Psychosocial Worker- HM YOI Feltham B - Substance Misuse Team

Job Overview

Are you passionate about recovery, rehabilitation and making a meaningful impact?

This is an exciting opportunity to join HMP/YOI Feltham B, a dynamic and evolving adult Category C prison, where we are transforming healthcare delivery through a new integrated model of care.

As a Psychosocial Worker, you will play a vital frontline role supporting individuals with substance misuse needs—helping them stabilise, recover and prepare for a healthier future beyond custody.

At Feltham B, you won’t just be doing a job—you’ll be part of a high-impact team driving real change within a secure environment.

Main duties of the job

You will work within our Substance Misuse Care Pathway, delivering evidence-based psychosocial interventions and supporting individuals at all stages of their recovery journey.

This includes early engagement in custody, structured interventions, and through-the-gate continuity planning, working closely with a multidisciplinary team.

Key Responsibilities

• Deliver 1:1 and group psychosocial interventions to individuals with drug and alcohol needs
• Undertake assessments, care planning and risk management
• Support individuals through recovery, relapse prevention and harm reduction
• Contribute to Early Days in Custody (EDiC), Planned Care and Release & Transfer pathway – engaging individuals at reception and stabilisation phase
• Work collaboratively with nurses, GPs, psychologists and prison staff
• Support delivery of detox and maintenance pathways alongside clinical teams
• Facilitate therapeutic group programmes focused on wellbeing and coping strategies
• Contribute to release planning and continuity of care into the community
• Maintain high-quality clinical records in line with CNWL and HMPPS standards
  
  

Working for our organisation

There's a place for you at CNWL.

We're passionate about delivering first-class, patient-centred, safe, and effective care, whether it is in a hospital setting, a community clinic, or in the patient's own home. Patients are at the heart of everything we do.

Providing top-quality care depends on our ability to employ the best people.

We're always looking to recruit outstanding people who will go the extra mile to support our patients, colleagues, teams and the Trust. With every new employee, we aim to identify our future leaders, and we support our staff by providing opportunities for career development.

With a diverse culture and equally diverse range of opportunities across mental health, community services, addictions, eating disorders, learning disabilities and more – whatever stage of your career you're at, there's always a place for you at CNWL.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

What We’re Looking For

Essential

• Experience working with individuals with substance misuse, mental health, or complex psychosocial needs
• Strong communication and engagement skills, particularly with hard-to-reach groups
• Understanding of recovery-focused approaches and harm reduction
• Ability to work effectively within a multidisciplinary team
  
  

Desirable

• Experience within prison, criminal justice, or secure environments
• Experience delivering group interventions
• Training in Motivational Interviewing or similar approaches
• Understanding of trauma-informed care
  
  

Why Work at Feltham B?

This is a unique opportunity to be part of a developing adult prison service with a clear improvement trajectory.

At Feltham B, we offer:

• A supportive and visible leadership team with clear direction
• Opportunity to shape and influence a growing substance misuse service
• Exposure to a diverse and complex clinical population
• Strong focus on staff development, supervision and progression
• A culture of ownership, accountability and continuous improvement
  
  

You will be joining a service that is actively evolving and putting quality, safety and recovery outcomes at the heart of everything we do.

Person specification

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of working with people with mental health problems and/or offending behaviour problems and/or other disabilities
• Evidence of working with children and young people with substance misuse difficulties
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Experience of paid work in direct care provision.
• Experience of working in prisons and/or with adolescents, in forensic services and/or Substance misuse or CAMHS services.
• Experience of working with young people with gang affiliations
• Experience of co-facilitating psychosocial groups.
• Experience of working within a team.
• Experience of using computers for databases or data-analysis, especially SPSS for Windows
• Experience of collating and inputting NDTMS data
• Experience of working in mental health substance misuse or related services
• Worked in a service where agreed targets in place to demonstrating outcomes
• Ability to manage own caseload and time
  
  

Training and Qualification

Essential criteria

• Evidence of working with children, teenagers or adults with Substance misuse difficulties
• Evidence of ability to study successfully at undergraduate level or the equivalent
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Training in nursing, social work, occupational therapy, counselling or within a specific psychological therapy
• Psychology or other health /social care/youth related undergraduate degree
• Other relevant postgraduate degree
• Motivational interviewing skills
  
  

Knowledge and Skills

Essential criteria

• High level communication skills (written and verbal) including an ability to communicate and work in settings in which the atmosphere may be highly emotive
• Ability to communicate sensitive information to patients, carers family and colleagues in a way that addresses service user’s particular needs.
• An understanding of the needs and difficulties of people with mental health problems or other disabilities
• An ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to a mental health or substance misuse context.
• An understanding of psychology applied to health care.
• Ability to evaluate and put in place the effect of training
• Experience using IT for databases or data-analysis.
  
  

Desirable criteria

• High standard of report writing skills
  
  

Personal

Essential criteria

• An ability to interact effectively with staff from all disciplines
• An ability to establish and sustain engagement with people who have mental health problems and severely challenging behaviours including sexually harmful behaviours
• Ability to work independently, reliably and consistently with work agreed and managed at regular intervals
• Knowledge of our business and how it supports patient care.
  
  

Desirable criteria

• An interest in working with people with forensic histories, mental health problems.