Are you ready to unlock your potential within a challenging, creative and fast paced work environment? Do you want to escape your current job role and work with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past? Now is the time to break into offender healthcare and develop your career.
As part of the Kent Prison Healthcare contract awarded to Oxleas NHS trust in 2022, we are able to expand recruitment and are looking for a compassionate, knowledgeable and motivated Substance Misuse Nurse to join our friendly team atHMP Swaleside.
Our healthcare team have a real impact on promoting health and well-being to those in prison and we pride ourselves on using skills and strategies that instil hope for patients future resettlement back into the community. We directly deliver Mental Health, Physical Health, Pharmacy and Clinical Substance Misuse in an integrated healthcare delivery model to provide effective and responsive care to improve wellbeing and support better outcomes in the future.
As part of our substance misuse team, you will enjoy all the benefits of NHS AfC employment (inc pension) with the opportunity to work within a forward-thinking service, who encourage career and personal development to all staff to increase their clinical and interpersonal skills.
In this impactful role, you'll be at the forefront of treatment management, directly influencing health outcomes. Your guidance and oversight will play a crucial role in the health and recovery of individuals under your care, making a significant difference in their lives.
As a key member of our team, your role will be instrumental in shaping our strategies and patient outcomes. Your insights and contributions will be invaluable, and you'll collaborate with a diverse group of professionals, contributing to the delivery of an integrated healthcare model.
As a leader in our team, you will play a crucial role in maintaining the highest professional standards and clinical practices. Your mentorship and role-modelling of clinical excellence will foster a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring the best possible care for our patients.
You will also champion health promotion initiatives that empower the prison population on substance misuse, focusing on preventative measures and aiming to diminish drug-related harm and improve the overall health and lives of those under our care.
Join us in a role that offers endless opportunities for professional development. You'll be encouraged and supported to continue learning, pushing the boundaries of our understanding about substance misuse and its place within the criminal justice system. This is the beginning of a fulfilling professional journey where you can truly make a difference in Offender Healthcare.
Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.
We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.
Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:
• We’re Kind
• We’re Fair
• We Listen
• We Care
JOB PURPOSE & KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
• To provide specialist substance misuse care to offenders and to work as part of an integrated and multi-disciplinary health service, which may include in-reach services, reception duties, resource centre services, dual diagnosis management and primary care nursing
• To deliver a range of specialist interventions at primary and secondary care level; to include:
o Referral management, screening assessment, triage and evidence-based interventions
o One-to-one and group-work facilitation
o Assertive outreach interventions
o Managing a mixed and challenging caseload
• To contribute to alternatives to the need for inpatient admission and where necessary assisting with early discharge from in-patient services through the implementation of substance misuse management clinical interventions and complex case management arrangements resulting in continuity of care for an offender on ordinary location.
• To perform robust assessment, screening and interventions to offenders with substance misuse concerns
• Ensure that all waiting time, assessment and interventions are delivered in a timely manner, and positively contribute to the achievement of the service’s performance targets
• Ensure integrated and collaborative working with other specialist services, including continuity of care and through the gate arrangements and liaison
• Work closely with community mental health teams (CMHTs) to ensure appropriate sharing of information, continuity of care and the Care Programme Approach (CPA) for all offenders as necessary.
• To provide comprehensive and timely reports and mental health expertise to multi agency public protection panels (MAPPA), police, probation services, solicitors and court liaison teams as directed.
• Provide supervision to junior staff and to receive supervision as directed (line management and clinical).
• To participate in resource centre services as directed, delivering group therapy and specialist activities under the direction of the team leader.
• To work in a psychologically minded way with offenders in achieving their agreed goals and quality health outcomes.
• No direct budgetary responsibility but must be aware of the financial impact of decision-making.
• Close working relationships with all prison and Serco staff, to include participation in sentence planning, resettlement, safer custody and ACCT processes.
• To develop and take on a specialist lead role as appropriate and provide peer support and training in this area.
• To contribute towards support, advice, consultation and training for other prison departments.
• The post holder will be part of skilled multidisciplinary teams comprising all healthcare staff, including strategic partners, and prison managing a single referral pathway.
• The post holder will be required to undertake training to maximise uptake of screening, health promotion and prevention activity, including vaccinations.
• The post holder will ensure a named care co-ordinator is allocated for every patient with complex needs who will ensure a proactive, evidence-based approach to clinical interventions, health promotion/prevention activity, and management of acute and long-term conditions using our stepped care approach.
• The post holder will ensure that a single, integrated, care plans developed, and the individualised care is regularly reviewed.
• The post holder will ensure that a comprehensive risk assessments and care plans are regularly reviewed in a needs-led review cycle.
• The post holder will ensure a care coordination criteria and MDT meetings for patients with complex needs will be tailored to the needs of the establishment.
• The post holder will ensure that they undertake all training in evidence-based CBT approaches, to enhance consistency and quality of care delivery
• The post holder will support patients to manage their health at every stage, from oral health to long term conditions.
• The post holder will ensure that health promotion embedded into every aspect of the service.
IMPORTANT PLEASE READ:
All applicants must be willing to undertake National Security Vetting in order to work in a Prison Setting. This will be completed as part of the pre-employment checks through Oxleas and the prison vetting team.
You will need to provide:
Proof of right to work documentation
Proof of ID, needs to include 1 photographic ID
Proof of address documentation
Non-UK passport holders will need to have correct documentation (right to work in the UK) and a Home office Share code.
Address History:
5 years address history will be needed.
Applicants that are not UK Passport holders who provide less than 5 years UK address history will need to provide a Police Certificate which must be in English from where they resided previously.
Applicants who are UK Passport holders who have lived abroad for a period of more than six months during the last three years will need to provide a certificate of good conduct or an overseas police check in English from the countries resided in or visited.
In order to assist you in obtaining a Police Certificate, guidance can be sought from:
If the country you have resided in is not listed here, you can obtain the necessary information by contacting the relevant Embassy or High Commission for that Country. Their contact details can be found on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website (
This advert closes on Thursday 2 Jan 2025
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About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident .