The Bridge Project

Job Description

Title of post: Recovery Practitioner (Young People’s Specialist Substance Misuse Service)

Location: The Bridge Project - 35 Salem Street, Bradford

Responsible to: Team Manager

Hours of Work: 37.5 hrs per week. 9.30-5.30 Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9.30- 7.00pm Tuesday, 9.30-4.00 Thursday. The Post holder will be expected to contribute to a Saturday rota approximately twice per year for 3 hours.

Role Purpose: The Young Peoples Specialist Substance Misuse Provision for Bradford and Airedale operates as a virtual team comprising of The Bridge Project, Children’s Social Care – Alcohol and Drug Team and NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS). The virtual team deliver services in a holistic and integrated way that includes all relevant district services for children and young people.

The post holder will work within the Bridge Project element and will be case allocated late at risk stage, harmful stage and dependant stage young people up to age 21. The post holder will deliver fully integrated, holistic high quality young people’s drug and alcohol interventions though the development, implementation and evaluation of individual care packages and interventions drawing on a multi-disciplinary approach and ensuring high ethical and professional standards of care and practice are met at all times.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

 Assist in the development, implementation and evaluation of individual care packages and interventions for clients in the Young People’s Drug and Alcohol Service drawing on a multi- disciplinary approach and ensuring high ethical and professional standards of care and practice are met at all times

 Organise and facilitate service activities. Specifically to:

 Provide accurate information about substances and raise awareness about substance use and its affects and risks and to support and enable young people to cease or reduce substance use

 Proactively engage with young people referred through formal and informal routes in substance misuse and related services relevant to identified/ assessed need

1  Carry a case load involving assessment and treatment of young people with substance misuse issues

 Develop and implement bespoke care packages for young people referred to the service with substance misuse issues to address identified needs and risks  Mobilise and co-ordinate all identified relevant services, establish and maintain effective regular communication/ liaison with all services, individuals and families involved with young people engaged/ referred to the service

 Deliver key working sessions and structured psychosocial sessions using recognised theoretical models

 Provide relevant advocacy for young people

 Work with young people in a holistic way ensuring that their needs are met, including areas such as child safeguarding, housing, medical, recreational, educational, criminal justice and mental health including referrals to appropriate services and establishing and maintaining joint working arrangements

 Provide drug education and training as and when required

 Help develop and run a range of therapeutic group work activities to support individuals as and when required

 Encourage and enable the involvement and inclusion of young people in service planning, design and delivery

 Provide support and consultancy to Tier 1 and Tier 2 workers from external agencies in their work with young drug and alcohol users

 Promote the service through talks, presentations and educational events to various groups and represent the service as required

 Observe professional standards of good practice relevant to the circumstances of individual clients

 Ensure standards and legislative requirements are met

 Write reports as appropriate

 Work to Bridge’s policy and values in equality and diversity

 Undertake any other tasks in line with this post.

Key Activities

 Recognise indications of substance misuse and refer individuals to specialists (AA1)

 Relate to and interact with individuals (formally DANOS unit AA2 converted to NHS KSF HWB4)

2  Enable individuals to find out more about and use services and facilities (formally DANOS unit AA3 converted to NHS KSF HWB4)

 Promote choice, wellbeing and protection of individuals (formally DANOS unit AA4) converted to NHS KSF Core 6)

 Interact with individuals using telecommunications (formally DANOS AA5 converted to NHS KSF core 1)

 Support individuals when they are distressed (formally AB1 NHS KSF HWB4)

 Support individuals who are substance users (AB2)

 Contribute to the prevention and management of abusive and aggressive behaviour (AB3)

 Contribute to assessing and act upon risks of danger harm and abuse (formally DANOS unit AB8 converted to NHS KSF HWB3)

 Contribute to the protection of individuals from harm and abuse (formally DANOS unit AB4 converted to NHS KSF HWB3)

 Support individuals to deal with relationship problems (NHS KSF HWB4)

 Develop your own knowledge and practice (formally DANOS unit AC1 converted to NHS KSF core 2)

 Reflect on and evaluate your own values, priorities, interests and effectiveness (AC1.1)

 Incorporate new knowledge into your own practice (AC1.2)

 Make use of supervision (AC2)

 Contribute to the development of the knowledge and practice of others (AC3)

 Support and challenge workers on specific aspects of their practice (AC4)

 Raise awareness about substances, their use and effects (AD1)

 Facilitate learning through presentations and activities (AD2)

 Test for substance misuse (AE1)

 Carry out screening and referral assessment (AF1)

