The Opportunity

This is a role that’s all about development, quality and impact. As a Vocational Assessor, you’ll support Employment Specialists to successfully achieve the Level 3 Certificate in Individual Placement Support (IPS), helping to build a capable and confident workforce. You’ll assess learners who are already working in Employment Specialist roles, guiding them through their qualification by reviewing their knowledge, skills and practice.

You will manage a caseload of learners, supporting them from enrolment through to completion, ensuring they receive high-quality assessment, clear feedback and consistent support.

At its heart, this role is about enabling others, supporting practitioners to grow and develop, ultimately improving outcomes for the people they support.

The Team

IPS Grow is committed to developing a highly skilled and confident workforce delivering Individual Placement and Support (IPS). We work with Employment Specialists and services supporting individuals with complex needs, including serious mental health conditions and drug and alcohol dependencies.

Our learning and development approach is rooted in high-quality, evidence-based practice, ensuring staff are equipped to deliver life-changing employment support.

As part of this, we deliver the Level 3 Certificate in IPS through a blended learning model, combining online teaching, e-learning and workplace assessment.

Key responsibilities

Assessing and Supporting Learners

• Plan and carry out assessments in line with qualification requirements

• Review learner evidence, including written work, case studies and reflective accounts

• Provide clear, constructive and timely feedback

• Support learners to understand and meet assessment criteria

• Guide learners to reflect on and improve their practice

• Maintain learner engagement and progression

Caseload Management

• Manage a caseload of learners through to successful completion

• Track learner progress and achievement against agreed timelines

• Maintain accurate and up-to-date assessment records

• Ensure assessment decisions are fair, consistent and meet quality standards

• Identify risks to learner progress and put support in place

Delivery and Learner Engagement

• Support delivery of learning through online platforms and a learner management system (LMS)

• Contribute to online learning sessions where required

• Provide ongoing guidance in a remote learning environment

• Encourage high standards of professional practice aligned to IPS

Quality Assurance and Compliance

• Ensure all assessment activity meets awarding organisation requirements

• Participate in internal quality assurance and standardisation

• Maintain compliance with policies, procedures and audit standards

• Contribute to continuous improvement of the programme

• Commit to your own continuous professional development

Person specification

You will bring strong experience as an Employment Specialist and understand the challenges faced by individuals with complex barriers to employment. You’ll be confident supporting others, providing structured and constructive feedback. You will also be highly organised, digitally confident and comfortable working in a remote learning environment.

Skills and attributes

Essential

• Significant experience working as an Employment Specialist

• Experience supporting individuals with serious mental health and/or drug and alcohol needs

• Strong understanding of the IPS model in practice

• Excellent communication and feedback skills

• Ability to manage a caseload effectively

• Strong organisational and time management skills

• Confident using digital systems and online tools, e.g., Microsoft Teams, Word, Excel

Desirable

• Experience assessing vocational or work-based qualifications

• Knowledge of assessment processes and quality assurance requirements

• Experience supporting remote or blended learning programmes

• Understanding of adult learning principles

Qualifications

Essential

• Literacy and numeracy skills equivalent to Level 2 (GCSE / Functional Skills / Essential Skills or equivalent)

Desirable

• Recognised Assessor Qualification (D32/D33, A1, CAVA or TAQA Level 3)

If not currently held, the successful candidate will be expected to undertake and complete an assessor qualification within the first 6 months of appointment.

What You’ll Bring

• A supportive, learner-focused approach

• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail

• Ability to work independently and remotely

• Commitment to quality and learner success

• Passion for developing others and improving practice

About Social Finance

We are an ambitious not for profit organisation that helps to design, fund and scale better solutions to complex social problems. Our vision is a fairer world where together we unleash the potential of people and communities.

We do this by working in partnership with local and national governments, funders, communities and the

social sector to tackle complex and enduring social problems in the UK and across the world.

Our skills include financial analysis, data and digital insight, outcomes-focused partnerships, strategy, research and design. We combine these specialisms in different ways to address specific social challenges. We create effective solutions that blend the expertise of communities and professionals to deliver better outcomes in issues such as homelessness, domestic abuse, children’s services, health, employment and skills.

Our multi-skilled team of over 120 people come from diverse backgrounds in the public, private and charity sectors, all sharing a passion for making change happen. We provide a high-quality training and development programme in-house with great opportunities for career progression. We’re a friendly and intellectually curious bunch, always up for a debate.

Our work improves the lives of people and communities in the UK and across the world. We are experts in systems change – shifting the way a whole system works around a specific social issue in order to ensure long-lasting change. Examples include:

• Employment & skills: Scaling evidence-based employment services through IPS Grow.

• Health & social care: Investing in health transformation, such as in End-of-Life Care services.

• Children & young people: Maximising access to education by building more inclusive systems.

• Housing & homelessness: Developing innovative funding models to help meet government new homes supply.

Our approach is a collaborative one, where we bring the best capabilities and people from across the

organisation together to solve the challenges we face.

Our Values 

Everyone at Social Finance believes that change for communities is possible. To help us achieve it, we have three core values that guide everything we do. We are curious, empathetic and pioneering. 

Working at Social Finance 

The fixed salary for this position is £39,000 per annum. Working for a mission driven organisation is more than just what we pay though, it’s about our culture, our approach and what else we offer. Read more about working at Social Finance here. 

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion 

We actively encourage applications from under-represented and minoritised groups, including those with lived experience of the social issues we are working to address. We are an equal opportunities employer. 

We support a range of flexible working options and welcome UK based applications from outside of London/the Southeast so far as they can meet the in-person meeting requirements for the role. We can also accommodate secondments and part-time working. Read more about our approach to equity, diversity and inclusion here. 

We work on some projects where our clients may require different levels of DBS checking for our employees. Candidates deemed suitable for a role after interview will be asked to declare any unspent convictions to ensure that we are able to resource them to projects appropriately.

If you have any queries regarding the role, please contact rebecca.preece@socialfinance.org.uk