Recovery Worker

Location: London W12

Salary: £28,207 per annum (Please note the role includes an Interim allowance of £3000 reviewed every 6-months, basic salary based on 35 hours would be £25,207.00. This interim scheme will be reviewed in April & October.)

Vacancy Type: Full time, Permanent

Closing date: 21st May 2026

We are recruiting for a Recovery Worker at HMP Wormwood Scrubs. 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.

Roles Responsibilities

You will be working within an integrated healthcare framework to provide support to drug and alcohol users aged 18 and over (dependent on service) to support service delivery providing harm minimisation, continuity of care and recovery support. You will hold a case load of service users and participate in rotating daily duties that can include induction clinics and group programme facilitation. Working in a busy prison environment, in partnership with Prison operational staff and health care teams, none medical prescribers. Services are designed to deliver Psychosocial Drug and Alcohol Interventions for Service users that are identified as having an Alcohol or drug problem. Services will deliver client centred treatment using both harm reduction and abstinence based treatment approaches depending on the requirements of the individual client. You will be offered a thorough induction at an organisational and service level. Training provided included eLearning live workshops. You will be provided with training from the Prison to support you feeling safe and confident in the expectations of you being a key holder.

Please note we would be interested in full and part time candidates for this position. 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 the skills and experience needed for this role:

• Experience of working within the substance misuse services.
• Experience of carrying out comprehensive assessments, risk management plans and the design and implementation of SMART care plans.
• Experience of delivering structured interventions to service users.
• Experience of facilitating groups.
• Using motivational interviewing techniques in both 1:1 and group settings.
• Strong IT skills.
• Understanding of continuity of care, holistic care needs and community services
• Experience of promoting and supporting Equality and Diversity

All prison-based roles are subject to enhanced DBS checks and HMPPS security vetting. These checks can take up to 5 months to complete. Any offer of employment will be conditional upon the successful completion of both checks.

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. We are committed to our cause and the work we carry out as a charity. Equally the wellbeing and the employees who work for us are also important.

Joining us as an employee, we will offer you the following benefits:

• Flexible working
• Training and development opportunities
• Simply Health Cashback Scheme (optional)
• Season Ticket Loan Scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Crisis Loan Scheme
• Electric Car Scheme
• 3 x Wellbeing Days (pro rata'd for part time employees)
• Access to Blue Light Card
• 25 days (rising to 30 with length of service) Annual Leave plus Bank Holidays
• Contributory Pension Scheme – Employer matched contributions of up to 6% in the first two years’ service and up to 9% thereafter
• Death in Service Payment (2x annual salary)
• Critical Illness Insurance (subject to qualifying criteria)

Employee Screening and Eligibility to Work

If successful in your application, you will be required to provide eligibility to work evidence in line with the ‘Eligibility to Work in the UK’ requirements.

To Apply

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