South West London Team Leader - Dependency and Recovery - On-Site

We’re Hiring: Team Leader – Dependency and Recovery Services

Do you have the leadership skills to inspire a team and the passion to support people on their recovery journey? Join Forward Trust as a Team Leader in our Dependency and Recovery Services, where you’ll play a vital role in bridging the gap between probation and substance misuse services.

As a Team Leader, you will:

• Lead a dedicated team of practitioners delivering support to adult males under probation supervision across Kingston, Richmond, Hounslow, Wandsworth, Merton and Sutton.
• Provide visible leadership, travelling between probation delivery units, attending meetings, and ensuring smooth project delivery.
• Manage referrals, oversee complex cases, and support your team to deliver high-quality, motivational interventions that help clients stay engaged in treatment and recovery.
• Build strong relationships with Probation Practitioners, Prisons, Partners, Service Users, Stakeholders, and Volunteers, representing Forward Trust with professionalism and integrity.
• Support the Service Manager by meeting performance targets, ensuring accurate data reporting, and promoting services across your locations.
• Coach, develop, and motivate your team to thrive, ensuring excellent staff retention and practice.
• Step up when needed to deputise for the Service Manager, ensuring continuity and high standards of service delivery.

This is a hybrid, in-person role that requires regular travel across probation delivery units in Southwest London. Core hours are Monday–Friday, 9:00–17:00, with some flexibility required.

What We’re Looking For

You will bring:

• Demonstrable experience managing teams, performance, and development.
• A genuine passion for motivating and developing people.
• Strong background in relationship management (internal and external).
• Knowledge and experience of implementing policies and formal procedures.
• Excellent problem-solving, negotiation, and project management skills.
• A solid understanding of the criminal justice sector and challenges faced by service users.
• Experience managing caseloads, risk assessments, SMART action plans, and accurate case recording.

All probation-based roles are subject to enhanced DBS checks and HMPPS security vetting. These checks can take up to 6-12 weeks to complete. Any offer of employment will be conditional upon the successful completion of both checks. Please note if you have lived overseas within the last 5 years then checks may take longer.

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.

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)

Diversity at Forward Trust

The Forward Trust commits to providing opportunities to everyone. We want to ensure we have a diverse team with a range of lived and professional experiences. This includes those with ‘Lived Experience’ of addiction, offending, or homelessness. When we recruit, we welcome applications from everyone. This is inclusive of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion and/or belief, marriage and civil partnerships, pregnancy and maternity and socio-economic background. Where operationally possible, we will consider flexible working requests and make reasonable adjustments for all roles.

Employee Screening and Eligibility to Work

We recognise the importance of safeguarding, dependent on role you may be required to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service Check, details of which will be shared with you at interview. 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.