Recovery Practitioner

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There’s a place for you at CNWL.

We’re passionate about delivering first-class patient‑centred, safe and effective care, whether it is in a hospital setting, in a community clinic or in the patient’s own home. Patients are at the heart of everything we do.

Providing top quality care depends on our ability to employ the best people. We’re always looking to recruit outstanding people who will go the extra mile to support our patients, colleagues, teams and the Trust. With every new employee we’re hoping to find our future leaders and we’ll support our staff by providing opportunities to develop your career.

With a diverse culture and equally diverse range of opportunities across mental health, community services, addictions, eating disorders, learning disabilities and more – whatever stage of your career you\’re at, there\’s always a place for you at CNWL.

Main area Recovery Practitioner Grade NHS AfC: Band 5 Contract Permanent Hours Full time – 37.5 hours per week (Rota for late clinic will be required on a Tuesday from 11:00-19:00) Job ref 333-D-AD-0589

Site ARC Hounslow Town Hounslow Salary £35,763 – £43,466 per annum inc HCAS (pro rata if P/T) Salary period Yearly Closing 12/02/2026 23:59

CNWL (Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust) has almost 8,000 staff providing integrated healthcare to a third of London\’s population, Milton Keynes and areas beyond. We involve service users, carers, the public, staff and partner organisations in the way that we are run.

Our catchment area spans diverse communities, with over 100 first languages spoken. It contains areas of great affluence as well as areas of much deprivation. We are committed to providing services that meet the needs of the people who use them, and we actively encourage involvement from local people who can help make a difference. We’re proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME and people with disabilities to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.

We are recognised locally, nationally and internationally for providing high quality, innovative healthcare. We aim to employ only the best people, and our experts are frequently called upon to contribute to national health strategy and policy, and many models of our care have been adapted for use in other countries.

We offer a generous relocation package (subject to eligibility assessment) and flexible working options, including bank assignments for most roles. For more information on these and other benefits of working for us, see our Benefits, Reward and Wellbeing page.

Become part of our team. We care for you as much as you care for others.

CNWL NHS Foundation Trust are committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We follow safe recruitment practices to protect children and vulnerable adults.

Job overview

ARC Hounslow supports people over the age of 18, residing in the borough who want to break a cycle of addiction to substances or long-term alcohol addiction. We offer a variety of psychosocial and clinical interventions to support clients throughout their treatment journey.

This role will hold a caseload of individuals and specifically provide support to individuals through offering 1-1 (on site and outreach) and group work interventions.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will use their specialist knowledge and skills in substance use to undertake assessment, care planning, implementing and evaluating case work regarding the treatment and support of service users. They will perform duty assessments to those new to the service, in addition to acting as keyworker to a defined allocated caseload, under the supervision of a designated manager within the team.

The post holder will have sound knowledge and skills for completing 1:1 work, group work and outreach to ensure the service user is supported throughout their recovery journey.

The post holder will be responsible for ensuring that the delivery of the care and management of this client group is done in compliance with expected standards and ensuring adherence to policies and procedures.

Working for our organisation

The Addictions Directorate within CNWL Foundation Trust is a large, well-established provider which offers a wide range of specialist NHS drug and alcohol treatment interventions to the diverse and multicultural populations in Central and North West London. Our drug and alcohol services include community services and we also run the National Gambling and Gaming Services, Smoking Cessation services and a Club Drug Clinic.

Our substance use services are dedicated to helping reduce the harm caused by substance use dependency; helping people overcome their dependency on substances and helping clients and their families rebuild their lives and enable recovery. We are committed to working in partnership with other providers and service users in local systems of treatment and recovery.

CNWL is committed to providing high quality, evidence-based treatment options and is a learning organisation which promotes staff competence and training and values clinical governance, audit and research. We are linked with Imperial College, University of London and are committed to evaluating our services and developing new and innovative approaches.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For further information about the advertised role, please refer to the job description & person specification included in the documents section of this advert.

To work as a member of the multidisciplinary team which provides a range of specialist services to service users presenting with substance use issues, including alcohol. Including delivering evidence-based interventions such as: harm reduction approaches, motivational interviewing, relapse prevention, care planning individual intervention, health education and detoxification programmes, mindfulness, counselling, outreach and group work in 1-1 and group work settings.

To make continuous assessments of the psychological, emotional, social and rehabilitative needs of clients, taking into account the needs of family, local community and developing care plans and evaluation of these plans.

To be able to assess and case manage clients who inject drugs, in particular assessing injection sites and be conversant with the precepts of harm reduction, taking a predominant role in providing duty assessments to clients who are new to the service.

To ensure compliance of and use agreed and established Outcome Monitoring Tools and any other relevant quality measures to support the delivery of contracted service.

Work with internal and external colleagues to ensure the best practice is shared and knowledge is available to the to ensure services meet required standards, are evidence-based and demonstrate impact in terms of a recovery orientation. Leading on an area of specialism, where appropriate.

To manage the transfer of individuals between agencies and services.

To promote across the service and ensure full risk assessments and risk management is delivered effectively, under supervision.

To ensure an understanding, compliance with and implementation of clinical governance.

Person specification

Training and Qualifications

• Completed Recovery Practitioner training
• Evidence of further training in relation to personal recovery principles
• Commitment to obtain underpinning knowledge through work based learning and mandatory training
• Motivational Interviewing Training
• Any specific training of outreach work with this population

Experience

• Experience of working with alcohol/substance users or another comparable field
• An understanding of the complex issues presented by individuals with varying complexity
• Experience of working in collaboration with health providers, probation, the courts, police, youth services, mental health & addictions organisations
• Experience of delivering groups as well as one-to-one interventions related to addictions
• Any specific experience of outreach work with this population
• Experience in undertaking evaluations, audit and research

Skills and Knowledge

• Ability to demonstrate knowledge of recovery principles and values
• Ability to assess and manage caseload of clients, making continuous assessments of the psychosocial, emotional and rehabilitative needs of clients and the development of care plans
• To be conversant with the precepts of harm reduction
• To ensure compliance with risk assessments and care planning
• Effective time management and communication skills including listening, verbal and written
• Proficient use of clinical systems such as SystmOne; Cerna and/or other relevant systems for documenting client work

Other

• A preparedness to work flexible hours through prior arrangement as the needs of the job indicate (e.g. some evenings and weekends)
• Ability to travel between locations using own or public transport

The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.

• Due to the high response levels we receive for some vacancies, we may expire any of them prior to the advertised closing date and advise you to submit your application as soon as possible.
• Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Before submitting your application and to avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the UKVI points based system.
• Our Agenda for Change employment contracts are subject to a contractual 13 week probationary period.
• If you are offered a job, information will be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.