Employment Specialist £28,182 - £29,547 per annum, inclusive Permanent, 37.5 hours per week Base: Woking – geographical patch Surrey Heath Please note: this role involves extensive travel around Surrey so you must be prepared to travel and work outside office hours as required. Are you interested in helping people who have, or are recovering from, mental health problems, integrate back into work? Would you like to be part of an organisation that counts on the professionalism, insight, expertise and passion of its staff to inspire individual recovery for the people they work with? Then join us as an Employment Specialist. We are looking for an Employment Specialist to join our Surrey Employment Service. We help individuals with mental health problems to find paid employment or return to their current role after a period of ill health. We also assist employers and employees to successfully resolve mental health problems in the workplace. But, it’s only possible with the help of people like you. Your challenge? To do everything you can to help the individuals we work with to source appropriate work experience placements with local organisations/employers. A key part of the role is to engage directly with employers and, once relationships have been established, nurture and sustain those relationships. Day to day, you’ll offer support, careers advice and guidance, helping people to set their own recovery and employment-focused goals and provide training in personal and skills development such as CV preparation, interview techniques etc. You’ll also be responsible for establishing and maintaining positive links with community mental health teams (CMHRS), Early Intervention Into Psychosis (EIIP) Teams, partner organisations, local employers and other relevant agencies and have the initiative to develop and promote the service. Additionally, you will have responsibility for maintaining efficient admin systems to ensure referrals, assessments and reviews are completed in a timely manner. As well as a good understanding of the IPS model of working, mental health problems and the issues and barriers this can create for our clients, you’ll need excellent motivational, presentation and listening skills and a willingness to travel in the local area and to work outside of office hours as required. 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. Waythrough launched in October 2024 following the merger of Humankind and Richmond Fellowship. Our vision is to break down the barriers that stop people getting the support they need to live a life they value. We tackle poverty and disadvantage in communities, through mental health, drug and alcohol, housing and related support. We have almost 200 services around England – and nearly 3,500 amazing staff and volunteers who run them. Every year our services support around 125,000 people. Bringing together two big organisations is not a small task and it’ll take a while to fully integrate our systems, processes and approaches. That’s why you will notice the jobs here are still branded ‘Richmond Fellowship’ or ‘Aquarius’ (our subsidiary charity in the Midlands). Next year we’ll be fully integrating our recruitment systems but for now they are separate. Thanks for bearing with us – and don’t forget to check out the Waythrough jobs on the Humankind job site https://peoplekind.my.salesforce-sites.com/recruit/ Aquarius Aquarius is a subsidiary of Waythrough. Aquarius is a Midlands-based charity supporting individuals to overcome the harms caused by drugs, alcohol and gambling. Aquarius has always held the view that people we support could resolve their problems with support and guidance and that people have the ability to find their own solutions to their problems. Our roles across the organisation include Practitioners and Administrators as well as Team Managers. Find out more at www.aquarius.org.uk