Health and Wellbeing Practitioner - Heathrow IRC - London

Health and Wellbeing Practitioner - Heathrow IRC - LondonPermanent£25,207

We are recruiting for a Health and Wellbeing Practitioner at Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre

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.”

Role Responsibilities

Working within an integrated healthcare framework the Forward Trust provide the Substance Misuse Recovery Services at Heathrow IRC. The role is based on site at Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre. As Health and Wellbeing Practitioner you will work as part of a team in supporting detainees holistically in relation to substance misuse, low-level mental health and overall health and wellbeing issues. Day to day you will be responsible for:

• Attending daily referral meetings & team huddles as required

• Attendance and contribution to multi-disciplinary reviews

• Complete assessments of need, risk management and recovery planning

• Caseload management and delivery of both group and 1:1 interventions

• Promotion and signposting of services

• Discharge and release planning to provide effective continuity of care

• Record keeping and case note entry in line with data protection and GDPR requirements

• Contribution to overall service improvement and organisational objectives

• Undertake relevant training and development

• Provide transitional support from the detention centre to the community to prepare service users for release or deportation.

Report writing and engagement summaries for official purposes Partnership and multi-disciplinary working is vital to this role and you will be required work collaboratively with other services such as Housing, Employment, Gym, Healthcare, Probation, specialist agencies and organisations both inside the detention centre and in the community.

You will be offered a thorough induction at an organisational and service level. Training provided included eLearning live workshops also coaching and mentoring from experienced staff. You will be provided with training from the IRC to support you feeling safe and confident in the expectations of you being a key holder.

All IRC-based roles will require enhanced DBS and Counter Terrorism Clerence (CTC) security vetting. Please note this process can take up to 8-12 weeks. All offers are subject to receiving both CTC 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

We are looking for individuals who are passionate about supporting people that aligns with our organisational values.

Please also see skills and experience needed below for this role;

• Experience of working within mental health or substance misuse service
• Strong IT skills

About Us

We are The Forward Trust, the social enterprise with charitable status that empowers people to break the often interlinked cycles of crime and addiction to move forward with their lives. For more than 25 years we have been working with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past. We believe that anyone is capable of lasting change. Our services have supported thousands of people to make positive changes and build productive lives with a job, family, friends and a sense of community.

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)

Diversity at Forward Trust

The Forward Trust commits to providing opportunities to everyone. We want to ensure we have a diverse team with a range of lived and professional experiences. This includes those with ‘Lived Experience’ of addiction, offending, or homelessness.


When we recruit, we welcome applications from everyone. This is inclusive of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion and/or belief, marriage and civil partnerships, pregnancy and maternity and socio-economic background. Where operationally possible, we will consider flexible working requests and make reasonable adjustments for all roles.

To find out more about Forward’s commitment to being an inclusive employer and our current EDI strategy click here .

Employee Screening and Eligibility to Work

We recognise the importance of safeguarding, dependent on role you may be required to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service Check, details of which will be shared with you at interview.


If successful in your application, you will be required to provide eligibility to work evidence in line with the ‘Eligibility to Work in the UK’ requirements.