7 Drug and alcohol recovery worker jobs

Complex Needs Recovery Worker

Homeless Drug and Alcohol Team

Portsmouth

37 Hours per week, Permanent

Salary Scale 22-26 (£26,986- £30,561 per annum)

About Us

This is an exciting opportunity to join a dynamic Charity and Housing Association. The Society of St James (SSJ) has been working in Hampshire for over 50 years, delivering high impact, person-centred, accommodation services to adults and young people experiencing homelessness, problematic substance use and/or poor mental ill health. We believe that every person is of worth and we are prepared to take risks to house and support the most at risk and socially excluded members of society.

The Role

The Homeless Drug and Alcohol Team is a project funded to meet the needs of people who are homeless or living in interim accommodations, and who are using drugs and/or alcohol. The service has been established to fill gaps in existing service provision and to make substance use treatment more accessible for those who find it difficult to access mainstream services. 

The role will provide case management and offer psychologically informed interventions to service users within existing accommodation services. The interventions will be aimed at supporting people to increase awareness of their behaviour and its impact on their quality of life, increase their motivation to make behaviour changes and support them to access specialist medical and psychological interventions where appropriate.

The team will be operating 7 days per week including some weekends, evenings and bank holidays. 

The Ideal Candidate

Essentially motivated individuals who will be able to:

• Work intensively and consistently with a small caseload of people, supporting them to identify and overcome barriers to change and improve their quality of life.
• Carry out strength-based assessments and co-develop individual recovery plans to assist move on.
• Work alongside the Recovery Hub to case manage and support clients on substitute prescriptions
• Work closely with the PCC Housing Needs and Advice team to ensure that current accommodation provisions are optimal for the clients.
• Arrange and co-ordinate clients’ access to detox and residential treatment where appropriate.
• Make referrals where appropriate and /or signpost service users to other services in Portsmouth.
• Be responsible for the ongoing monitoring of individual recovery plans for people on your case load including liaising with colleagues across the service to ensure that service users receive continuity of support.
• Work in partnership with colleagues and other agencies, both statutory and voluntary, to provide effective support and achieve the best outcomes for service users. 

What we can offer you

We value and recognise our staff, offering some generous benefits, as well as the satisfaction of helping people at risk:

• A competitive annual leave entitlement of 25 days rising to 30 days, plus public holidays
• Flexible working options
• Buying additional annual leave
• Comprehensive induction and training
• Counselling, financial, personal support and health and wellbeing services via our Employee Assistance Programme
• Company cycle to work scheme
• Discounted laptops and computers with Jamie’s Computers
• Electric Car Scheme

SSJ are an equal opportunities employer and we encourage applicants from all backgrounds and walks of life

At SSJ, we recognise the benefits of a supported workplace. SSJ is affiliated with Unite the Union. To learn more about their membership benefits or to sign up, you can visit their official website.

Please note that CV's alone will not be considered during shortlisting. 

Application closing date: Monday 26^th October 2026

Interview date: Monday 2^nd November 2026 

Due to the high number of expected applicants, we do reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier.

Should you not hear from us within 14 days of the closing date, please assume you have been unsuccessful on this occasion.