Substance Misuse Worker

Portsmouth is a great waterfront city and a vibrant place to live and work. It is an island city with an "inner city" feel, a seaside location packed with attractions and events, and the advantage of fantastic countryside on its doorstep. With fast road and rail links to London, Brighton and major airports, and ferry links to Europe, it is the perfect place to live and work. Portsmouth has a strong history of partnership working and has successfully integrated several local services. The Service: DASS is the Drug and Alcohol Support Service in Portsmouth. DASS provides harm reduction, education and safety advice for young people up to 25 years old. We offer 1-1 substance misuse interventions with young people supporting them to make positive changes and better choices. Your New Role: You will provide substance misuse interventions for young people at a Drug & Alcohol Tier 2/3 level. You will provide 1:1 assessments and interventions with young people experiencing substance use/misuse concerns. You will contribute to multi-agency meetings, and to networks to support health improvement and local community development. You will engage young people in a range of interventions and relevant referral pathways, and maintain accurate records. You will provide screening, assessment, psychosocial interventions, care and risk planning and support to young people in relation to substance use. You will keep up to date with relevant continuing professional development activity related to substance use and wider wellbeing guidance for young people.

You have a nationally recognised qualification (equivalent to NVQ level 3 or higher) in the Health, Youth, Community, Social Care or Education field, and substantial experience of working with young people in a range of settings. You have experience of identifying and responding effectively to potential safeguarding issues, some knowledge of the impact of substances, experience of working within clear boundaries and behaviours, and of assessing and working with Gillick Competency (in line with Fraser guidelines) for young people. You have excellent communication and team working skills, good organisational skills, and are enthusiastic and self-motivated. You can engage vulnerable young people within your work and provide advice, advocacy and support. You can work flexibly to undertake such other reasonable activities or duties across DASS/Youth service and any location within reasonable travel distance from your main place of work.

We really appreciate our employees and fully realise they are essential to our success and look to offer an inclusive, supportive working environment where employees can reach their potentials with a healthy work life balance, offering the following rewards:

• Generous annual leave (27 days per year rising to 31, pro rata for part time hours) with the potential to purchase additional leave.
• A fantastic pension which allows you the opportunity to pay in more for that greater return.
• Access to a wide range of training and development opportunities including apprenticeships.
• Extensive wellbeing support through the Employee Assistance Programme
• Discount on travel, travel loans and the bike loan scheme
• Discounts on a wide range of goods and services - access a range of discounts and offers from thousands of restaurants, shops and more.
Staff rewards: https://careers.portsmouth.gov.uk/working-for-the-council