Connect to Work Employment Support Officer
| Posting date: | 15 November 2025 |
|---|---|
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 15 December 2025 |
| Location: | Leicester, LE3 8RA |
| Company: | Leicestershire County Council |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 6525 |
Summary
Organisation: Leicestershire County Council
Work Location: County Hall, Glenfield, Leicester, LE3 8RA (plus home working and travel across the county as required).
Worker Category: Hybrid Worker
Salary: £32,070 - £34,359 per annum (pro-rata for part-time)
Working Hours: Full-time (37 hours per week)
Contract Type: Fixed term for 3 years (extension subject to funding)
Closing Date: 30th November 2025
Interview Date(s): 10th December, 12th December or 15th December
Are you passionate about improving the lives of Leicestershire County residents? Do you want to work on an exciting new project – Connect to Work, which aims to support Leicestershire residents into employment? At the Leicestershire County Council Adult Learning Service, we’re passionate about creating inclusive and accessible programmes which ensure all Leicestershire residents are supported to reach their full potential.
Your role will be to deliver front-line, person-centred support through the Supported Employment Quality Framework (SEQF), working directly with adults across Leicestershire to help them move into and thrive in employment.
About the Role
Connect to Work aims to support disabled people, people with health conditions and individuals facing other barriers to move into and maintain employment. We’re looking for experienced professionals who can build trusted relationships with participants, understand their individual strengths and challenges, and help them develop person-centred action plans that lead to sustainable employment. You’ll be engaging directly with adults facing complex barriers – such as learning disabilities, neurodiversity or being care experienced – and working closely with employers to match people to suitable roles using the ‘place, train and maintain’ model. You’ll also be supporting participants in the workplace, helping them settle in, build confidence and thrive.
We are recruiting for up to four people at this time. We’re particularly keen to hear from people who have local experience of delivering high-quality employment programmes and working in partnership with agencies across social care, health and employment. You’ll need excellent communication skills, a creative and problem-solving mindset, and the ability to coach and motivate others. This is a varied and rewarding role where no two days are the same – from developing local delivery plans and liaising with employers, to supporting participants with vocational profiling and training. If you’re passionate about inclusive employment and want to make a real difference in Leicestershire, we’d love to hear from you.
This is a full-time role. There is some flexibility in how you work your hours (to be discussed at interview stage). Your base will be County Hall, with the option of hybrid working at home or our other centres. There may be the occasional requirement to travel across the county for meetings/events.
In this role, no two days will be the same, but some typical responsibilities will include:
- Building trusted relationships with participants and supporting them to engage in structured plans to find and sustain employment.
- Completing and updating vocational profiles, identifying individuals’ skills, experiences, needs and employment preferences.
- Developing person-centred action plans that lead to sustainable employment, following the Supported Employment Quality Framework (SEQF).
- Engaging with local employers to match participants to suitable roles and support them to adopt inclusive recruitment practices.
- Providing in-work support to participants, helping them settle into roles, build confidence and integrate into the workplace.
- Working in partnership with agencies across social care, health and employment to design effective referral and progression pathways.
- Maintaining accurate records for audit and performance monitoring, including eligibility checks and employment outcomes.
An enhanced DBS check is required for this post.
For information on our approach to the recruitment of ex-offenders, please see our policy statement.
About You
The Connect to Work Employment Support Officers will have:
- A minimum Level 3 qualification in a relevant subject, plus Level 2 English and Maths (Grade C/Level 4 or above) (or able to demonstrate equivalent experience).
- Recent experience of successfully delivering high-quality employment programmes.
- Experience of working with adults facing complex and multiple barriers to employment (e.g., learning disabilities, neurodiversity, care leavers).
- Strong understanding of Supported Employment and the challenges faced by target groups in accessing and sustaining work.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to coach, mentor and motivate others.
- Creative problem-solving skills and the ability to develop person-centred action plans based on vocational assessments.
- Experience of engaging with local employers to create inclusive job opportunities for people facing barriers to employment. Plus, the ability to work in partnership with a range of agencies and tailor communication to different audiences.
You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.
In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.
Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.
Interested in Flexible Working?
We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.
Every role within the Council has a defined working style, which determines where they can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories in the Our Working Styles page on our career site.
For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:
Claire Smith, Connect to Work Project Manager or Andrew Day, Senior Adult Learning Manager - Skills
Telephone: 07710 202109 or 0116 305 1134
Email: claire.e.smith@leics.gov.uk or andrew.day@leics.gov.uk
How to Apply
Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.
To apply for this job, please click on 'Apply Now'. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Employee Service Centre: https://emss.org.uk/support
By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme