The Opportunity

We are seeking an experienced IPS professional with recent IPS leadership experience. 

This role provides flexible and high-quality implementation support to IPS services across England, with a focus on ad hoc or time-limited projects; such as testing IPS in new contexts (e.g., housing, education, or youth services) or supporting regions with new funding pilots. The postholder will blend practical, in-field coaching with strategic and analytical input, ensuring the delivery of high-fidelity, equitable, and effective IPS. 

This work drives national priorities head on, like expanding IPS into new frontiers such as housing, prisons, care leavers or youth services, and unlocking fresh policy funding to explore new impact. Our innovation projects go beyond the ordinary: they spark evidence-based breakthroughs, fuel sustainable growth across the sector, and solidify IPS Grow's leadership in forward-thinking, equitable supported employment support for clients who need it most. The role involves a mix of remote and onsite working, supporting IPS services across England. Please feel free to contact IPS Grow if you have any questions about the travel involved. 

The Team

IPS Grow is a national programme designed to support the expansion of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) services in mental health, primary care, and drug and alcohol teams across England. The programme is led by Social Finance in partnership with the Centre for Mental Health. It is funded by NHS England and Improvement (NHSE/I), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). 

 A core element of the programme is the expert assistance provided by a team of IPS professionals, known as IPS Grow Leads, to support providers to improve their fidelity to the IPS model and achieve better employment outcomes for their clients. 

 This role sits within a high-performing national team of IPS experts who collectively deliver support to over 150 IPS services across England. 

Key Responsibilities

•  Support IPS services to implement high-fidelity IPS through a mix of in-person and virtual visits. 

• Work alongside teams to model best practice and coach staff in employer engagement, integration with clinical, treatment or support teams, and equitable service delivery. 

• Develop creative solutions to local challenges and contribute to testing new IPS adaptations or pilots in emerging policy areas. 

• Drive rapid learning cycles - test ideas in the field, iterate based on real feedback, and share insights across the network to accelerate improvements. 

• Produce accessible guidance, training materials, and tools to support IPS teams and commissioners. 

• Mentor IPS Team Leaders and Senior Employment Specialists on supervision, performance management, and change implementation. 

 Quality Assurance and Fidelity 

• Train and act as an IPS Fidelity Reviewer; co-lead reviews and guided self-assessments as required. 

• Produce clear, actionable fidelity and equity review reports, ensuring measurable follow-up and improvement tracking. 

• Share learning from reviews to inform IPS Grow’s broader quality improvement and training offer. 

 Performance Insight and Stakeholder Engagement 

• Build strong, trusting relationships with IPS teams, commissioners, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), Researchers and other national partners/stakeholders. 

• Support local and national performance conversations, using data to highlight enablers, risks, and outstanding practice. 

• Help services strengthen outcome reporting, data integrity, and use of the IPS Grow Reporting Tool. 

• Contribute to impactful written outputs such as summaries, case studies, and reports demonstrating the impact of IPS across different cohorts. 

 Learning Networks and Knowledge Sharing 

• Facilitate learning exchange between IPS services - connecting new and mature sites, tailoring support to local needs. 

• Collaborate with IPS Grow colleagues to deliver workshops, webinars, and communities of practice. 

• Support the integration of research and evaluation findings into practical improvements in IPS delivery. 

 Occasional Research Support (secondary to core implementation role) 

•  Collaborate with researchers to bring an implementation lens to the mobilisation and practical application of findings, contributing field-based IPS insight from delivery and implementation work. 

• Support qualitative activities such as interviews, focus groups, or case study development to help capture learning from IPS pilots, fidelity reviews, and stakeholder experiences. 

• Contribute to the synthesis of findings into accessible outputs (e.g. short summaries, practice notes, or case examples) that support service improvement and shared learning. 

• Ensure all research contributions remain proportionate and do not detract from the role of implementation support, quality, and delivery. 

 About You 

Skills, Experience & Qualifications 

• Significant experience in IPS delivery 

• Proven ability to support performance improvement and implement IPS principles with integrity in varied contexts. 

• Experience engaging with stakeholders at multiple levels (operational through to strategic). 

• Understanding of IPS fidelity, outcomes measurement, and the evidence base underpinning IPS. 

• Strong planning and organisational skills; able to juggle multiple projects and competing priorities. 

• Confident user of data and reporting tools - comfortable working with dashboards to interpret performance data, guide targeted improvement conversations, and generate actionable insights for advancing IPS practice across England. 

 Desirable

• Interest in using research and evaluation to strengthen IPS practice and outcomes. 

• Some experience or familiarity with qualitative methods (e.g. interviews, focus groups, case studies). 

• Ability to contribute to occasional research or insight gathering activity, drawing on delivery experience, with this remaining secondary to core implementation support 

 Personal Attributes & Competencies 

• Deep commitment to evidence-based employment support and the IPS model. 

• Passion for innovation and curiosity about how IPS can support new client groups and delivery settings. 

• Resilient and adaptable, with high tolerance for ambiguity and changing project priorities. 

• Thoughtful communicator with strong facilitation and coaching skills. 

• Creative thinker, grounded in practical problem-solving and IPS fidelity. 

• Strong commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion in all aspects of work. 

• Comfortable with regular travel and flexible patterns of work to meet service/project needs. 

Working at Social Finance

The fixed salary for this position is £49,000 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.

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.

Equity, Diversity & 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 we can also accommodate secondments and part-time working. 

 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. 

 Read more about working for Social Finance on our website. 

Closing date for applications: 9am, 17 August 2026

First round interviews: week commencing 24 August 2026

Second round interviews: week commencing 7 September 2026

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