Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
Lived Experience Recovery Worker
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Job Overview
This is a fantastic opportunity for a Peer Recovery Worker with experience of chemsex to work in a unique, innovative, and highly specialist area of drug treatment. Drawing on your own lived experience of recovery, you will provide support, encouragement, and hope to people seeking to make changes to their use of club drugs and engagement in chemsex.
The Club Drug Clinic provides support, treatment, and advice to people in Kensington & Chelsea, Westminster, and Hammersmith & Fulham who want to change their use of recreational drugs including crystal meth, GHB, and ketamine. We have extensive experience of working with chemsex and the LGBTQ+ community.
Working as part of a multidisciplinary team and in close collaboration with Antidote at London Friend, you will support LGBTQ+ residents affected by chemsex through one-to-one and group interventions, helping people access treatment, recovery, and wider health and social care services. The role offers an exciting opportunity to use your lived experience to support others, strengthen pathways between services, and promote a "no wrong door" approach to care.
Main Duties of the Job
- To work as a member of the multidisciplinary team, providing lived experience-based support to LGBTQ+ residents affected by club drug use and chemsex, helping individuals to engage with treatment, recovery, and wider support services.
- To provide one-to-one and group peer support interventions, drawing appropriately on personal recovery experience to promote hope, resilience, wellbeing, and positive change.
- To build supportive and therapeutic relationships with service users, empowering them to identify strengths, set recovery goals, and overcome barriers to accessing support and treatment.
- To work collaboratively with partners, stakeholders, and other local providers to strengthen pathways of care and ensure individuals receive coordinated and inclusive support.
- To provide practical support, advocacy, and signposting to a range of health, social care, and community services, ensuring service users have access to the resources and opportunities required to support their recovery journey.
- To contribute to the development of a "no wrong door" approach across local services, helping to ensure that people affected by chemsex feel understood, welcomed, and supported wherever they present for help.
- To work alongside peer volunteers, recovery communities, and partner organizations to strengthen local peer support networks and increase opportunities for service user involvement and recovery-focused activities.
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Working for Our Organisation
The Addictions Directorate within CNWL Foundation Trust is a large, well-established provider which offers a wide range of specialist NHS drug and alcohol treatment interventions to the diverse and multicultural populations in Central and North West London. Our drug and alcohol services include community and prisons. We also run a national Gambling Service, Gaming service, a Gaming clinic, and a Club drug clinic.
Please note: Due to the number of hours, this vacancy does not meet the criteria for Skilled Worker sponsorship, unless you meet the criteria by temporary exemption from current changes to immigration rules put in force on 22/07/2025. “Separate provisions are applied to workers who have been sponsored and held continuously Skilled Worker visa since prior to 04/04/2024."
As such, if you don’t meet the Transitional Provision (above), we are unable to consider your application unless you can provide documentary evidence of your right to work in the United Kingdom. If you believe you are eligible for sponsorship or already hold a valid right to work in the UK, please ensure you provide full details of your immigration status in the Pre-Screening Immigration section of your application form.
Please note, role eligibility also depends on whether the role meets the salary threshold for the relevant occupational code (SOC CODE).
For further info please visit: Skilled Worker visa: Overview - GOV.UK
Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities
For detailed information relating to job description and person specification, please refer to the attachments in the job application paperwork.
Person Specification
Training And Qualifications
Essential criteria
- NVQ Level 3 in Health and Social Care
- Basic Level 2 - English and Maths
- Commitment to obtain underpinning knowledge through work-based learning and mandatory training
- Evidence of further training in relation to personal recovery principles
Desirable criteria
- Accredited certificate in Life Coaching
- Any specific training in Dual diagnosis
- Completion of courses that are DANOS compliant
- Motivational Interviewing
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Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of working with people with substance use issues
- Experience of working with people who are homeless
- Experience of working within Mental Health and/or addictions settings
- Experience of supporting with the development of individual care plans for managing recovery
- Lived experience of mental health and substance use issues
- Lived experience of issues relating to chemsex
- Experience of positively sharing own life experiences, and personal recovery journey with service users, carers, and others
Desirable criteria
- Group work
- Voluntary experience in the field of addictions and/or mental health and/or homelessness
- Undertaking evaluations, audits, and research
Skills & Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Ability to demonstrate knowledge of personal and client recovery principles and values
- Ability to demonstrate knowledge of treatment pathways in addictions
- Evidence of good interpersonal skills and an ability to form good relationships with service users and carers
- Effective listening skills
- Ability to communicate on all levels and to a broad scope of individuals, both internally and externally to the Addictions Services
- Ability to appreciate/understand other people’s worlds
- Ability to demonstrate empathy, compassion, and patience
- An ability to be non-judgemental
- Ability to challenge issues in relation to stigma, low expectations, and discriminatory practice in an effective manner
- An ability to act calmly and to respond in a professional manner to distress, disturbance, and unpredictability
- Knowledge of how to build community links and networks
- Ability to problem solve and create innovative solutions to help empower service users
- Understanding of issues arising from experiencing ill health related to substance use
- Ability to work unsupervised in a range of settings
- Sensitive understanding of diversity issues and an ability to promote anti-discriminatory practice/equal opportunities
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge of basic first aid
- Basic Health and Safety awareness
- Moving and handling awareness
- Awareness of local services
- Knowledge of benefits/employment systems
- Ability to speak other languages
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