Hidden Harm & Social Care Link Worker
Location – Southend
Hours – 37.5 hours per week
Working Pattern – Monday to Friday
Salary / Band – £27,000 per annum
Closing date – 5th June 2026
Summary
To provide a mentoring service working to improve the emotional well-being and resilience of vulnerable young people aged 8-19 years old, affected by familial substance use. The role is to also provide a link between social care and substance misuse services to increase referrals and enhance pathways to and from each agency.
What you’ll be doing
Working with young people who are experiencing multiple disadvantages due to a family member/carer who is misusing substances. To deliver therapeutic interventions in both one to one and group work setting to increase self-esteem, build confidence resilience and emotional wellbeing and to be an advocate for those young people/children. Managing your own complex case load and to safeguard and protect children and young people, prioritising tasks in line with other duties and responsibilities, including maintaining up to date records.
What it’s like to work for Open Road
Open Road provides drug and alcohol treatment services and offender support services across Essex & Kent including a range of interventions that deliver mentoring, advice and information programmes. Accredited with Investing In Volunteers, our mission is to empower a diverse range of individuals, families and communities to lead healthy and more meaningful lives, free from addiction, offending behaviour and disadvantage, to ensure healthier, happier lifestyles.
Benefits to you –
- £27,000 per annum
- 25 days Annual Leave plus Bank Holidays, plus a day off for your Birthday!
- Royal London Pension and Death in Service benefit
- Access to our in-house Organisational Training Plan, and full training tailored to your development needs
- Legal training including Health & Safety, Safeguarding and GDPR
What you need –
- Experience in working with vulnerable children and young people, working in both to one to one and group work.
- Experience of undertaking assessments and risk assessments, planning and delivering therapeutic interventions based on need and risk.
- Good written and verbal communication skills, particularly with children and adults and other professionals.
- Ability to prioritise and manage own workload, to keep and maintain accurate and timely records of service user contact and produce reports.
- An understanding of the impact that living with someone who used drugs and alcohol may have upon children and families.
- Ability to drive and access to own car
This position is subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check at enhanced level.
Application
Please use the following link to complete our online application form. Prior to starting please ensure you have all of the relevant information to hand. Take time to review the job pack below as the shortlisting will be carried out with the Job Description and Person Specification in mind.
Open Road Application Form (online form)
Open Road Equal Opportunities Form (online form)
Alternatively, you can use this link to complete the form via word and email to hr@openroad.org.uk
Open Road Equal Opportunities Form
Open Road values and respects the diversity and individual differences of our services users, staff and our volunteers.
Job Pack