Family Support Practitioner

Location: HMP Millsike

Salary: £24,000 per annum

Vacancy Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 22^nd September 2025

We are recruiting for a Family Support Practitioner at HMP Millsike.

Here at Forward Trust, we deliver a complex range of drug and alcohol services in the unique prison environment. Our support includes providing advice, health and wellbeing, motivational work, clinical services, and a wider range of group work and treatment programmes.

The Forward Trust services which are delivered within prison settings are commissioned by NHS England and are delivered in partnership with primary healthcare providers and HMPPS. Integration and partnership are integral to the work we do.

We believe that everyone can live a fulfilling life, whatever their past. Our work in prisons aims to support those affected by drug or alcohol issues to create lasting change and reduce dependency, homelessness, unemployment and re-offending.

Roles Responsibilities

Part of the Family Support and Specialist Programmes department, the Family Support Practitioner role will work in both their allocated prison and local community, providing specialist support to clients and family members through the delivery of effective 1:1 and group interventions. The role is also required to work closely with other Forward staff and external partners to ensure a holistic package of care and support is provided.

Recognising the importance of relationships in the lives of the people we support is crucial to providing the best possible treatment and services. This role will focus specifically on supporting clients to recognise healthy and unhealthy relationships, build new relationships and understand the role relationships play in their addiction, offending, mental health and other areas of need.

The Family Support Practitioner will also directly support family members and affected others, helping them to improve their health and wellbeing and help them to support clients to make positive changes. This role may be expected to work directly with children and young people, to promote whole family recovery and rehabilitation.

All prison based roles will require enhanced DBS and HMPPS security vetting. Please note this process can take up to 3-6 weeks. All offers are subject to receiving both HMPPS vetting and DBS clearances.

 Checks will require you to provide information on the below:

• Yourself (personal information, financial information, police information, criminal history)
• Your family (parents, parents’ partners, siblings, partner(s), children)
• Co-residents
• Associations that may cause a conflict of interest with your role or the prison service.
• Background checks across police information systems on you, your family and other associates
• Credit reference checks
• Social media and Open-Source checks (these are checks on content about you that's publicly available on the internet to ensure there's nothing linked to you that could undermine public trust and confidence in the prison service)
• Other government and overseas agency or police checks.

The Ideal Candidate

Below is a list of the qualities that we are looking for in applicants to this post. 

• Experience of providing family related support to clients with a history of addiction, offending and mental health problems.
• Experience of providing support directly to family members/affected others.
• Experience of working with complex families and facilitating family meetings.
• Experience of delivering group interventions/facilitating group work with clients.
• A flexible and adaptable approach to meet the needs of the service as it develops.
• A positive problem-solving approach with the ability to focus on key issues quickly and clearly.
• Excellent communication skills.
• The ability to engage effectively with the client group.
• Understanding of the voluntary sector.
• Understanding of and sensitivity to diversity, equality and inclusion.
• A good understanding of adult and child/YP safeguarding responsibilities.

Benefits 

We are committed to our cause and the work we carry out as a charity. Equally the wellbeing and the employees who work for us are also important. Joining us an employee, we will offer you the following benefits:

• Flexible working
• Training and development opportunities
• Simply Health Cashback Scheme (optional)
• Season Ticket Loan Scheme 
• Cycle to work scheme
• Crisis Loan Scheme
• Electric Car Scheme
• 3 x Wellbeing Days (pro rata'd for part time employees)
• Access to Blue Light Card
• 25 days (rising to 30 with length of service) Annual Leave plus Bank Holidays 
• Contributory Pension Scheme – Employer matched contributions of up to 6% in the first two years’ service and up to 9% thereafter 
• Death in Service Payment (2x annual salary) 
• Critical Illness Insurance (subject to qualifying criteria)

To Apply

If you feel you are a suitable candidate and would like to work for the Forward Trust, please proceed through the following link to be redirected to their website to complete your application.

https://careers.forwardtrust.org.uk/vacancies/180/family-support-practitioner--hmp-millsike.html

Contact information

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