Substance misuse jobs
Recovery worker and nursing shifts in community drug and alcohol services across England, Scotland and Wales. Tell us what you are looking for and we will come back to you with roles near you.
Quick enquiry
Just want to see what is out there?
Leave your details and we will come back to you with the roles we have near you, and what they pay. It takes about twenty seconds.
The work
What recovery work actually looks like
Most of this job is a caseload and the relationships in it. You hold a group of service users, you do the key working, you write the care plans and keep them current, and you are the person who notices when someone has gone quiet. Some appointments are twenty minutes in a room on a high street. Some are outreach, finding people who are not going to come to you.
The work is harm reduction first. Needle exchange, naloxone, blood-borne virus screening, and being straight with people about where they actually are rather than where a form says they should be. Relapse is part of it, not a failure of it, and the workers who last are the ones who are unshockable about that.
The services
Community, criminal justice and detox
Substance misuse work takes a few shapes and they feel very different day to day. Tell us which suits you and we will keep to it.
Community recovery services
The core of it. A caseload of service users, structured key working, care planning and psychosocial interventions, usually from a town-centre hub.
Criminal justice and prison-linked
Working with people on community sentences, in prison, or sleeping rough. Court and probation deadlines shape the week as much as the caseload does.
Detox and inpatient
Supporting people through a planned detox and the days either side of it, where observation and steady routine matter most.
Called something else?
Recovery worker, drug and alcohol worker, substance use practitioner
The role is named all sorts of ways and it does not change the job. Recovery worker, recovery practitioner, drug and alcohol worker, substance misuse practitioner, criminal justice worker, or an outreach or engagement title. If any of those have been yours, this is your page. Worth knowing: a lot of services have moved from saying substance misuse to substance use, so you will see both on adverts for the same work.
Experience with opiate substitution therapy, needle exchange, naloxone or blood-borne virus screening is worth flagging when you enquire, and so is lived experience. Most of these roles do not ask for a clinical registration at all.
There is a smaller registered side to this work, and it is real. Services take on RMNs and RGNs, and non-medical prescribers, usually around detox and the clinical end of a community service. If that is you, say so, because those roles are fewer and they go quickly.
Why Novello
Straight answers, then the work
Tell us what you are after and we will tell you what we have got, what it pays and where it is. If it suits you, our app takes it from there.
You see the pay first
Every shift shows its rate before you accept it. No ringing round to find out what it is worth.
You pick your shifts
Days, nights, weekends, relief. Book what fits around the rest of your life, not the other way round.
Your compliance, in one place
Training, DBS and documents live in one place, so you are not digging out the same certificate twice.
Where we work
Across England, Scotland and Wales
Care work is everywhere, and so are we. We add new locations every week.
Tell us what you are looking for
Leave your details and we will come back to you with recovery worker and substance misuse roles near you.
Call 0333 307 8897 · hello@novellohealthcare.com
