We are currently recruiting for a Health and Wellbeing Practitioner - Surrey Region
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 / Team overview
The Forward Trust provide both clinical and psychosocial Substance Misuse Services across Surrey Prisons in partnership with NHS Trust healthcare providers. Each service operates a Health and Wellbeing framework taking a trauma informed and gender responsive approach to delivery of a wide variety of interventions and integrated pathways tailored to meet specific needs of each prison and individual service users. With pro-active partnership working a key aspect in the delivery of these services multi-disciplinary working across mental health, healthcare services and the prison is essential.
You will be based on site working within a team that have a broad skills mix to deliver combined psychosocial and clinical interventions providing recovery-orientated Health and Wellbeing Services to service users aged 18 and over at: HMP Highdown a closed category adult male prison located in Sutton.
This will involve working directly with those who are detained in the prison who may present low-level mental health needs and/or substance misuse issues. The service operates 7 days a week therefore weekend working will be a requirement on a rota basis.
As a Health and Wellbeing Practitioner day-to-day you will be responsible for managing a caseload, providing appropriate harm reduction advice and guidance, conducting assessments and formulating and delivering care plans ensuring co-production with the service user. You will deliver structured 1:1s, facilitate group-work sessions and perform second signatory duties. You will be responsible for release planning and ensuring through-care arrangements for transitional support for those leaving the prison and returning to the community.
Our success is based around targets and measuring the effectiveness of our work, so accurate and timely recording of data will be a vital part of your role.
Key responsibilities
- Carry out assessments risk/initial/comprehensive assessments to inform treatment journeys.
- Carry out interventions relevant to individual client needs, including 1:1 sessions and group work/programme facilitation.
- Develop and contribute to the through care needs of service users, supporting them in the development of release plans which are appropriate to their needs.
- Support clinical services by carrying out second signatory duties.
All prison-based roles will require enhanced DBS and HMPPS security vetting. Please note this process can take up to 8-12 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 will have
A Level 3 Diploma in Health & Social Care, or equivalent and be In possession of, or working towards a recognised counselling qualification.
Experience of working within mental health or substance misuse service.