Dual Diagnosis Practitioner

Dual Diagnosis Practitioner

Location: Brixton

Salary: £30,082 per annum, plus benefits

Vacancy Type: Permanent, Full Time

Closing Date: 07 Aug 2025

We are recruiting for a Dual Diagnosis Practitioner at HMP Brixton

Here at Forward Trust, we deliver a complex range of drug and alcohol services in the unique prison environment. Our support includes providing advice, health and wellbeing, motivational work, clinical services, and a wider range of group work and treatment programmes.

The Forward Trust services which are delivered within prison settings are commissioned by NHS England and are delivered in partnership with primary healthcare providers and HMPPS. Integration and partnership are integral to the work we do.

We believe that everyone can live a fulfilling life, whatever their past. Our work in prisons aims to support those affected by drug or alcohol issues to create lasting change and reduce dependency, homelessness, unemployment, and re-offending.

Role Responsibilities

Dual diagnosis is an all-encompassing cross sector and cross-agency concern. The sheer breadth and complexity of issues makes it essential that people using, providing and working in services all work together. Dual diagnosis needs to become a bigger priority at all levels.

The Dual Diagnosis practitioner will operate across HMP Brixton with a focus on establishing an effective dual diagnosis pathway and integrated framework that enables services to meet the complex and changing needs of people experiencing co-existing mental health and substance misuse issues. This role requires leadership and ability to manage strategic partnerships. There is particular emphasis on partnership working with mental health services.

Key Deliverables:

• Manage a caseload of service users ensuring effective co-ordination of care between substance misuse and mental health services
• Monitoring engagement and effective sharing of information between services
• Development of robust referral pathway & eligibility criteria for Dual Diagnosis pathway
• Co-design of group work and interventions with relevant agencies/partners
• Co-delivery/facilitation of group work and interventions with relevant agencies/partners
• Attend multi-disciplinary meetings (MDT) or other meetings relevant to pathway development
• Delivering training to the team and wider stakeholder groups. Possible line management and supervisory duties

The post holder will promote an agenda of recovery from drugs and/or alcohol dependence which supports client group goals in reducing re-offending, increasing re-integration into meaningful and sustained occupation, improving social and family relationships.

The post holder will works seamlessly across healthcare and substance misuse services to ensure that the delivery and management of the service meets contractual obligations. This includes ensuring that all data and information requirements (HJIPs/KPIs) are submitted within agreed deadlines and data is utilised to manage the performance of the team and individual staff taking corrective action in the case of underperformance.

Please note some flexibility may be required for evening/weekend working on a rota basis.

The post holder will be directly line management by service manager with offer of clinical supervision facilitated by service clinical leads that can be tailored appropriately to the needs of individual post holder

All prison-based roles will require enhanced DBS and HMPPS security vetting. Please note this process can take up to 3-6 weeks. All offers are subject to receiving both HMPPS vetting and DBS clearances.

Checks will require you to provide information on the below:

• Yourself (personal information, financial information, police information, criminal history)
• Your family (parents, parents partners, siblings, partner(s), children)
• Co-residents
• Associations that may cause a conflict of interest with your role or the prison service.
• Background checks across police information systems on you, your family and other associates
• Credit reference checks
• Social media and Open-Source checks (these are checks on content about you that\’s publicly available on the internet to ensure there\’s nothing linked to you that could undermine public trust and confidence in the prison service)
• Other government and overseas agency or police checks

The Ideal Candidate

Please see below a list of skills and experience needed for this role

• Allied health professional, registered professional or holds equivalent training e.g. nurse/mental health nurse, RGN/RMN, social worker, occupational therapist, psychology, psychotherapy.
• Experience of working within Substance Misuse and/or Mental Health Services
• Experience of caseload management
• Experience of working within a multi-disciplinary team
• Understanding of the challenges faced by people experiencing co-existing mental health and substance misuse issues
• Awareness of substance misuse recovery agenda and treatment approaches

About Us

We are The Forward Trust, the social enterprise with charitable status that empowers people to break the often interlinked cycles of crime and addiction to move forward with their lives. For more than 25 years we have been working with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past. We believe that anyone is capable of lasting change. Our services have supported thousands of people to make positive changes and build productive lives with a job, family, friends and a sense of community.

To Apply

If you feel you are a suitable candidate and would like to work for the Forward Trust, please click apply to be redirected to their website to complete your application.