeframes.
• Adept at finding both logical and creative solutions to barriers, whilst empowering others to begin the process of finding their own solutions. 
• Understanding the extent of your knowledge, knowing when to ask for assistance or signpost individuals to specific and expert advice. 

Excellent motivational, presentation and listening skills are essential too, as is a willingness to travel in the local area and occasionally work outside of office hours. Customer focused, well organised and collaborative in approach, you’re a great administrator too. Indeed, you pride yourself on your word processing skills and ability to keep accurate computer records/use a database. The successful candidate will be expected to have a flexible approach to working to ensure effective service delivery.

To review the Job Description please click here.

We are committed to increasing our diversity and we would welcome applications from those with lived experience and/or anyone from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic group.

This is a rolling recruitment process. Candidates will be interviewed as and when they are shortlisted.

When applying, please upload a CV and attach a covering letter explaining why you are applying for the role.

Learning and development is important to us, and we are pleased to be able to offer a wide range of apprenticeships. We hire apprentices into specific roles as well as offering apprenticeships to the workforce. Anyone can apply to undertake an apprenticeship relevant to the role as long as they are in a permanent post and have successfully passed probation.

Waythrough launched in October 2024 following the merger of Humankind and Richmond Fellowship (RF). Aquarius supports people in the Midlands affected by substance use or gambling. It was a subsidiary of Richmond Fellowship and is now a subsidiary of Waythrough.

We are specialists in mental health, alcohol, drugs and related areas. We provide high quality, evidence-based services, which are designed around the needs of the people we support. Our vision is to break down the barriers that stop people getting the support they need to live a life they value.