Project Support Officer

IPS Grow is a national programme designed to support the expansion of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) services in mental health and drug & alcohol teams across England. It is funded by NHS England and Improvement (NHSE/I), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). A core element of the programme is the expert assistance provided by a team of IPS experts, known as IPS Grow Leads, to support providers to improve their fidelity to the IPS model and achieve better employment outcomes for their clients. Subject to funding award, we are recruiting to a Project Support Officer.  This role will provide essential support to enable the whole team to effectively and efficiently deliver a wide range of provision to IPS services nationally. 

The Opportunity  

We have an exciting opportunity to expand the IPS Grow team, aimed at helping health systems deliver high quality evidence-based employment practice. We are a well-established service, led by Social Finance and are funded by NHS England and DWP to support the expansion of IPS services across mental health and drug and alcohol teams.   

We are looking for a Project Support Officer to focus on supporting the IPS Grow team and programme within the Health + Work team at Social Finance. This role will include providing project and administrative support to the team to ensure we have real impact. The role will report into the Team Head for IPS Grow. 

 Responsibilities 

The key requirements of the role are:  

Provide project support and coordination of IPS fidelity reviews: 

• Support the coordination of IPS fidelity reviews;  

• Support with collection and collation of data, helping generate insight and contribution to the evaluation of our work and of the services we support. This may also include data entry and contributing to standard reports;  

• Provide support of team events and workshops, both internal and with the services we support;  

• Provide ad hoc support to other aspects of the team’s project work and take on special projects, as required.  

 Provide administrative support to the programme:  

• Support the Senior team within IPS Grow, with project planning and monitoring to ensure the programme remains on track;  

• Produce documents such as monthly reports which may require collation of input from multiple parties and documents and compiling into spreadsheets or presentation slides, in collaboration with members of the Senior team;   

• Provide support for co-ordination of IPS qualification delivery and professional registration;  

• Liaise with regional leads, NHS Trusts and IPS providers and other key stakeholders as required;  

• Support the delivery of specific administrative tasks and processes including minuting and action-log management of meetings and Boards;  

• Coordinate diaries, schedule meetings and book rooms with internal and external parties, including arranging for materials and equipment to be available, as required;  

• Support IPS Grow Leads to schedule complex meetings in their regions;  

• Monitor team mailbox and act as a first line response for queries;  

• Book travel and accommodation, including group bookings (e.g., trains, hotels) for the team;  

• Manage expenses generated by travel and meeting bookings on internal systems, accurately and in a timely manner;   

• Support the team knowledge management hub and operational manual whilst ensuring a clear document version control and management process in place;  

  Provide additional administrative support as required from time to time;  

• Manage the creation of impactful presentations that communicate key messages to stakeholders. 

• Provide support to the wider IPS Grow team  

And any other responsibilities commensurate with the job title and role   

About you  

You will need to show competency, potential or interest in the following areas. You are not expected to arrive with a full skillset, as you will be supported to develop in the role.   

• Shared values: We are looking for people with a passionate belief that anyone can work with the right support, and a commitment to our values.  

• Team work: You are a team player and also have the ability to work independently, are receptive to feedback and use it to continually improve. You will be able to effectively represent Social Finance.  

• Organisation and reliability: You will be highly organised. You will be able to manage multiple tasks and requests, prioritising them effectively and ensuring they are responded to in timely and accurate manner. The team will be able to rely on you to ensure that meetings are organised, papers are circulated, and third parties communicated with.  

• Proactivity: You will be proactive as well as reactive. You will look for opportunities to support the team to be more effective and better coordinated. You will think ahead, helping the team to avoid mistakes. You will generate ideas for how we can improve our ways of working, becoming more efficient and effective.  

• IT and data skills: You will be familiar with core Office software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and will have experience managing multiple email accounts. Ideally, you will be comfortable with spreadsheets and analysing data although you do not need to have specific expertise in this area. Experience using SharePoint, MS Teams, Zoom and Slack is desired.  

• Communication: You will communicate effectively with the team to set expectations, adjust to changing priorities, and keep them up to date with your progress.  

• Experience: You will have had prior experience in an administrative support role, ideally in a national team managing complex programmes or working in primary or secondary care.