 Carry out assessment to identify and prioritise needs and taking appropriate action (AF2)

 Carry out comprehensive substance misuse assessment (AF3)

 Develop, implement and review care plans for individuals (AG1)

 Contribute care planning and review (AG2)

 Assist in the transfer of individuals between agencies and services (AG3)

 Support individuals through detoxification programmes (AH7)

 Support individuals to take their medication as prescribed (AH12)

 Employ techniques to help individuals to adopt sensible drinking behaviour (AH10

 Support individuals to undertake and monitor their own health care (AH4)

3  Prepare prescriptions for controlled drugs (AH11)

 Counsel individuals about their substance use through recognised theoretical models (AI1)

 Help individuals address their substance use through an action plan (AI2)

 Counsel groups of individuals about their substance use using recognised theoretical models (AI3)

 Supply and exchange injecting equipment (AH3)

 Help individuals address their offending behaviour (AJ1)

 Assist individuals to explore future employment, training and education opportunities

 Enable individuals to administer their financial affairs (above 2 units formally DANOS unit AK, 3 and 4 converted to NHS KSF HWB4

 Enable individuals to access and retain housing (AK3)

 Contribute to the development of organisational policy and practice (BA3)

 Awareness of workplace policies relevant to work practices to ensure a healthy and safe environment is maintained (BD2)

 Ensure own actions reduce risk to health and safety (BD3)

 Provide information to support decision making (BE2)

 Develop productive working relationships (BI1)

 Develop and sustain arrangements for joint working between workers and agencies (BI2)

 Facilitate meetings (BI3)

 Develop and sustain effective working relationships with staff in other agencies (BI6)

 Make use of supervision (NHS KSF Core2)

Workers should not refuse to undertake reasonable work, which is not specified in this job description, but should record any additional duties which they are requested to perform and bring them to the attention of their line manager.

References preceding each item relate to Drug and Alcohol National Occupational Standards

May 2017

4 Essential Desirable How demonstrated A relevant professional qualification (e.g. Qualifications Application and Interview Degree Youth and Community Work , Social Work)  And Minimum 3 years experience of working with young people with alcohol/drug problems and/or working with young people/children with complex needs in the last 3 years Experience  Relevant demonstrable experience Experience in the delivery of group delivery models of managing a caseload and Experience of using electronic patient record delivering care-coordination management systems  Evidence of having applied therapeutic skills and experience in assessment, care planning and provision of on-going supportive interventions  Applied knowledge of the range of drug and alcohol related problems and their impact on young people, families and community  Experience of, and ability to, liaise and build positive working links with professionals from a variety of disciplines  Experience of maintaining confidential records and providing information for monitoring and evaluation Skills & Knowledge  Knowledge of legislation, guidelines and procedures relating to children and young people including Every Child Matters, Working Together to Safeguard Children Fraser Guidelines and the Common Assessment Framework  Relevant evidence of applied knowledge and skill in counselling young people using recognised theoretical models of interventions  Knowledge of service user involvement in services

 Ability to evidence underpinning knowledge of the DoH “Guidance for the pharmacological management of substance misuse among young people” and relevant NICE guidelines  A thorough knowledge and evidence of applying child safeguarding and protection legislation and related procedures  Ability to, and evidence of, having worked independently and under pressure, prioritising planning and managing own workload on a day- to-day basis, using effective time management skills  Capable of preparing reports and letters and maintaining a care record to a high professional standard  Ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing at all levels, with individuals, groups, organisations and the public  Ability to adapt working pattern and style to provide a flexible and adaptable approach in order to develop and deliver services which are accessible and responsive to the needs of clients Ability to reflect on and develop own practice

Other  Demonstrable experience of working flexibly, positively and cooperatively within a team  Understanding of the implications of the framework of Equal Opportunities and recognise the value of diversity in the workplace  Willingness to keep abreast of relevant professional developments and to undertake training for the post.

 The post-holder is expected to be flexible with regards to working hours in order to meet the requirements of the post

 The applicant must be able to work from a variety of locations including where those where access on occasions may be challenging e.g. client homes (including high rise blocks) community locations etc

 Willingness to contribute to the training and development of others.

 Willingness to contribute to the training and development of others

 Willingness to work within a performance managed environment and contribute to performance reporting

 Willingness to undertake regular supervision and appraisal in line with Bridge policies and actively participate in own professional/personal development.  Willing to travel in order to fulfil the requirements of the post  Conform to standards of dress, which reflects a professional service.  Full driving licence and access to a car and requirement to transport young people to appointments (adjustments may be possible where the applicant cannot drive as a result of a disability)