Rumbi Mapfumo, team manager for IPS at the South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust, with Holly Newton, IPS Grow Regional Lead in London
Expanding IPS has been a priority for Social Finance for more than a decade. In 2015 we set up the Mental Health Employment Partnership (MHEP) and launched the first Social Outcomes Partnerships designed to test the IPS model of employment support for people living with severe mental illness, learning disabilities and substance misuse.
Building on what we learned from MHEP, we created IPS Grow in 2019 to drive the rollout of IPS in NHS mental health services across England, with the ambition of helping the IPS model to scale nationally.
Led by Social Finance and delivered in partnership with NHS England, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), IPS Grow supports the system to scale a proven employment model that improves health and reduces economic inactivity.
In 2019, the IPS Grow team was commissioned by NHS England to support existing IPS services in mental health units and to help set up new ones – this core contract has been extended to March 2029.
IPS Grow also underpins IPS expansion in drug and alcohol services through the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID).
Today we work with more than 300 IPS services across England to deliver high-quality employment support for people living with severe mental illness, substance use issues and other health needs.
In August 2025, Social Finance was commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to support the successful delivery of Connect to Work. Until March 2030 the IPS Grow team will conduct annual fidelity reviews* across all Connect to Work Individual Placement and Support (IPS) services in England and Wales.
IPS is an evidence-based employment support approach originally developed in the United States for people experiencing mental health and addiction issues.
It offers intensive individually tailored support to help people to choose and find the right job, with ongoing support for the employer and employee to help ensure the person keeps their job.
Evidence shows that IPS can have a life-changing impact for people, families and communities when it is delivered well.
I was over the moon about getting this job — getting back to work was so important for my recovery and my mental stability. Working in a library has been my dream and I am so happy this was recognised by my IPS worker and she made this happen.
Service user supported by an NHS IPS Employment Specialist, Oxford Health IPS Employment & Job Retention Service
Our support for IPS providers, health services, NHS Trusts and commissioners includes:
We also aim to bring together a range of national stakeholders to support the development and expansion of IPS across England through the England IPS Expert Forum.
IPS has been shown to be more effective the more closely it follows these eight principles:
Fidelity can be explained as the degree to which the detail and quality of an original model (IPS in this case) are successfully copied or replicated.
The IPS fidelity scale defines the critical ingredients of IPS and measures their implementation to differentiate between programmes that have fully implemented the model and those that have not.
The levels of IPS fidelity are:
Caroline Gadd sets out what a decade of our work with IPS Grow work has taught Social Finance about combining evidence, empathy and scale and why the most important question remains: what matters to you?
Through the Mental Health Employment Partnership (MHEP) and now our flagship programme IPS Grow we understand what it takes to deliver IPS effectively and sustainably at scale.
Lela Kogbara, Co-Chair of the Social Finance Board and Chair of the IPS Grow Board talks about her journey with IPS Grow and her personal experience of what it means to write off those with poor mental health.
