Axess Drug and Alcohol Practitioner

Role summary

This position is focused on helping vulnerable people in local communities make healthier decisions about alcohol and other substance use when these issues are affecting sexual health and relationships. A key part of the work is supporting efforts to lower sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancies, teenage pregnancies, HIV transmission, and late HIV diagnosis.

Who the service supports

The axess Sexual Health outreach team works with a range of groups that may face higher risks linked to substance use and sexual health. These include:

• Commercial sex workers
• People experiencing homelessness
• Drug users
• Men who have sex with men
• BMEA communities
• Students and young people

Key duties

The practitioner will provide advice, information, and practical support around substance misuse, with a particular focus on how it increases the risk of HIV and STI transmission. The role also involves helping clients access the right services, offering health promotion and harm-reduction support, and delivering short-term one-to-one work in a sexual health setting using a defined standard operating procedure.

You will also work alongside outreach colleagues on targeted community activity across axess locations and help maintain clear referral routes into and out of specialist in-reach clinics.

Working arrangements

This is an accountable practitioner role carried out independently in community settings, with decisions made in line with policy and protocol. Working hours are flexible and will include evenings and weekends across the axess regional footprint when needed.

Experience needed

Applicants must already have experience of working with people affected by addiction. Previous applicants should not reapply.

About the employer

NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group was formed on 1 November 2024 through the coming together of LUHFT and Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust. The group is one of the largest employers in the region, with more than 16,800 colleagues supporting communities from birth and beyond. It serves around 630,000 people across Merseyside and provides general and emergency hospital care as well as highly specialised regional services for more than two million people in the North West.

The trust includes Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital, Liverpool Women’s Hospital, and the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Aintree is the single receiving site for adult major trauma patients in Cheshire and Merseyside and also hosts regional services including an award-winning stroke service. Broadgreen provides elective surgery, diagnostics, treatment services, and specialist rehabilitation. Liverpool Women’s Hospital specialises in women’s and babies’ health and delivers more than 7,200 babies each year in the UK’s largest single-site maternity hospital. The Royal Liverpool University Hospital is the country’s largest hospital offering inpatients 100% single bedrooms and focuses on complex planned care and specialist services.

Contact for informal enquiries

For an informal discussion, contact Chris Higgins, Senior Sexual Health Outreach Practitioner, at chris.higgins@liverpoolft.nhs.uk or 07736857850.