Substance Misuse Worker (Oakhill STC)

Main Responsibilities

Substance Misuse Worker  :  Part-time

Oakhill Secure Training Centre, Milton Keynes

Salary : £21,500.00 per annum pro rata

20 Hours per week

G4S Children's Services works closely with the Home Office, Youth Justice Board for England and Wales and the Ministry of Justice to ensure that its regimes and designs reflect best practice in residential care to prevent offending.

At Oakhill Secure Training Centre we look after young people aged 12 to 18 years old who have been remanded or sentenced to periods of detention. The vulnerable young people in our care can be challenging with a wide range of social and emotional complex needs. This is an environment that calls for high standards of social care and service delivery to provide a secure and stable environment for young people to develop their life skills and address the behaviours that have led them into custody. 

We are looking for a resilient and confident team player to join us in delivering pastoral and behavioural support within the centre. You should have excellent interpersonal skills and must act with consistency, fairness and integrity in order to build mutual trust and respect with the young people.

Working directly with the young people, you will need to be able to motivate and support them in the classroom and on the residential units to develop life skills to enhance their effective resettlement on release. This role requires the ability to manage the behaviour of people in our care with dignity and respect, and can be both challenging and extremely rewarding. The ideal candidate will have previous experience of working with young, vulnerable or challenging people, and will have the ability to apply their life experience, role-modelling positive and proactive behaviours, to achieve positive outcomes for young people. 

At G4S, we invest heavily in our people.  If you join us you’ll attend our comprehensive training programme to equip you with the skills and knowledge for the job. As well as ongoing support and development opportunities we offer generous holiday entitlement, company pension, an onsite gym, free onsite parking and the chance to do an extraordinary job – every day.

Job Outline

As a Substance Misuse Support Worker you will support your immediate team in carrying out assessments and devising care plans to ensure the needs of the young person are met. You will take an active role in the planning and delivery of educational programs and specific group work tailored to the needs of young people.

Key Responsibilities

• To complete comprehensive substance misuse assessments with the young people and agree an initial care plan of work.
• To deliver educational advice on substances affecting the Young People at the Centre; completing educational programs and specific group work tailored to the needs of young people.
• To liaise with other departments within the STC, external agencies (e.g. YOTS, community drug teams), other custodial establishments, and the young person’s parents/carers regarding the substance misuse needs of the young people in order to provide seamless support.
• To participate in training opportunities to increase skill base, both locally and nationally if required in line with relevant national occupational standards.
• To be proactive in personal development and independently update knowledge of research/studies and trends accordingly.
• To attend case reviews and other relevant meetings as and when needed in order to feed back on the young person’s progress.
• To support with capturing data and collating this for the purposes of report writing as requested by the Substance Misuse Manager.
• To provide administration support to Substance Misuse staff as and when required.
• To update and record information accurately in relation to sessions carried out with the young people.
• To fully participate in Team Meetings, including note taking if required.
• To undertake any other duties as may be requested by the Head of Service to reflect the changing needs of the team, and other duties that the company shall from time to time

The Ideal Candidate

Essential Skills

• Experience of working with young people in a challenging environment.
• Understanding of the need for and ability to deliver quality services from the point of assessment onwards.
• Knowledge of the issues young people face from their use of substances
• Experience of delivering group intervention and how to manage group dynamics effectively.
• Experience of working in a multidisciplinary teams
• Confidence in using an array of Microsoft programs and other data entry tools.
• Knowledge of safeguarding children at risk.
• Ability to act in a professional manner at all times ensuring confidentiality and safeguarding is paramount.
• Communicate confidently and effectively, verbally and in writing.
• Ability to be flexible and respond appropriately within a dynamic environment.
• Employ a mature, empathetic and non-judgmental attitude towards young people and their families.
• Ability to critically reflect and evaluate interventions and service delivery, identifying areas for development

Desirable Skills

• Qualification in substance misuse/ relevant qualification
• Motivational interviewing techniques
• Awareness of other psychosocial intervention including Cognitive behavioural therapy

If you have the qualities that we are looking for and the ability to make a difference, we want to hear from you!

It is every employee’s responsibility to promote and safeguard the welfare of children and young persons he/she is responsible for or comes into contact with. Therefore every employee will be required to hold a current enhanced DBS (Disclosure & Barring Scheme) certificate.

Please note that these vacancies are subject to a 10 year checkable history and the strict vetting standards set by G4S and the Youth Justice Board and are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.

You must be eligible to work in the UK and must have been resident in the UK for a minimum period of 3 years. You will also need to provide full details of your employment and education history for the last 10 years as part of the security screening process for this role.