Lead Substance Misuse Specialist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Lead Substance Misuse Specialist

Hybrid working including travel across England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland as required

Status: 12 to 18 Months Fixed Term Contract

Salary: Band 7, £47,320 -£54,150 pa

Hours: 37.5 Hours per week

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About us:

Combat Stress is the UKs leading mental health charity for veterans. For over a century weve been helping former personnel to deal with issues like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression. Today we provide specialist treatment and support for veterans from every service and conflict, focusing on those with complex mental health issues related to their military service. We provide a range of community, outpatient and online digital mental health services to veterans with complex mental health problems. We provide servicesin-person, and viaphoneandonline.

About the role:

The post holder will be responsible for the development and integration of UK-wide substance misuse specialist pathways and partnerships within a highly specialised military veterans psychological trauma service. The role is primarily developmental and strategic, focusing on building sustainable internal capability and external networks. The post-holder will lead on our substance misuse strategy, ensuring that pathways and partnerships are evidence-based, trauma-informed, veteran-centric and aligned with NICE approved best practice

The successful candidate requires excellent leadership skills enabling them to inspire, motivate and influence colleagues across the Charity. The ability to communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders is essential as is the requirement to travel to our other sites.

We continually strive for excellence in all that we do and therefore this post requires a dynamic and inspirational leader who will take a pragmatic approach to the challenges that lie ahead. We would expect you have experience in working in mental health services whether in the NHS, voluntary or private sector.

This is an excellent opportunity for someone who wants to stand out and make a difference in a national role for a unique and high-profile mental health charity.

This role will be subject to a DBS check.

What we offer: You will work within a reputable charity that is constantly evolving to meet the needs of our veterans, that has a fantastic cause and a committed follower base.

Benefits:

27 days paid holiday plus bank holidays and after 5 years continuous service, this will increase to 30 days paid holiday plus bank holidays.

Competitive stakeholder pension scheme - contributions matched up to 11% of salary

Discount shopping vouchers

Access to the Employee Assistance Programme

Flexible working

Access to Blue Light Card scheme

Death in Service Scheme

Closing date: 28 November 2025

Interview date: 2nd or 3rd week in December

Please note, we reserve the right to close this advert early, should we receive a sufficient amount of applicants.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered / qualified healthcare professional (e.g. nurse, OT, clinical or counselling psychologist, accredited psychotherapist, or equivalent)
• Post-graduate training in or substantial experience of direct delivery of substance misuse or addictions practice.
• Minimum of 3 years post-registration experience, including work with co-morbid substance misuse and mental health or trauma.
• Experience of leading service development, pathway design and/or partnership work.
• Experience teaching / training MDT colleagues.
• Experience in clinical risk assessment and management of complex client groups.
• Experience managing staff and stakeholders

Desirable

• Relevant postgraduate qualification or training in addictions, dual diagnosis, trauma.
• Experience in co-production and structured professional judgement approaches to risk assessment.
• Experience in quality improvement activities and UK-wide service development.
• Experience in veteran or military mental health settings.
• Experience leading cross-sector collaboration.

Skills, Knowledge and Attributes

Essential

• In depth understanding of substance misuse assessment and intervention approaches.
• Knowledge of NICE guidance relevant to substance misuse, PTSD / C-PTSD.
• Knowledge of current legislation and initiatives within substance misuse and mental health.
• Strong communication, negotiation and partnership building skills.
• Commitment to the values of care, respect, and inclusivity is essential

Desirable

• Knowledge of veteran-specific health and social care landscape.
• Understanding of trauma-informed care-principles and their application in operational service design.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Combat Stress

Address

Tyrwhitt House

Oaklawn Road

Leatherhead

Surrey

KT22 0BX

Employer's website

https://www.combatstress.org.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)