Specialist Recovery Practitioner

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust; Milton Keynes; On-site; GBP 31,000 - 38,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare organization in Milton Keynes is seeking a Specialist Recovery Practitioner to support individuals in overcoming substance addiction. This role involves direct client interactions, care planning, and working within a multidisciplinary team. The ideal candidate should have recovery training and experience in substance use settings. Competitive salary offered.

Benefits

Flexible working hours

Training and development opportunities

Qualifications

• Experience working with alcohol/substance users or a comparable field.
• Ability to manage a diverse caseload effectively.
• Experience delivering group work interventions.

Responsibilities

• Conduct assessments and care planning for clients.
• Work within a multidisciplinary team to deliver specialist services.
• Promote compliance with clinical governance and risk management.

Skills

Knowledge of recovery principles

Good interpersonal skills

Continuous assessment abilities

Effective communication skills

Team player skills

Education

Completed Recovery Practitioner training

Motivational Interviewing Training

Tools

Clinical systems such as SystmOne

Job description

Go back Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

Specialist Recovery Practitioner

The closing date is 02 October 2025

ARC-MK help people over the age of 18, residing in Milton Keynes, 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 and group work interventions.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will use their specialist knowledge and skills in substance misuse to undertake assessment, care planning, implementing and evaluating the case and treatment of clients. He/she will perform duty assessments to clients that are new to the service, in addition to acting as keyworker to a defined allocated caseload of clients, under the supervision of designated manager within the team.

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.

About us

The AddictionsDirectorate within CNWLFoundation Trust is a large, well-establishedprovider 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, 1 in-patient service. We alsorun nationalGambling and Gaming Services, Smoking Cessation services and a Club Drug Clinic.

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

CNWLis committed to providing high quality, evidence-based treatment options and is a learning organisation which promotes staff competence and training and valuesclinical 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.

Job responsibilities

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

Main Responsibilities

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 minimisation approaches, motivational interviewing, relapse prevention, care planning individual intervention, health education and detoxification programmes, mindfulness, counselling 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 minimisation, 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 related to young people

Experience

• Experience of working with alcohol/substance users or another comparable field
• An understanding of the complex issues presented by individuals within the Criminal Justice System
• Experience of working as part of a team
• Experience of working with individuals of all ages in a therapeutic/supportive role
• 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
• Experience in undertaking evaluations, audit and research

Skills and Knowledge

• Ability to demonstrate knowledge of recovery principles and values
• Good interpersonal skills and an ability to form boundaried relationships with service users and carers
• 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 management
• Effective communication skills including listening, verbal and written
• Ability to act calmly and to respond in a professional manner to distress, disturbance and unpredictability
• Excellent planning, self-management and organisational skills
• Ability to write clear reports for stakeholders (including court reports; Probation)
• Proficient use of clinical systems such as SystmOne
• To be an effective team player, to be able to work independently, flexibly, reliably and consistently with guidance.
• Ability to communicate on all levels and to a broad scope of individuals, both internally and externally to the trust.

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

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

£31,049 to £37,796 a yearper annum pro rata