Public Health Practitioner (Drug and Alcohol)

Team: Public Health - Drugs and Alcohol Team

Job Family: Advising - CBG11
Salary: £41,042- £44,296 per annum
Hours: 37 hours per week

Location: You will be expected to attend Central Bedfordshire, Bedford Borough or Milton Keynes offices as often as needed to carry out your role and join the Central Bedfordshire Council Public Health Team at the Priory House Office each Tuesday.

Contract Type: Hybrid - Permanent

Closing Date: Sunday 26th October 2025

Interview Date: Thursday 6th November 2025

About the role:

Central Bedfordshire Council has an exciting opportunity for an experienced and passionate individual to work as a Public Health Practitioner (Drug and Alcohol). This is a high-profile role working with a range of internal and external partners to support the development, delivery and coordination of strategies to prevent and minimise harms from drugs and alcohol across 3 Local Authority Areas: Central Bedfordshire, Bedford Borough and Milton Keynes.

You will be part of a small team that is responsible for commissioning community drug and alcohol treatment and recovery support services for both Adults and Children and Young People. The team also provides strategic leadership and co-ordination of systemwide drug and alcohol prevention, treatment and recovery activities across Bedford Borough Central Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes.

As a small team within the larger shared Public Health Team across 3 Local Authorities, we are committed to reducing drug and alcohol related harms across the life span. We aim to deliver high quality work, build strong partnerships with a range of organisations and be informed by those with lived experience to improve outcomes for people affected by drug and alcohol dependency.

Working under the Public Health Principal (Drug and Alcohol), you will have a focus on pathways into treatment for vulnerable and complex groups and take a system wide approach that improves outcomes for people who are involved in the criminal justice system, have experienced domestic abuse, have poor mental health, are unemployed or homeless. Other areas of responsibility will include developing health promotion initiatives, coordination of strategies to reduce the harms to children and young people from drugs and alcohol and other related areas as identified by local need and in line with national policy.

This Public Health Practitioner role is a hybrid role, with requirements to attend Priory House weekly to enhance working relationships across the Shared Public Health Team across Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes. 

Qualifications, Skills and Experience 

The role requires:

• Strong system leadership and partnership working, including influencing other organisations and agencies to increase their engagement with health and wellbeing, ill health prevention and health inequalities.
• Working knowledge and experience of key public health concepts such as epidemiology, data interpretation, evaluation, delivering and monitoring cost effective and evidence-based interventions.

We want to hear from you if you have:

• A relevant degree or equivalent level of knowledge gained through courses and relevant experience.
• Experience of working with a range of external organisations to achieve specific objectives.
• Experience of multi-agency working across organisational boundaries.
• Experience of supporting commissioning and performance management.
• Experience of influencing and achieving without direct management.
• Experience of working effectively both within a team and independently.
• Ability to prioritise work and meet deadlines – managing own workload and delegating as appropriate.
• Sound understanding of the requirements of working in a local authority.
• A good knowledge and understanding of other groups/service areas of the Council, the NHS, and statutory and voluntary sectors.
• The ability to be flexible and adaptable, planning effectively and responding to changing circumstances.

Key responsibilities of the role include:

• Reviewing and developing pathways into treatment for vulnerable and complex groups such as those who are involved in the criminal justice system, have experienced domestic abuse, have poor mental health, are unemployed or homeless.
• Coordination of cross partnership activity to reduce harms from drug and alcohol among children and young people across Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes.
• Supporting the commissioning and performance management for the young people’s Drug and Alcohol Services across Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes.
• Oversight of the alcohol licensing application review process for Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire & Milton Keynes. 
• Planning and coordination of drug and alcohol health promotion activities.
• Partnership working and collaboration with key partners across the ‘recovery system’ to improve outcomes for residents.

Our Offer

We have a number of rewards and benefits available to our staff, to view these please visit our Rewards and Benefits page

Our aspiration is to be a truly flexible employer.  We welcome discussion on location, hours and working pattern as part of the application process.

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You will be expected to demonstrate how you meet the key accountabilities and competencies in this Recruitment Pack.

Our Competency Framework and Qualification Guidance are to be read in conjunction with our Recruitment Pack.

For an informal discussion about this position, please contact: Charlotte Ball at charlotte.ball@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk or call 0300 300 5133

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To maintain a fair and consistent approach for applicants, it is Central Bedfordshire Council's policy to only consider applications made via our online application system and we therefore thank you for not submitting your application offline.

Our National Careers Service team offer a free monthly workshop covering CV writing and how to complete the statement sections of the Central Bedfordshire Council online application form. This MS Teams workshop is open to anyone from the UK and lasts around 1.5 hours.   Please book your place here.

More information about this service can be found here: Support getting into work or learning | Central Bedfordshire Council