Substance Misuse Specialist Practitioner
£28,000 - £32,000 depending on experience | Residential Family Assessment Centre
Our Client is an aspirational residential family assessment centre, providing intensive, round-the-clock support for parents and children while questions of parenting capacity, child safety and sustainable care are carefully assessed.
Families arriving at the centre have often experienced trauma, domestic abuse, mental health difficulty, substance misuse, learning needs or social isolation. The team's aim is to deliver assessments that are safe, fair, structured and child-centred, while giving parents clear support, teaching and feedback along the way.
As the service strengthens its multidisciplinary model, they're looking for a Substance Misuse Specialist Practitioner to bring specialist alcohol and drug misuse expertise into the heart of the assessment and change process. This isn't an external advisory role — you'll be a core part of the team, working alongside social workers, psychologists and residential family support staff.
What you'll be doing:
- Carrying out substance misuse assessments and delivering direct psychosocial intervention
- Developing recovery plans, harm reduction strategies and relapse prevention support
- Contributing specialist insight to parenting assessments and capacity-to-change judgements
- Playing an active role in MDT meetings, formulation and final analysis
- Providing consultation and support to colleagues across the service
- Maintaining clear, evidence-based recording in line with safeguarding and regulatory standards
What we're looking for:
- Experience as a substance misuse worker, drug and alcohol practitioner, recovery practitioner or equivalent
- Strong knowledge of dependence, recovery, harm reduction, relapse prevention and risk management
- Experience delivering one-to-one psychosocial interventions and using motivational approaches
- Understanding of how substance misuse affects children, attachment and family functioning
- Confidence working in a multi-agency or multidisciplinary setting
- A relevant qualification or demonstrable specialist training in substance misuse, health, social care, counselling, youth work, criminal justice, psychology or a related field
- Safeguarding children training at an appropriate level
Experience with Family Safeguarding, FDAC, residential family assessment or edge-of-care work is a bonus, as is background in group work, SMART Recovery, or contributing to statutory/court assessments — but not essential.
Working pattern: flexible — a range of working patterns and contracted hours will be considered. Let us know your preferred number of days when you apply, and we'll work out the right fit as part of the recruitment process.
This is a genuine opportunity to bring your specialist expertise into a warm, curious and evidence-informed team, working somewhere your voice directly shapes outcomes for families.
Pay: £32,000.00 per year
Application question(s):
- Experience of working as a substance misuse worker, drug and alcohol practitioner,
recovery practitioner, treatment practitioner, family safeguarding substance misuse
practitioner or equivalent
Work Location: In person
