Youth Practitioner – Smoke Free Generation

Our Young People and Families Hub (YP&F) delivers a wide range of integrated support services that are designed to help resolve complex difficulties experienced by young people and their families/carers. Our Hub works with those in trouble, providing early intervention to those who are in crisis, leaving care, missing from home, or with substance misuse or mental health problems - services support people no matter what their situation, and have demonstrated a high success rate.

Our Merton Risk and Resilience Service is an integrated service, focused on mitigating risk, and promoting resilience, in children and young people (C&YP). Our service aims to reduce the harm to children and young people (aged 18 and under), within the Child Exploitation (CE) and Missing service area, and C&YP (aged 24 and under), within the substance misuse service area.

Job Description

Merton Risk and Resilience is an integrated service that focuses on mitigating risks and promoting resilience in children and young people (CYP), who are going missing from home, experiencing child exploitation (CE), or using substances.   

You will be joining a supportive and dedicated team, who are driven to build and develop the self-esteem, confidence, and resilience of young people – reducing the potential harm, and enabling young people to lead healthy, happy, and productive lives.  

The overall aim of the Smoke Free Generation role is to design and deliver a ‘smoke free generation’ prevention, cessation and education, service for CYP to reduce the smoking prevalence for young people aged 11-24 in Merton and to stop and reduce the rate that young people take up smoking and vaping.

The service will consist of three components of service delivery:

• Component A - Smoking and Vaping Prevention Service
• Component B - Stop Smoking Service
• Component C - Education and Delivery Service

The service model, is based on a tiered framework:

1. A specialist stop smoking service.
2. Brief advice / intervention
3. Self-help and signposting

You will work alongside the Risk and Resilience practitioners, who will also have undertaken the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT), and can support you in delivering interventions to CYP.

Main Duties & Accountabilities

• Lead on Smoking and Vaping Prevention Service - based on ‘Stopping the Start  across all ages covered by the core service, ages 11- 24.
• Provided evidence-based approach, to stop smoking services for children and young people aged 11-24 using nice guidelines.
• Provide education and delivery service to support CYP who may be considering, vaping, or smoking, which includes creating a network of Smoke Free Generation Ambassadors who can signpost and support young people to the appropriate information and services.
• Establish effective pathways and referral routes to support CYP requiring additional support e.g., school nursing team, educators, Smoke Free Generation Ambassadors, parents and carers, health visiting, general practice, youth providers and mental health.
• Design and deliver a range of prevention, cessation and education

This post will involve travel across the borough, and occasional evening and weekend working.