Family Support Practitioner – HMP Highdown

Location: Sutton

Salary: £26,000 per annum

Vacancy Type: Permanent, Fill Time

Closing Date: 29 of June 2026

Want to make a real difference where it truly matters?

We’re looking for a Family Support Practitioner to join our team at HMP Highdown, working full time (35 hours per week). This is a frontline role where you’ll support people in custody and their families across both the prison and local community, helping to rebuild relationships, strengthen wellbeing, and support long-term recovery and rehabilitation.

This role sits within the Family Support and Specialist Programmes department and focuses on delivering impactful 1:1 and group interventions. You’ll help clients understand the role of relationships in addiction, offending, mental health, and wider life challenges, while also working directly with family members and affected others to improve their health, resilience, and ability to support positive change.

What you’ll be doing

• Delivering 1:1 support (face-to-face, online, and telephone) for clients and families
• Facilitating group programmes such as relationships work, parenting interventions, and structured recovery programmes
• Supporting and coordinating family meetings and family visits
• Completing needs and risk assessments, and co-producing tailored support plans
• Working directly with children and young people where appropriate to support whole-family recovery
• Signposting to specialist services and building strong referral pathways

You’ll collaborate closely with prison-based teams, substance misuse services, Forward colleagues, and external partners to ensure joined-up, holistic support. You’ll also play a key role in developing relationships with community organisations and raising awareness of the service.

What the role involves beyond delivery

• Maintaining accurate case records and outcome data
• Supporting service improvement, audits, and feedback activity
• Contributing to programme development and co-production work
• Upholding safeguarding, health & safety, and compliance standards at all times
• Managing your own caseload and working independently while meeting deadlines

What we’re looking for

Someone who’s confident working with complexity, skilled at building trust, and passionate about helping people make lasting change. You’ll need to be organised, reflective, and committed to safeguarding and professional boundaries.

Experience in family support, criminal justice, substance misuse, or social care is highly desirable, but your ability to engage people, support relationships, and stay resilient in a challenging environment is what really matters.

All prison-based roles are subject to enhanced DBS checks and HMPPS security vetting. These checks can take up to 5 months to complete. Any offer of employment will be conditional upon the successful completion of both checks.

Please note if you have lived overseas within the last 5 years then checks may take longer.

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)

Please note that we may close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications.

Employee Screening and Eligibility to Work

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

To Apply

If you feel you are a suitable candidate and would like to work for Forward Trust, please click apply to be redirected to their website to complete your application.