Liaison and Diversion Support, Time and Recovery Worker (STR)
| Posting date: | 13 March 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £24,937.00 to £26,598.00 per year |
| Additional salary information: | £24937.00 - £26598.00 a year |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 29 March 2026 |
| Location: | Bridgwater, TA6 5LX |
| Company: | NHS Jobs |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | C9184-26-0342 |
Summary
As an STR Worker, you will: Support individuals in custody, magistrates' court, and community access services. Facilitate engagement and recovery by using your professional and life experience. Promote effective communication with service users, families, carers, and partner agencies. Manage your own caseload, prioritising referrals and ensuring timely assessments. Contribute to safeguarding processes and uphold equality, diversity, and inclusion. Participate in data collection and service evaluation to meet local and national requirements. Work flexibly across the region, with occasional travel and lone working. Uphold Trust policies on confidentiality, health and safety, and infection control. A Day in the Life of an STR Worker -- Liaison & Diversion Service "My role exists at the busy junction of the criminal justice system and healthcare. As an STR worker in the Liaison and Diversion Service (LADS), I meet people in custody following an arrest. Whether it's someone's first time in a cell or their fiftieth, my job is to ensure they are treated as a person first. The day starts in our office inside the custody suite. Between the noise of the booking in area and the closing of cell doors, I work closely with custody sergeants and LADS practitioners to identify who needs our support. My morning is spent screening the cells and reviewing overnight referrals, looking for signs of substance misuse, learning disabilities, or mental health vulnerabilities. Once we've identified those in need, we document them on our own board to prioritise the day. I support our practitioners when they are seeing individuals who are acutely unwell or at high risk of self-harm or suicide, I work independently with those requiring support for substance misuse or practical recovery. This collaborative approach ensures the high-risk clinical presentations are managed by practitioners with my support, while I can focus on building a rapport with others to address their specific needs. A large part of my role involves "proactive" visits: seeing people in their cells who may not have been referred but show signs of vulnerability. It's important to build a rapport and assessing what support they need to help reduce reoffending and get that person support they may have not known of. This often involves brief interventions, such as helping them understand the legal process, and carrying out referrals to drug and alcohol services, veterans' support, women's only charities or community mental health teams. The goal is simple but ambitious: to make sure that the moment a person leaves custody, there is a path or a service waiting for them. Whether they access that support independently or via a direct referral, we aim to either signpost or complete referrals There is also a big relational aspect to my work within the community. Here, we support people who have had contact with the justice system but need help navigating the practical barriers that often lead to reoffending, things like GP registration, housing, finance, or employment. In the community, you see the long term impact. I might be following up on a referral a practitioner has made in custody the previous day, helping a client engage with mental health teams they've previously struggled to reach. I often work alongside clinicians during formal assessments or attend multi-agency meetings with probation and social care, my focus remains on the relational side of recovery, enabling engagement for those who have historically felt excluded from support. What I love most about this role is the privilege of treating people with dignity at a time when they often expect none. An arrest is for most people a chaotic moment; being a calm, supportive presence in that space is incredibly rewarding. No two days are ever the same. The pace can be fast and at times also equally reduced so it takes a person who works well under pressure but also someone who can be proactive when its less busy, but the engagement, working alongside practitioners to change someone's direction, is what makes this a meaningful job. If you care about people and believe in second chances and even thirds or fourth's, this is where you can make a genuine difference."